It should go without saying, but make sure you dedicate a good slab of your January to basking in the fading sunlight harbourside. Providing you with even more reason to do so is Sydney's Backyard at Opera Bar, a summer season filled with stacks of musical and culinary delights. The Circular Quay favourite is getting a botanical fit-out. Drenched with native plants and plenty of picnic tables, Opera Bar have fashioned the perfect backyard sanctuary to complement the annual Summer at the House festivities. You can take the heat off with a range of icy beverages, such as homemade lemonade and Frosty Fruit-inspired slushies. There's also a mouth-watering special menu, including classic corn on the cob, juicy lamb rolls and prawn skewers. You can wash down these barbeque bites with James Squire's 150 Lashes, celebrated as the backyard booze of choice. The entertainment program will be curated by one of Australia's foremost music companies, Modular People. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, as well as Sunday afternoons, will feature local and upcoming talent, such as Elizabeth Rose, Slowblow & Softwar, Bad Ezzy and many more. There's also plenty of family friendly activities, such as a life-size version of Connect Four, as well as a few other surprises along the way.
It may not feel like it, but it's been seven years since these iconic indie poppers first bopped onto the scene. In that time, tracks such as 'A-Punk' and 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' have provided soundtrack to every sun-drenched house party and most feel-good hits at the movies; their self-titled debut album has been inducted as both a staple to your summer roadtrip playlist, and a classic in the indie hall of fame. Now, a few years and two albums later, Vampire Weekend are on their way down under to bring some infectious summer fun to both Falls Festival and Melbourne's Festival Hall. On tour for their latest album Modern Vampires of the City, the boys from NYC are showing off a slightly more grownup side — the songs are no longer about drearily walking to a class at college, but about the impending troubles of adulthood. But don't worry, there will no doubt be some throwbacks to their vibrant early days, and the songs still shine as bright as ever. This is a band that will always just sound like summer.
From a young age we experience the physical manifestation of our emotions in our stomachs. Anxiety is often presented as an uncomfortable tumbling sensation, intense rage or worry can be enough to make us sick and the nerves before a performance can flutter around our tummies for days. Every mother drums it into their child to 'follow their gut' as a source of intuition and Brisbane artist Sarah Hickey has done just that in her latest exhibition, Viscera. In her exhibition, Viscera, Hickey presents her fascination with the powerful connection between physical and emotional. Her beautiful and captivating series of female idols present a unique insight into each individual's connection between their soul and intuition. The showcase includes women from varying cultures yet all exude a unique femininity and power. This established artist has not only completed bachelor degrees in fine arts and education, she has taught students her skills at Queensland high schools. The exhibition is available for viewing from 10am – 6pm. Head along to the opening night, Friday 13 December 5pm-8pm and become immersed in this intriguing aspect of humanity.
2013 has not been a good year for big music festivals. But one festival that seems to be doing just fine is the NOW now Festival, a Marrickville-based, artist-run event that's been around since 2001. The festival features over 60 local and international artists, but not the kind you'd see on your average Big Day Out or Soundwave bill. There's 'sonic terrorist' Lloyd Honeybrook, performance art and comedy collective Internet, experimental jazz musician Clayton Thomas and large-scale electro-acoustic ensemble The Splinter Orchestra, to name a few. Held every January, the festival runs over five days, with day passes, three-day passes and festival passes available if you plan on checking out multiple acts. There'll be live performances at The Red Rattler, a group show at Marrickville gallery SNO, instrument building and sound recording workshops at Addison Road Markets, artist conversations at Marrickville Bowling Club and even a NOW now zone.
This article is sponsored by our partners, Flickerfest. Just because the films are short, doesn't mean the festivities have to be. Or at least not when you're talking about this year's Blues Brothers-themed opening night party for 2014's Flickerfest. The event is a chance to see some of the best shorts to come out of this year's festival, such as the Danny DeVito-starring Today's the Day; a backpacker's Argentinian adventures in Tango Underpants; and the little-known story of what happened the day the Nazis were shown Chaplin's The Great Dictator, Great. After the screening it's your chance to schmooze with film industry insiders, as you scarf down exquisite handmade rice paper rolls. Catering comes courtesy of Misschu, with Rosnay Organic Wines, Little Creatures, Crystal Head Vodka and Phoenix Organic Juices on drinks duty.
Sydney Festival is, above all, a means to get the most appealing, innovative and agenda-setting international performing arts works to visit our town. This year the showpiece of the program is 60-person 'underwater opera' spectacle Dido & Aeneas. But the one-woman La Voix Humaine ('The Human Voice') promises to floor with conversely little. This Dutch production based on the monologue by famous poet and film director Jean Cocteau features actor Halina Reijn as a woman pleading with her lover down the phone line after a break-up. The actor has few props to call on, but in a device that's been used a few times in Sydney theatre, we watch the action unfold behind a glass wall. It's a chance to peer in to someone else's world, at perhaps its most tense moment. Amsterdam's Toneelgroep are world renowned for their creative reworkings of classic texts, and La Voix Humaine is directed by the company's artistic director, Ivo van Hove. If you like it, you can see six hours more of their work at the Adelaide Festival. La Voix Humaine is performed in Dutch with English surtitles. Image by Jan Versweyveld. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MW6ljgrmSA8
There's the Breakfast Club and there are breakfast clubs. And while not all of them can make a virtue of Molly Ringwald's dandruff, most of them are pretty good for ensuring that children can concentrate on the learning business and not on their daily meal. Major Raiser donates to run one for getting kids in Laos fed at school via the World Food Program. They've been running the Givva Fork campaign, where each $6 fork you buy (online or as 'forkage' at some willing restaurants around town) has gone towards feeding a child in Laos at school for a month. The campaign concludes with a Major Raiser's Givva Fork Party (each ticket donates a fork by itself), with music from Elizabeth Rose, Polographia and local stars Van She.
An ancient NASA flag from the future, Madonna dancing Gangnam Style, two guys in masks eating steak with books under their armpits and a wall-mounted house made out of white Lego are just some of the things you will see at MOP's 10 out of 10. Since 2003, MOP has acted as a career springboard for local emerging and mid-career artists. MOP was originally located in a rag trade warehouse in Redfern. The sleek, white-walled Abercrombie Street gallery that now houses up to 35 exhibitions a year is testament to the dedication that's been poured into 'The Little Independent Gallery That Could'. Now it's 10 years old. Whilst most kids these days may get high on Coke Zero, ask for the latest smart phone and play "pin the nearest adult store on the Google Map" on their 10th birthdays, MOP, as usual, is ahead of the pack. Looking to their elders, this 10-year anniversary celebration is happening as part of Art Month and showcases 10 established artists with strong ties to the gallery, including Mitch Cairns, Newell Harry, Emma White, Christopher Hanrahan, Gemma Smith, Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Ms&Mr, Adam Norton and Rob McHaffie. The exhibition traverses the aesthetically pleasant (the handmade paper used for Harry's Diptych: Indifference and Circularity is laden with the character, mystique and the softness of a grandma's wrinkled cheeks) to the downright strange (why is there a video collage of a woman wearing braces and underpants singing the scandalous 1984 French pop song 'Lemon Incest' to her son/ husband?). Some questions are better left unanswered, but in answer to the question, should you go see it? It's an easy yes.
Jumping from suburban garage to main stage in the space of a few months is no common feat, but Ash Flanders and Declan Green, the alarmingly talented duo behind Sisters Grimm, are not common. The Melbourne indie theatre heroes write fast and on the fly, put on their melodramatic genre mash-ups in whatever space they can lock down and find the finished product is so good that critics and audiences fall at their feet in adulation. This critic/audience member is no exception. Little Mercy is so effortlessly funny and so riveting that you have no perception of 90 minutes having passed. The high-camp ode to 'evil child' movies, originally staged in a Collingwood car park in 2010, takes you into the Summers home, where ambitious theatre director Roger (Luke Mullins) and his lovely wife, Virginia (Flanders), long for a child. Upon finding an acceptance letter from an orphanage to which they don't remember applying, they gratefully receive Mercy (Jill McKay). By the time the child begins to show her not-so-sweet side, Roger is tied up directing blockbuster musical Bon Voyage Susan and Virginia finds her only options for help are the nanny (Mullins again), a gypsy seer, her mysterious friend Gladys (phone voice by charismatic sound designer Steve Toulmin) or her own self. Evil child horror movies have something of a reputation for ruining the lives of their young stars. But Sisters Grimm have come up with a clever way to avoid saddling their actor with the self-belief that she's demonic and wrong. You know that Jill McKay can handle it. She's a delight in the role of little Alice in Wonderland-skirted Mercy. Mullins is po-facedly hilarious throughout, but this is really Flanders' show. He is a superlative drag performer. Where other Little Mercy performers are men in dresses, and instantly comical in the panto way men in dresses are, Ash has to do comical things to earn laughter, because as a woman — a glamorous, statuesque woman — he's believable. There's a lot of subtleness in what he brings to a show you could otherwise readily call 'over-the-top'. Flanders spoke to us about the process of adapting their "aesthetic of failure" for the Sydney Theatre Company stage, and it's safe to say the Sisters have succeeded. There are a few winks and nods to low production values, but it's not something they dwell on, and the overall look is creatively handmade rather than broke. Like a Michel Gondry movie. And truly, there's a lot to enjoy in Little Mercy for film fans. Greene, with designers David Fleischer and Verity Hampson, has spun a host of effects that recall cinematic conventions while being idiosyncratically theatrey. A spectacular running-while-losing-one's-mind sequence is a prime example. Unfortunately, Little Mercy is basically sold out, so perhaps you should run on ahead and book for Sisters Grimm's second Sydney appearance, of Summertime in the Garden of Eden for Griffin Theatre. Or you can follow the lead of Little Mercy's precocious star and start whacking those smug ticketholders.
The stories we see on screen become the stories we tell ourselves as a person and a society. So it matters that the default story character is a dude — specifically, only 10% of protagonists in our major motion pictures, or a third of ensemble casts, is female (Bechdel test, drive this point home). It turns out there's one simple fix for this: have women direct, write, produce or edit the film. As the organisers of the Seen and Heard film festival point out, having at least one female director bumps up women's screentime by 25%, and one female writer by 33% — but only 38% of 2011's top 250 films had women in any major production roles. Jeez Louise. Seen and Heard is out to spread awareness in us filmgoers and simultaneously celebrate the achievements of women in film. At the Red Rattler over three consecutive Thursdays in March, they'll screen short, mid, and feature-length films that have a woman's (not necessarily gentle) touch. Included is Australian feature Black & White & Sex, which has eight actresses play the singular, seductive character of Angie; Puerto Rican Tribeca Film Festival selection Gabi, the story of an independent woman in her 30s who's tested when she has to return to her small town; and Ali Russel's study of the personal meanings of Native Title, Keeper. Image from Black & White & Sex.
In 2011 Marrickville jumped onto the Art Month bandwagon with the Marrickville Open Studio Trail (MOST), and 2012 saw Leichhardt jump in with the Leichhardt Open Studio Trail (LOST). Both got you close to artists in their natural habitat: galleries and studios. This year, both suburbs have opted in, which makes for two weekends of sanctioned, behind-the-scenes art nosiness. MOST will run tours over the weekend on every type of transport you set your foot to: pedal (Saturday andSunday), bus, foot, or expert, as Match Box Projects return to run their tours of local ARIs. Open spaces include eclectic warehouse space the Red Rattler, MEKanarky descendants Tortuga Studios and Salmagundi, and a new micro space, the Marrickville Garage. There will also be a citizens-meet-street-artists street art forum. LOST, meanwhile, gets in on the Art Cycling and opens the doors to spaces like Art Est, house-size Pseudo Space, the Mosaic Art School, School of Footwear, the Kinema space, and Higher Ground. MOST and LOST Open Studio Trails are part of Art Month 2013. Check out our guide to the festival's ten best events here.
Electronic musicians have always had a thing for mystery. Sometimes the shroud is visible: Holy Other performs under a cloak of darkness, and SBTRKT hides his face behind that wooden mask. But while those things are done to separate the music from the person creating it, Moodymann is rather the opposite. He famously refuses interviews and press shots, but he’s uncompromisingly upfront about his origin (the black techno epicenter of Detroit) and how inseparable that is from his sound. Though, while he’s committed to keeping the music true to its black roots, his shows are anything but exclusive. Moodymann has developed a reputation for interacting with the crowd even when he’s hidden behind some sort of screen, taking the room on a journey of soaring and slowing tempos while injecting classic soul and jazz into the typically steely Detroit sound. Try listening to this while keeping still.
A couple of years ago, it was easy to dismiss the modern iteration of 3D as a novelty, good for chase scenes and rollercoastering through goblin bank dungeons and not much else. But lately some of Hollywood's biggest filmmakers have made it their mission to do 3D the grown-up way, with Ang Lee conjuring rich magic realism in Life of Pi and Wim Wenders weaving us around the dancers in immersive doco Pina. Now the man who first laid down the gauntlet with Avatar, James Cameron, is behind a new experiment in 3D storytelling, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away. Directed by Andrew Adamson, it makes an epic sweep of seven Cirque du Soleil shows, O, Mystere, Ka, Love, Zumanity, Viva Elvis, and Criss Angel Believe, incorporating their most impressive acts of aerial acrobatics, contortion, clowning, and other circus arts. The Canadian company is known the world over for its dramatic contemporary circus spectaculars, but less known are its attempts to bring the Cirque du Soleil spirit of wonder to other media. Last year it partnered with Google to create a fantasy browser experience you control with your body, Movi.Kanti.Revo. If that same creativity is unleashed in Worlds Away, it will be a rapturous adventure. https://youtube.com/watch?v=fgiLU9lNnU8
There's been a lot of talk lately surrounding Sydney's first ever cultural policy. Sydney's already a great city, but what would make it even better, culturally speaking? The City of Sydney Council wants to get a big, city-wide conversation going with as many different voices as possible during the drafting process. To this end, Belvoir St Theatre in Surry Hills is holding a forum led by their artistic director Ralph Myers about the Creative City Discussion Paper released by the council. If you're an artist or general creative type, it's a great opportunity to have a chat over some drinks and nibbles about what you need to be able to produce work and what kind of lifestyle the city should foster. The forum's not just for artists, either — if you're someone who loves art and culture and you've got some thoughts about what you'd like to see as an audience member, come along and have your say. Can't make it along? Follow the hashtag #creativecitysyd.
Catch psych-rock girl group Beaches as they hit up Goodgod. The Melbourne-based band have been causing quite the stir after their self-titled 2008 debut album was released and are eager to share their latest musical offering, She Beats, with you. Their '60s pop mixed with '70s psych sound earned them a place in the 100 Best Australian Albums, which is not an easy feat. The quintet of friends have collaborated with guitar genius Michael Rother of New/Harmonia, who features on two tracks on She Beats. One track is 'Distance', and this impressive kaleidoscope of psych-rock has clocked up nearly 30k Soundcloud plays. It's the kind of music that makes late Sunday mornings all the more enjoyable and takes on a life of its own after a couple of listens.
On Thursday 13 June, as part of Griffin Theatre Company's Festival of New Writing, the company's 2013 Studio Artists will present a one-night-only interactive performance experience, Uncanny Valley. According to the internet bible known as Wikipedia (just about as reliable as the Other Bible so we're gonna quote it), 'Uncanny Valley' is what happens when you see human features in a robot or synthetically manufactured entity that look and behave almost, but not perfectly, like natural human beings, causing people to freak out and vomit*. The 'valley' refers to the dip in human comfort levels as this happens. So you can imagine what you're in for. The work will take audiences into a world of dreams and despair and explore the spooky, seedy and surprising fragments of Griffin's backyard, the notorious Kings Cross. It's a follow-up to 2012'sLovely Ugly and 2011's Heartbreak Hotel, a now yearly event that lets the company explore the possibilities of interactivity and of staging work outside the theatre. This is set to be an outing to the museum of the human mind, created by some of the country's most exciting writers and directors, including Angela Betzien, Tessa Leong, Iain Sinclair and Kit Brookman. It sounds like a colossal Lynchian escapade. Psych up! *People don’t always actually vomit but there is a general feeling of repulsion. Image from Lovely Ugly.
The thing about aerial archaeology - first pioneered with perilous balloons and now easily supplemented by idle glances at internet maps - is that you need to take photos from an angle. Angles give you shadows, bumps and other reliefs of landscape that help you understand the curves of the earth and what strange things might be buried beneath. Zoe Wetherall’s Aerial Albuquerque photos, by contrast, are taken mostly from directly above Albuquerque’s systems of freeways and fields. And the effect is stunning in its detail and expressiveness. Her lens takes in still countryside, quiet roads, an abundance of cracked asphalt and tracks eroded more by feet than by water. Suburbia is particularly stunning, taking in a flat-roofed city block replete with parked cars, autumn-dead trees and irregular spots of colour. Simon O’Dwyer — an Age photojournalist — has put together a combination of reportage and collage for B Side of O'Dwyer. His digital collages seem to be strung stylistically between early Sandman-era Dave McKean and Blade Runner. It’s a tried approach, but remains mostly a true one here. Some of his straight reportage photos seem to lack social context, especially Egypt 2008, which shows a toothless man in front of the step pyramid at Saqqara. Though this isn't the case with the Story of Private Lachlan Grodo (and accompanying text by Garry Tippet), which focuses on Grodo’s twin loves of bench presses and international relations. O'Dwyer's stylised landscapes are moody, but, again, are at their best when context is dropped alongside. As we're still in the throws of Head On this month, Gaffa is fill to the gills with shows, making for an unprecedented five concurrent photography exhibitions. As well as Wetherall and O'Dwyer, John Slaytor fakes silent sea photographs for the Silent Sea, using rubbish adrift in pale blue ocean tints to comment on marine contamination. Cordelia Beresford’s Prudence shows adults and children at play across Cockatoo Island, at their best when her strong cinematographer’s eye converts the odd double exposure into playful movement. And downstairs in the arcade, Tony Sernack's A World of People captures beautiful coastal and human vistas. Image: Suburbia by Zoe Wetherall.
Redfern's getting ready to play host to another mix of light, performance and drama as the suburb gears up to film another series of Redfern Now. Around the same time that the shooting gets going, the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance — the union that bravely mixes entertainers and journalists — throws open the doors to its Redfern digs for the Heart of Redfern. It's a night of light, dance and music focused on the history of the suburb. It's a rare chance to see inside the building without joining up and an excuse for another night out around this already-these-days bustling suburb. The night is free, but you'll need to RSVP first.
Once upon a time, a man's beard represented the ultimate in raw masculinity and virility. Alas, these days beards have come to be worn by city dwellers as a kind of ironic badge of honour, much like a daggy old jumper or high-top Converse shoes. But fear not, Adelaide's favourite facially furry friends, The Beards, are claiming it back. The quartet are taking their bearded odyssey to the world with the launch of their first global tour across North America, Europe and Australia. The Beards see themselves as more than simply hairy entertainers but also as prophets of the immortal message proclaimed in their most recent album that "having a beard is the new not having a beard". Call them a one-joke concept if you will, but The Beards have found themselves a pretty bloody funny joke. And they have the sort of indie success to prove it as well. With over 2 million hits on their YouTube channel, a spot on the 2011 Triple J Hottest 100 and sold-out shows across the country, The Beards have fashioned the sort of cult following that many a clean-shaven artist can only dream of. So head to The Metro on June 29 for the gritty soulfulness, anthemic choruses and beard porn that have transformed The Beards into social media superstars.
This year, Groovin' the Moo announced its line-up a day early after a Music Feeds source discovered a leak via Moshtix. And after reading through the list of acts appearing at the festival, it's little wonder those involved got so prematurely excited. International acts hit double digits this year, with USA heavyweights The Bronx and The Amity Affliction, the UK's Frightened Rabbit and The Kooks and Canadian twins Tegan and Sara all set to strap on their gumboots and distribute their fresh sonic goods across five regional locations. Local heavyweights on the bill include Tama Impala, Flume, Hungry Kids of Hungary, Blue Mountains beatmaker Urthboy, Melbourne sextet Alpine, electronic trio Midnight Juggernauts and the awesomely named Yolanda Be Cool. Even dubstep gets a repping courtesy of Shockone. Besides music, the festival will provide local food stalls with fresh produce of the culinary variety, markets filled with knickknacks, licensed bar facilities, slingshot rides, and plenty of spacious chill-out areas.
Western contemporary art is slowly emerging from an existential crisis, from the black hole of post-modernism, to embrace art that serves a political and social as well as an aesthetic purpose. But whilst we are all busy congratulating ourselves for remembering that artists aren't just weirdos who question whether or not squares exist, China has jumped miles ahead in the art of political art. Serve the People goes some way in justifying this sweeping generalisation. Impressively curated by 'retired' Art Gallery of NSW director Edmund Capon, the latest exhibition to grace the walls of Judith Neilson's White Rabbit Gallery surveys the best artworks of China’s 21st-century cultural revolution. It was at the height of the initial 1974 Cultural Revolution that Capon made his first trip to China and there witnessed the rapidly changing relationship between artist and society: from the iron rule of the Mao era, where art didn't legally exist beyond Soviet-style socialist realism, to the increasing freedoms experienced by artists in today's global, tourism-driven market. The title Serve the People is ironically taken from the eponymous 1966-76 Maoist slogan urging artists to serve the cause of socialism, but here opens up the role of the artist to serve people ideas that lie outside the prescribed government agenda, ideas that critique, challenge and satire society and politics. Exhibited works span the human psychological and emotional spectrum, exploring fear, anarchy and hope through rich personal and public lenses. Capon has chosen from Neilson’s 700-strong collection to present a survey of starkly diverse but equally affecting works with both conceptual depth and technical proficiency par excellence. The rigour and the methodology in works like Jin Feng's A History of China’s Modernisation Volumes 1 and 2 (2011) pay tribute to China's socialist roots, where the boldness and humour in Invasive Species – Vegetables (2010) by Chen Hangfeng and Shi Jinsong’s Baby Stroller – Sickle Edition (2007) (a child’s stroller made to look like a Viking chariot with metal spikes — for parents with a competitive spirit!), reflect the increasing freedom artists have to reinterpret the world and serve us new visions, some hilarious, some confronting, some tantalising. Other highlights include Nibbling Up – Tomb Figures (2008), a humorous and haunting work by Sun Furong. The artist, a former seamstress, decided to stab at 100 Mao suits with a pair of scissors and then present them like a headless ghost army. Just think about how much cathartic energy it would have taken to stab even one suit, let alone 100. Also keep an eye out for the meticulous craftsmanship in Wang Lei’s Fabrications (2009), the silk 'dragon robes' worn by Chinese emperors, here recreated by twisting chopped-up bits of paper from a Chinese-English dictionary into yarn. It seems we've been served quite a treat. Image: Jin Feng, A History of China’s Modernisation Volumes 1 and 2, (2011).
A hundred years ago, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring premiered at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees to public outrage and a near-riot in the streets of Paris. The story of a young girl, chosen as a sacrificial victim in a series of rituals celebrating the arrival of spring, who eventually dances herself to death was brought to life by pioneering choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. Exactly a century later, the avant-garde chaos of Stravinsky's ballet and orchestral work lives on in iTMOi (in the mind of igor), created by internationally renowned British choreographer Akram Khan. In collaboration with boundary-pushing composers Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook and Ben Frost, who have imagined a powerful original score, iTMOi is an innovative dance work that brings together the talents of performers from Europe, Asia, the UK and the US. Coinciding with the arrival of an Australian spring, iTMOi will be gracing the Sydney Opera House between Wednesday, 28 August, and Sunday, 1 September.
If you think all of the best Brisbane Festival performances have been and gone, think again. Dance piece Rising is a beautiful production and not be missed. Comprising of four different chapters, each featuring the same incredible dancer, Rising will inspire and amaze. The immensely talented UK dancer, Aakash Odedra, is the star of this performance and also a rising star in the world of dance. The choreographers behind these extraordinary dances are Odedra himself, Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. While each segment differs greatly, a running theme is the inclusion of Odera's area of expertise – Bharatanatym and Kathak traditional Indian dance styles. The four instalments are Shadow of Man (Khan), Cut (Maliphant), Constellation (Cherkaoui) and Nritta (Odedra). Squeeze the last wonderful drops out of this years Brisbane Festival and head along to Rising for some serious talent.
Monday, March 3, will see The Necks return to the Opera House's Joan Sutherland Theatre, in the finale to their first Australian tour for 2014. Since last visiting home shores, The Necks have released their 17th studio album, Open, to rave reviews. The Music said it was a "living masterwork" and Spin described it as "one of the most mesmerising records of the year: an hour-long, labyrinthine, uninterrupted dream." What's more, Open is the first of The Necks' albums to have had a release in the US, via label Northern Spy. In 2014, the group also celebrates 25 years in the business, having released debut album Sex back in 1998. Since then, their jazz-meets-ambient minimalism sound has developed a cult following all over the world. Their live shows are truly hypnotic experiences, unbound by conventional limitations and driven by a commitment to never playing the same thing twice. The Necks' appearance is part of Music at the House, a special program featuring contemporary music. Other artists on the bill include Neil Finn, Iron & Wine, Neko Case, Flying Lotus, Grizzly Bear, The National, Bonobo, Buddy Guy and Ludovico Einaudi. Tickets for The Necks at the SOH go on sale to the public on Friday, December 13, at 9am. Photo credit: Camille Walsh https://youtube.com/watch?v=CGkXjdzzrPg
Every 13-year-old has played that game at a sleepover where you write one line on a piece of paper, fold it over and pass it on to the next pimply, excitable friend in the aim of contributing to a (no doubt hilarious) unfolding story. Although we probably didn’t know it at the time, Cadavre Exquis or "Exquisite Corpse" is a technique long used to collectively tell a story. A tradition so thrilling it is being brought to the Sydney Festival in 2014. A performance of chance, Cadavre Exquis is written by many people, each adding to the story in sequence. With four internationally acclaimed theatre companies here asked to contribute a 15-minute section of text — guided only by the last image of the previous part — this is performance celebrating innovation, delight and collaboration. In the lead will be Kassys (The Netherlands) , devising the first and final sections, with the in-between parts taken care of by the likes of Nature Theatre of Oklahoma (the New York group who brought the 12-hour epic Life and Times to the Melbourne Festival), Tim Crouch (the UK theatre maker also here presenting
We’ve talked before about bespoke Sydney printers. During Corroboree Sydney, the nine day celebration of all things indigenous, the Art Gallery of NSW is bringing small-scale printers from the town of Bonggabilla to town. And while they're here, they're making a house. Illuminate is a life-size, faux-mission-house built out of paper by Euraba Paper Company artists and lit by Sydney artist Jonathan Jones’ light work. The Paper Company has a long history of art making, and for this project young people have interviewed their elders at Boggabilla and Toomelah, with the stories to be stamped onto the houses’ paper walls. If you like the idea of this outback, lofi printing, the artists from the Euraba Artists and Papermakers will be teaching you how it’s done in a free workshop at 2pm, Saturady November 16th. Or if you’d rather build your own paper house (and, honestly, who wouldn’t), on November 20th you can do that too.
How can a play from 1969 be relevant to society today? Bentley is a man who puts too much trust in consumerism. He has the perfect apartment. He is exceedingly successful at work. He has good friends and copious amounts of "the old Resch's" chilling in his fridge. He's even managed to nab the dream girl. Bentley has done everything society has told him to do, so how could everything go so horribly wrong? Does that sound irrelevant to you and your life today? Don't Look Away is a production company dedicated to the revitalisation of ageing Australian plays, breathing life into forgotten, or neglected, classics. And Alex Buzo's lost gem Rooted is a stellar choice. They've confidently positioned the classic within the context of 21st-century society, in an exploration of the lengths people will go to achieve success. Darkly satirical and disturbingly true, Rooted was first performed at the NIDA Jane Street Theatre in 1969. Now — over forty years on — it's been brought back to life and, fittingly, is showing at NIDA's Parade Theatre. Under the bold direction of Phil Rouse (Ham Funeral), this A-class group of performers — an impressive crop of emerging Australians actors — deliver exciting performances. Although at times incredibly unlikeable, their characters reveal truths about status anxiety in their constant quest to impress the omnipresent (but never actually seen) 'Simmo'. George Bander is a standout as Bentley; his haunting performance proof that an obsession with consumer society will ultimately see you yourself consumed. It's set against a seriously cool soundtrack, consisting of some very current bangers, and set design by Anna Gardiner is also notably striking, changing several times throughout the course of the play. Stark white walls act as a canvas to the stylish, modern lives of these characters, with stunning lighting design by Sian James-Holland. Unlike much Australian theatre of both past and present, Buzo's play lacks the usual burden of current affairs, political statements and strong social opinions. What you see is what you get with this script, Rooted remaining as potent for the audiences of today as it was in '69. This will suit some; perhaps others will find it has a somewhat shallow effect. Either way, this remains a production that is full of flavour, Don’t Look Away channeling a youthful energy and intelligence into this forgotten classic. And that is always going to be a good thing.
Brash and irreverent rock outfit Future of the Left have announced that they will be playing a string of shows down under in January 2014. Formed following the dissolution of the beloved post-hardcore band Mclusky, Future of the Left is a Welsh quartet that emerged in 2005. They have since gained a sturdy reputation for the sprawling energy and raw power of their live sets. With a knack for fusing together melody and groove, the band will be sweeping up the eastern seaboard, rewarding their loyal Aussie fan base with raucous performances filled with biting wit and musical mayhem. From their wry song titles to lyrics such as, "I have seen into the future/ Everyone is slightly older" and "Civilised people don't fuck bears/ Civilised people don't play fair", Future of the Left showcase an offbeat, slightly cynical sense of humour armed with heavy riffs. Prepare for a meaty slice of rock 'n' roll and a welcome dose of cheeky laughs. Future of the Left's forthcoming album, How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident, will be released on October 25, 2013. Update 18 Dec: There has been a venue change to the Factory from the Annandale, which will be undergoing renovations. https://youtube.com/watch?v=1_XbYz9J4W0
Gareth Davies is a lunatic who should be unleashed on theatre audiences as often as possible. His is a mad genius that is often sealed in lead-lined supporting roles, adding the glow of the honestly absurd to tragedies and comedies alike. Now, in The Suicide, Davies detonates the full force of his being over a span of around 115 minutes. It is an experience trumped only by having God as your fluffer. This is the Hayloft Project's third visit to Belvoir Downstairs, and this time director Simon Stone has opted for a black comedy to continue showcasing his company's broad talents. Originally by Nikolai Erdman, The Suicide was a thorn in Soviet Russia's side, resulting in its repeated failure to be properly staged during Erdman's lifetime. It is the story of Semyon Semyonovich, unemployed, married and plagued by midnight hunger pangs, driven by a thwarted love for the tuba towards a very public suicide. Stone has taken this fertile irreverence and reformed it into a madcap piece that will ring true with anyone shat upon by the dreaded G acronym over the past two years. Surrounding Semyon is a community of odd characters, ranging from his long-suffering wife Maria (Anne-Louise Sarks) through to the opportunistic Aristarch (Johnny Carr) and Alexander (Tom Wren). The ensemble carries the energy of the piece with dedicated aplomb, juggling quick-fire costume changes and imaginative musical interludes with only the occasional moment dropped. In less capable hands, The Suicide may have become a sketch comedy revue, but there is no need to worry about that here. Elevating this production further is its design team. Claude Marcos' sparse gravel and dirt space delightfully takes the piss out of grim, Soviet landscapes, while Teegan Lee's lighting moistens the action — especially in the play's high noon climax. Stefan Gregory has opted for an a capella soundscape that gives a playful and maniacal lilt to the night's proceedings, and, drawing upon the flavours of pantomime and farce, Mel Page has shrewdly sourced costumes for all 27 characters. With the dark intensity of Love Me Tender Upstairs, The Suicide is a clever programming choice for Belvoir. If you haven't yet witnessed one of Hayloft's classic rebirthings, definitely pop your cherry with this one. Just don't drink too much beforehand, as the combination of constant laughter and no interval may result in your impromptu addition to the set.
For those on the northside of Sydney, the Starlight Cinema is summer's cinematic staple. It might not have the location bragging rights of the Moonlight or the Open Air Cinemas, but North Sydney Oval does have the grandstand as a handy wet weather option should summer storms conspire to scupper your evening. This year's line up is also something to crow about. The programme says it's going for theme nights, such as: Action-Packed Wednesdays, Comedy & Adventure Thursdays, Fun & Romance Fridays, Big Movie Saturdays and Young & Free Sundays. But gimmicks aside, you just need to look at the line up to start plugging dates into your 2011 diary. Titles like The Social Network, Toy Story 3, Easy A, Made in Dagenham and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have already made the Concrete Playground cut this year. Similarly Black Swan, Boy, The Kids are All Right, Despicable Me, The King's Speech and Somewhere are firm favourites, while Breakfast at Tiffany's never gets old, especially on Valentine's Day. So if you happen to be behind on your film watching, or simply fancy revisiting some of your cinematic highlights from 2010, then North Sydney has just the spot, under the stars. https://youtube.com/watch?v=OsxjM03ME7s
One would be hard-pressed to find an outing more quintessentially 'Sydney' than the Bondi-to-Bronte Coast Walk, its length punctuated by winding markers that give the impression that it may well be endless. Instead, it is merely endlessly beautiful, particularly now that the decking has been extended and refurbished. There is perhaps one time of the year when this coastal stroll manages to outdo itself, during the much loved Sculpture by the Sea which stretches from Tamarama to Bondi, and there are many delights to see. Each sculpture responds to the landscape in which it is situated, offering a kind of site specificity that one doesn't often get to engage with in such numbers. Sculpture by the Sea has been steadily growing in each of its thirteen years, and this year features over 100 works to consider. So winning is this event, that it needs to be prefaced with a warning: it gets BUSY. Go early!
Sydney lovers of slick contemporary design, listen up. Sydney is getting its very own Monocle Shop, albeit in pop-up form. Launching at The Stables in Surry Hills next weekend, it's the second time the impossibly dapper brand has taken up a temporary address in Australia; after a similar pop-up in Brisbane’s Scrumptious Reads last year. If that venture was anything to go by, put aside your money now. After beginning life as a global affairs and lifestyle magazine before spinning off into the world of radio, retail and even coffee, Monocle currently owns stores in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, Singapore and New York. Here, the brand sells must-have products designed to make you look roughly one thousand percent cooler — luxury travel luggage, designer furniture and high-end fashion. Basically, it’s where you want to direct all of your wealthiest friends about a week before your birthday. The Sydney pop-up appears to have been strategically timed to coincide with Vivid Sydney 2015, where Monocle founder and international man of mystery Tyler Brule will appear as part of the Vivid Ideas Game Changers series, which features talks by leaders in global creative industries. No word on exactly what items the Sydney store will be selling, although we’ve got a wish list that’s about three miles long. Image: Monocle, New York.
Fond of Betty's Burgers and its Shake Shack-style burgs? Keen to share the love with someone you love? On Thursday, October 24, the chain of eateries wants Sydneysiders to come in for a bite — and to bring their besties in as well. To mark the first ever Betty's Bestie Day, the brand's new Sydney joint will be serving up two-for-one burgers. Pay $10 for a Betty's Classic — which stacks angus beef, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and Betty's special sauce on a soft bun — and you'll score a pair of them. The two-for-one offer also applies to the $11 crispy chicken burger — with southern-fried chicken, lettuce, tomato and special sauce — and Betty's new limited-edition lobster roll, which'll set you back $19 for two. If you're can't wait till Thursday to snag a burg, head to head to one of Betty's six Sydney stores in Bondi Junction, Castle Towers, Darling Harbour, Manly Wharf, Mount Street and the new Market Street store. The two-for-one deal is available from 11am until 10pm (or sold out), so if you and your favourite fellow burger fiend are especially eager, you could always hit up one for lunch and another for dinner.
Temperance is a strangely old-fashioned word. It’s like the lone priest that struts into a do-hick town, shaking things up, pouring precious booze down dusty drains, squeegeeing the hookers, and teaching the men how to be real men. In general it means moderation, but it’s come to be spelt with a capital T and slapped onto all wagons from which the moon don’t shine. The Temperance Movement even had a brief heyday in Australia, resulting in the six o’clock swill if not all-out prohibition. It’s rather ironic then that one of the pop up bars setting up shop in Sydney’s back lanes this summer is in Temperance Lane. Wedged between two pearly towers, like a zesty chunk of lemon shoved between your teeth after tequila, this location was chosen for the permanent offspring of the summertime Seven Metre Bar due to its “old world” charm. Do crims love old world too? Because it’s also been chosen to host a pop up gallery run by the UTS Designing Out Crime Research Centre on Tuesday February 16. Mark Titmarsh, one of the inner city artists behind the initiative, says the aim is to create templates for cultural activity in the dark and shadowy corners of the city. Tagging and petty crime will be replaced with live painting by Deb & Bridge, interactive digital works from artists like Bert Bongers, video from Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Mitch Cairns and more, plus some ‘acceptable’ street art. That’s the theory anyway — we’re sure if Mr. Temperance rolled in he’d consider all that ribald drinking and fun-making verging on criminal. The swilling starts from six.
Australia’s leading documentary photography festival, Reportage, have joined forces with Vivid Sydney this May. Developed from impromptu snapshot exchanges in a Bondi apartment, Reportage is now gaining exposure as a national and global photography event worthy of focus. In a flash, it seems, the depth of the photographers fielded at the festival has zoomed to dizzying heights. Shutterbugs such as distinguished Magnum photographer Alex Webb (USA), Contact Press co-founder David Burnett (USA) and Italian camera-king Franceso Zizola (co-founder of NOOR Agency in Amsterdam and 10B Photography in Rome) will grace Sydney with their pictorial prestige for the duration of the snapfest. Reportage will debut works by these (and over fifty other) photographers through large-scale outdoor projections and indoor exhibitions around Sydney from May 25 to June 13. With themes ranging from Cuba to Bob Marley, to the American Presidents and to Peace, Reportage 2013 will inspire tears, laughter, deep thought and people scratching their chin as they pretend to be in deep thought. If that doesn’t make your shutter flutter, though, perhaps the next paragraph will. For their 11th season, with the power of Vivid behind them, the festival will feature intimate workshops, insightful talks and open Q&As for the closet Canon kid and the professional paparazzo alike. In fact, if you’ve never even taken an auto-everythinged snapshot on a friend’s DSLR, Reportage has opened up these free (and ticketed) events to anyone interested in social issues as explored through visual narrative. Title Image: ©Alex Webb, Bombay, India, 1981 from 'The Suffering of Light'
Fast and furious, wet and wild. No, it’s not an ad for a summer roller-coaster ride; it’s the frantic dash in a 12m-long painted boat known as the Dragon Boat Races. Dating back 2000 years, the race was traditionally held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese Calendar to encourage rains for prosperity — the dragon, the symbol of water, was the object of worship for the ancient Chinese. Today, it’s a heart-thumping sport boasting crews of roughly 20 rowers. Grab a waterside seat and watch some of Sydney’s best dragon boat teams battle it out in this highly competitive, thrilling sport.
The huge clock in front of the Dymocks store chimes into your conversation with a barista to tell you it's almost 9am. The cracked concrete yawns; girders and glass shudder into the waterside. Each deep insuck of the morning swell sends fleshy seaweed seething into view. The water taxis wallow under the weight of office workers; building walls smell of creosote and ants. This is the city that Mark Haslam is talking about — a place of noise and dirt and extraordinary power. A place with a Concrete Heartbeat; a unique rhythm and energy. It could be any city across the world; its name is unimportant. At the Old Fitzroy Theatre, the stage is bare save for some milk crates lightly daubed with paint. Mark Haslam sways in front of a microphone, weighing up his audience. He throws a long weighty loop of words over us, somehow saved to rhythmic subliminal disc. During Concrete Heartbeat, Haslam takes on the identity of eight different city dwellers. He portrays a cubicle worker and a city worker in Def Jam style with equal panache. His deft exploration of urban dwelling, with all its challenges, pleasures and angst, is blended with a bunch of cut up breaks and hip hop beats. Blackly cynical but ultimately redemptive stories reverberate through the intimate space of the Old Fitzroy; the frieze of images emphasises the dynamism of the performance. Somebody who bears heartfelt witness to the symbiotic relationship between people and the city that, without them, is merely concrete and glass is worth checking out. Take the pulse of our urban precinct and play with the possibilities of being an urban individual at the Old Fitzroy Theatre.
°SOUTH:WAR offers a sobering reflection of what war, in our day and age, has come to mean. Photographers Sean Flynn, Tim Page, Stephen Dupont, David Dare Parker, Jack Picone, Ben Bohane, Michael Coyne and Ashley Gilbertson make up the collective °SOUTH. Since the 1960s, they have been covering was and its effects first hand, often at their own risk. You get a sense of these photographers' tireless dedication to their subject (which must largely be very difficult to persevere with, while also being one that is educational and significant) in the images they make. These are expansive, confronting, at times poetic, and always honest.In my life, and that of many others, war and devastation is someone else's reality. We are fortunate to not know its nature, but for many this is not the case. These images, the photographers' work, show us that war is not as it once was, a distant fact of the battlefield, "now it is streets, alleyways, schools and places of worship" (°SOUTH).Image: Ashley Gilbertson, Polish Peace Keepers sunbathing, Karbala, Iraq, 2008
If someone's trying to tell me to get a move on and they say "on your bike", I feel like popping them one to the jaw. However, if the bike on offer were an Original DM4 from Deus Ex Machina, I'd probably thank them kindly and be on my way. Those similarly reverent about nice bikes can get their fix (ha) at the 4th Deus Bicycle Swap Meet. There will be 10% off all cycle gear in the Deus store, as well as a lot of bike-related entertainment, trading and selling and a roller race.
You know that feeling of unbridled joy and energy you get in the opening scene of The Lion King when you scream "Naaaants een-vwen-yaaaaaaa ma-ba-gee-chi-ba-va" (or some variation thereof) as baby Simba is hoisted up by Rafiki? That's why you should pay to see the Spice World: The Movie at the cinema. Even though you've seen it a million times, you have it on DVD and Blu-ray (for some reason), and on a USB drive that's permanently in the TV, you should still buy a ticket. The sheer thrill that you'll feel when a cinema full of adult women all scream "you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM" will be an experience like no other. The joy of sharing, nostalgia, sing-screaming, and choc tops are all rolled into one event for the 20th anniversary sing-a-long screening of Spice World. It all takes place at the Hayden Orpheum, so snap up a ticket while you can.
Sydney's last bastion of the super club scene has been through a number of changes in recent years, including a brief flirtation with live indie music. Homeless is their latest offering, treading new ground for the venue and for the Sydney scene. Cleverly catering to the new, educated, left-inclined crowd but with the weight to pull big names, this could finally be an authentic alternative to Subbies. With Lucas Abela AKA Justice Yeldham at the controls, it's no surprise that the debut features such luminaries as No Moa Duramma, a side project of two members of experimental Japanese act the Boredoms, and Zach Hill, a member of Hella who also collaborates with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, Kid 606 and members of Mars Volta (amongst others). A line up like this one entirely justifies venturing out on a school night.
The call to public action and its shadow, the docile mass of those who will not take part, echo daily in many regions and for many causes across the world. Drawing from these phenomena, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art stages this weekend a continuous 48-hour exhibition of performance art and live actions from Australia, Asia and the Pacific. As a culmination of the five-month long Mass Group Incident curatorial program, 48 Hour Incident features works that the artists have created specifically for 4A. The over-arching context for this exhibition is, as offered by curators Pedro de Almeida, Toby Chapman and Aaron Seeto, "how ephemeral, interdisciplinary and performative artforms embody real social conditions or frictions". Artists participating in the exhibition include Brown Council's Frances Barrett, visual artist BLAK DOUGLAS, body-centred performance artist Latai Taumoepeau, installation artist JD Reforma, and artist-composer Samson Young. Across all of their disciplines, these and other artists point at the power of the individual to spark up a movement.
Would you like the good news or the bad news? The bad news is that the deadline for creative types to enter their work into Lightbulb Lounge Room’s next exhibition has passed. But the good news (and who doesn’t like saving the best for last?) is that they’re opening their doors to the public once again come January 18. Hunt or be Hunted, the title of the North Bondi gallery’s second monthly collaborative exhibition, invited aspiring canvas-based painters, typographers, photographers, designers and illustrators to submit their work for display. Asked to center those works on the exhibition’s title, participants have created either literal interpretations — we’re thinking Robin Hood-inspired works, a hero gallivanting through the woods, that type of thing — or slightly more abstract ones. A pretty encouraging initiative, no? We think it’s wonderful. Even better, all contributing artists/designers are given the opportunity to eventually produce their own solo show at Lightbulb Lounge Room. And selected pieces work off a first come, first served basis so everybody is given a chance to go into the running. Image: Claire Perini
Architecture in Helsinki are back, and set to make the folk at the Sydney Opera House dance through their shoes in their first headline tour in three years. To celebrate the release of their fourth album Moment Bends, the band who are renowned for live shows bursting with energy and sweaty fun are coming to Sydney to play exclusively as part of the lineup for Vivid Live. Architecture In Helsinki burst straight out of art school around a decade ago, with albums positively tingling with amazing indie pop songs and a slew of videos featuring trampolines, capes and creepy fluorescent puppets dancing around their necks. They've gone on to become one of Australia's most loved and internationally acclaimed acts, playing national and international tours alongside such luminaries as David Byrne, Belle & Sebastian and Yo La Tengo. Their new album develops the kind of ecstatic pop that makes you want to dance in a cloud of glitter, but with the kind of sophisticated touch that comes from many years of being one of Australia's most acclaimed and innovative bands. But at the end of the day, and most importantly, Architecture In Helsinki make you want to dance. So get your fluoro shirt out, stick something weird in your hair and get yourself a ticket while you can. https://youtube.com/watch?v=IxjcszKEcHE
Vivid Creative Sydney is all lined up for another year of spreading creative energy and inspiring the city. Presented as part of the Vivid Festival, Creative Sydney will see over 50 global and local creative leaders coming together to explore the power of creative industries to transform society. This year Creative Sydney is expanding to include more free sessions and for the first time a presence at the Sydney Opera House, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art. The program includes short and snappy show and tell presentations, in depth conversation sessions on education, innovation and technology, and creative futures, where artists and entrepreneurs present their vision of the ideas that will shape society in the future. As well as an awesome line-up of speakers, there will also be a range of live music showcases, debates, film screenings, parties and social events. Key speakers include Matthew Stinchcomb, EU director of Etsy, and will mark Etsy's first official engagement with their third largest market, and Fabian Rigall, founder of Future Shorts and Secret Cinema. Also lined up are Murray Bell and Andrew Johnstone, the founders of the internationally successful Semi-Permanent conferences, swimwear brand We Are Handsome and Ben Briand, winner of the Cannes Young Director Award and Best Narrative Video at the 2010 Vimeo Awards. And that's only the beginning. Update: Whilst most sessions have now sold out, some more tickets to Creative Futures sessions will be available from 9am on Friday, May 27 via the Creative Sydney website.
The Gum Ball boasts that it is the best bush party around, a pretty big claim for any Australian music festival. The boutique music, arts and camping festival, now in its seventh year and held two and half hours north-west of Sydney in the Hunter Valley, prides itself on being family friendly and features a remarkably diverse line up of Australian acts. The festival stretches over one weekend at the end of April and features 22 acts. Headlined by Maori dub-step/reggae group KORA, the lineup is rounded out with acts as various as C.W Stoneking and his Primitive Horns, The Vasco Era, Lanie Lane, The Bamboos, Space Invadas and Papa Vs Pretty. The live music comes alongside onsite camping, market stalls, a silent disco, fancy dress competition and a children's mega playground. This year, The Gum Ball has teamed up with The Black Dog Institute, an Australian charity helping to fund research and raise awareness about depression and bipolar disorder. Anyone who makes a donation goes into the draw to win prizes including a four-berth camper van for five days over the festival.
Turning your phone off during a movie is cinema etiquette 101. Not kicking the seat in front of you, or talking during the film, or taking in food with aromas so pungent they stink out the whole theatre — they're all on the list as well. Usually, so is wearing clothes; however, the returning Fantastic Film Festival Australia is making attire optional for one of its 2022 sessions. One of Australia's film fests dedicated to weird and wonderful cinema — a tranche of flicks so glorious that several events celebrate them — FFFA is back for another year, screening at the Ritz Cinema in Randwick from Thursday, April 21–Friday, May 6. It has just unveiled its full 2022 lineup, too, and its naked screening certainly deserves attention. The fest debuted the concept last year, and it's bringing it back this year. Even better: you'll be getting your kit off to mark the 25th anniversary of The Full Monty. Stripping off while seeing a classic movie about men stripping isn't the only highlight of this year's program, of course — and yes, if you want to see Robert Carlyle and company while remaining dressed, you can leave your hat on (and the rest of your clothing as well). The attire-optional session sits alongside other standouts such as opening night's viking epic The Northman, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman, and directed by The Witch and The Lighthouse's Robert Eggers; closing night's New York Ninja, which was shot in 1984, only finished in 2021 and follows a vigilante tale; and a 4K restoration of the inimitable 1981 great Possession starring a young Sam Neill and always-wonderful Isabelle Adjani (The World Is Yours). In total, 22 features and eight shorts and special events sit on this lineup of strange, surreal, out-there and purposely offbeat flicks. We're All Going to the World's Fair arrives from Sundance, combining psychological horror with a coming-of-age story — and a storyline about an online roleplaying game — while French film After Blue is a sci-fi western fantasy about a mother and daughter tracking a killer in toxic forests. There's also indie animation Absolute Denial, which has been compared to Frankenstein but in a digital world; Agnes, which explores a case of demonic possession in a convent; Japan's Dreams on Fire, featuring acclaimed dancer Bambi Naka in her first lead role; Norwegian nightmare The Innocents, as directed by The Worst Person in the World co-writer Eskil Vogt; and The Timekeepers of Eternity, which is adapted from Stephen King novella The Langoliers.
Love wine? Then, boy, have we got some good news. This November, you can score a bottle of vino for as little as $8.50 a pop — and we're talking about the good stuff, too. All you have to do is head to online wine-slinger Vinomofo to purchase it and it'll get delivered straight to your doorstep. The catch? You've only got a couple of days to nab it. For the uninitiated, Vinomofo is a Melbourne-based online wine retailer that caters to vino lovers around the world. So it's safe to say it knows what it's doing when it comes to grape juice. From noon on Tuesday, November 10 (AEDT) till midnight Thursday, November 12 (AEDT), Vinomofo is hosting a Click Frenzy Sale, selling more than 100 wines at affordable prices, so you can stock up for summer. Think picnic-perfect Provence rosé, rich Barossa shiraz for red lovers and Clare Valley riesling that makes for an ideal, crisp afternoon tipple — which you can score at up to 70 percent off. Shipping for all orders purchased in that time period will be free, too. Score epic wine deals via Vinomofo's Click Frenzy Sale — for a limited time only.
A fourth birthday celebration is usually populated with such delights as creaming soda, snakes and frogs, awkward family photos, at least one pair of skinned knees, and a Woman’s Day swimming pool cake. But we have a feeling that Oxford Art Factory will be in a decidedly more debaucherous mood for their Big Four. Since they opened their doors in 2008, the Oxford Art Factory has played host to a mess of memories - seeing the stage lit up with Neil Finn's Pajama Club, the first Falling Joys show in 15 years and a solo record launch from The Birthday Partys Mick Harvey, amongst others. And the Gallery Bar has had its walls brushed over with some incredible art more times than we can count. Entry is free on the night, with the drinks flowing freely until the last drop runs out (so you won’t have to chug a bottle of Passion Pop in the back alley beforehand). Then enjoy the massive lineup: Deep Sea Arcade, Step-Panther, Betty Airs, Peppercorn, Rockets, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Mother & Son, The James Manson Blues Band and The Faults, plus Friday I’m In Love and OAF Gallery Bar DJs. Put on your prettiest and enjoy the revelry – and remember, pics or it didn’t happen.
