Last month marked a step in Google's expansion beyond cyber space and into the physical realm, with the opening of the world's first Google store in London. The store is officially known as 'The Chromezone' and will be followed by a second store in Essex. But Google's colonisation of time and space is still in the exploration stage, the store selling only Google's Chromebook laptop and a few accessories. Arvind Desikan, head of consumer marketing at Google UK, said the "foray into physical retail" is "something Google is going to play with and see where it leads." Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Google has been busy scoping out the territory in India in its very own bus. Since 2009, the Google bus has functioned as a mobile internet cafe, stopping in a new town every few days to offer internet access to the local residents. The Google bus is a clever foray into an essentially untapped market, as internet usage in India currently lags well behind the West. Now we know what Google employees are doing with that paid weekly 'creative time' that makes the rest of us consider enrolling in an IT degree. While the Chromezone opening had nothing on the hype that surrounded the launch of Apple's Regent Street flagship, it nevertheless fuels tension between the two technology empires. Hopefully we've learnt a thing or two from the great clashes of empires past, and the two can figure out how to share the realm of time and space peacefully . https://youtube.com/watch?v=W4Faoo1wDag
The gin-making superstars at Four Pillars are at it again, unveiling their latest range of tipples — including the return of a couple of old favourites, and the fresh arrival of a newcomer. While the brand has been barrel-aging gins for some time, the release of its yearly batch is always eagerly anticipated. 2021's lineup is its first in two years, too, with the much-lauded Yarra Valley distillery's barrel-aged tipples taking a year off in 2020. Making a return is Four Pillars' Sherry Cask Gin, which — as the name suggests — is made in former sherry barrels to lend a rich, intense character to the final drop. It's rounded out with notes of pine needles, dried fruits and nuts, and infused with a small amount of Amontillado sherry to give some length and sweetness. According to the experts who made it, this one works well neat with just a single ice cube. And, price-wise, it'll set you back $80 for a bottle. Also launching is the 2021 edition of Four Pillars' Chardonnay Barrel Gin, which is now up to its ninth release. This time around, the spirit's enjoyed a full 12 months in chardonnay barrels, giving characters of ginger, lemon, vanilla and cinnamon. You'll also taste an oak-driven sweetness, and this one also costs $80 a bottle. And, the latest addition to the barrel-aged program is the Single Barrel Release, which marks the first tipple in Four Pillars' new Single Barrel series. It's particularly limited, so much so that the $150-per-bottle drop has already sold out online. If you were lucky enough to nab some, the gin in question has been aged for three and a half years in a 30-year-old sherry and apera cask, and boasts a concentrated juniper flavour, plus notes of dried fruits, cashew, chocolate and spice. The Sherry Cask Gin and Chardonnay Barrel Gin are still available online, and at Four Pillars' gin shops in Surry Hills and Healesville. For more information about Four Pillars' 2021 barrel-aged range, head to the distillery's website.
Whether you're trying to find your way around your a far-flung holiday destination, a part of your own city you're not so familiar with or your own neighbourhood, Google Maps has probably helped you out of a bind more than once. Over the years, you've been able to play everything from Pac-Man and Mario Kart to Where's Waldo and Snake via the online service, too — so using it for a global Easter egg hunt really isn't too far out of the ordinary. Because it's almost that time of year, and because Cadbury wants to remind us all to eat chocolate, the brand has teamed up with Google Maps to create a virtual way for you to hide and search for Easter eggs. It's all digital, though, so it does mean that you won't actually be eating any choccies. If you want to dive into your own stash while you're clicking and scrolling away, though, absolutely no one is going to stop you. Here's how it works: you head to the worldwide Easter egg hunt website, sign up and then get hiding. Once you've picked your spot — somewhere of significance to you and the person you're hiding it for — you'll write a clue, which'll then get sent to your chosen person. For those on the receiving end, it's up to you to decipher the details and find the virtual egg. If it's too hard, that's all down to whoever enlisted you in the hunt — so, if you can't find your digital egg, you might want to ask them for more hints. You can only hide one egg at a time, and only send the corresponding clue to one person. But, you can repeat the process as many times as you like. While there is a physical component, it sadly doesn't involve racing around the world, the city or even the house actually trying to get your hands on chocolate. Instead, you can arrange to send one of three Cadbury products to someone in Australia, starting at $50. Staying virtual doesn't cost a thing, however, if that better suits your budget. To take part in the worldwide Easter egg hunt, head to the Cadbury website.
The old nine-to-five routine can be a bit of a grind — between work, study and trying to stay on top of all the shows on Netflix, it certainly takes a toll. That's why, when the weekend comes around, sometimes the only solution is to shake it off a la Swifty and leave your troubles behind while you dominate the dance floor. Luckily for us, this is finally an option once again. After a year of deserted dance floors and seated celebrations, the New South Wales Government has finally rolled back restrictions and is allowing us all to dance the night away as we've been yearning.. To celebrate, we've put together a list of some top pubs, bars and nightclubs in Sydney to head to for a boogie when the weekend hits. So limber up, people — it's time to boogie.
Double Bay's having its fair share of hypeworthy openings of late, with newbies like Chinta Kechil and About Life sparking the curiosity of more western-living Sydneysiders. This December, the eastern suburb will see another top-tier addition to the dining scene with the opening of a brand new venue for acclaimed Japanese hat-winner Saké Restaurant and Bar. The newest project from Urban Purveyor Group (the team behind Ananas Bar and Brasserie, Bavarian Bier Cafe, The Cut Bar and Grill and Swine and Co.), Saké is set to open in December at 33 Cross Street, beneath the InterContinental Hotel. With sushi master and executive chef Shaun Presland commandeering the menu, the Double Bay establishment will serve the contemporary Japanese cuisine Saké is already celebrated for — joining hatted sister venues in The Rocks and Brisbane, alongside its Melbourne counterpart. We're talking 'gramworthy new-style sushi to significantly impress your date. "The launch of Saké Double Bay is a great addition to the Group and a welcomed expansion of the Saké brand as it allows us to take a very successful concept outside of Sydney’s CBD," says John Szangolies, proprietor at Urban Purveyor Group. "The venue will allow Saké customers to call in for cocktails, pull up a seat at the sushi bar or settle in with friends for the evening and savour the full Saké experience." The brand new Japanese eatery features indoor seating for 120 (with outdoor for another 30) along with a brand new bar. Of course, the restaurant's namesake won't be left out of this; with Saké's knowledgable staff serving up an impressive range of sake and shochu pairings with your chosen morsels. While you'll need to bring a padded-out wallet, you won't regret a bite. Saké is opening at 33 Cross Street, Double Bay this December. Why not brush up on your sake knowledge in the meantime? Images from Saké.
When your nine-to-five plays out like a well-oiled machine, it can sometimes feel like each week is a little same-same. But Sydney is brimming with a fine bounty of things to experience and explore each and every day. So aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing some adventure and spontaneity into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to help you celebrate the little things that bring a sense of adventure to life. Shake things up, as we give you seven different detours to take each week in Sydney. From Monday to Sunday, enrich your everyday with one completely achievable activity that inspires you to take the scenic route as you go about your daily routine. This week, book in an after-work bowls session, duck into the last late night with the Archibald and go on a second-hand bargain treasure hunt across the city. Plus, we've got your future detours sorted for the next few weeks here. All require no more effort than a tiny break from the norm — what's your excuse for not trying them all?
Christmas isn't the only source of cheer in Sydney this month, especially if you like heartwarmingly endearing baby animals. After introducing the world to its new koala joey and lion cubs earlier this year, Taronga Zoo has just unveiled footage of its pygmy hippo calf, which was born at the zoo on Monday, November 22. The calf doesn't yet have a name; however, Taronga visitors will get to see her in the flesh in the coming weeks — with the adorable critter set to make her public debut just in time for the upcoming school holidays. She was born to parents Kambiri and Fergus, and marks the first calf born at the zoo in more than four years. At the moment, the calf's day involves spending time in an off-exhibit nursery den with Kambiri — suckling, getting energetic in short bursts and napping. And, learning how to navigate the water, because pygmy hippo calves aren't born knowing how to either swim or hold their breath. So, that's something that Kambiri is teaching her offspring. Once the calf masters splashing around, she'll be able to enter the public hippo exhibit, which has had its pond floor raised so it's easier for the calf to access. The new calf will call Sydney home but, in the wild, pygmy hippos are native to West Africa's forests and swamps. Only around 2000–3000 are estimated to remain outside of zoos, which makes the species endangered. And, in the wild, they only tend to come together for breeding. That's enough words about this new cutie, because we all know that you're here to get a glimpse. Check out Taronga Zoo's footage below: [video width="1080" height="1920" mp4="https://cdn.concreteplayground.com/content/uploads/2021/12/HippoAnnouncement.mp4"][/video] [video width="1080" height="1920" mp4="https://cdn.concreteplayground.com/content/uploads/2021/12/Pygmy-hippo-antics.mp4"][/video] Taronga Zoo's new pygmy hippo calf will make its public debut sometime in the coming weeks. For further information, keep an eye on the zoo's website.
Attention BLACKPINK fans around Australia — and get ready for love — because 2023 just got a whole lot better. As initially announced back in 2022 and now officially locked in, the world's most successful female K-Pop group are heading Down Under this winter, hitting Australia mere months after a rather huge gig: headlining Coachella 2023. Last year, the dates for the [Born Pink] World Tour were unveiled in a post on Instagram, revealing that the tour was kicking off in Seoul before moving through the US and Europe. As revealed then, come June 2023, BLACKPINK will spend the final leg of the tour performing over two nights in Melbourne (Saturday, June 10–Sunday, June 11) and two nights in Sydney (Friday, June 16–Saturday, June 17). A one-night stint in Auckland, however, has been ditched. "Due to unforeseen logistical challenges, the originally announced Auckland show will no longer be feasible," according to the tour announcement. [caption id="attachment_887179" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jiya & Arcam[/caption] BLACKPINK's two Melbourne shows will take over Rod Laver Arena, while their Sydney gigs will unleash their pink venom at Qudos Bank Arena. Fans around the rest of Australia, we bet you wanna show your BLACKPINK love, too — so you have trips to the New South Wales or Victorian capitals in your future. The tour supports BLACKPINK's latest album BORN PINK, which released in September 2022. It also comes after 'Pink Venom' made history by becoming the biggest release by a female group or solo artist this decade. First, then tune debuted at number one on Spotify's global top songs chart. Then, it racked up over 7.9-million streams within the first 24 hours. And on YouTube, the official music video reached 100-million views quicker than any video by a female group ever, including 90.4-million views notched up in the first 24 hours. Also the most-subscribed music act on YouTube thanks to their 84 million-plus followers, and the most- followed girl group on Spotify, BLACKPINK will head through Asia first before hitting Australia. And if you can't make it or don't manage to nab tickets, there's always the Coachella livestream in April. BLACKPINK [BORN PINK] WORLD TOUR AUSTRALIAN DATES: Saturday, June 10–Sunday, June 11 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Friday, June 16–Saturday, June 17 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney BLACKPINK's [Born Pink] world tour heads to Australia in June 2023. The Frontier members' pre-sale runs for 24 hours — or until the allocation is all snapped up — from 11am AEDT for Sydney and 1pm AEDT f0r Melbourne on Wednesday, February 8, with general sales from 12pm AEDT for Sydney and 2pm AEDT for Melbourne on Thursday, February 9.
The team at Fratelli Fresh have opened the doors to their latest restaurant, located right in the heart of the Sydney CBD. Situated directly opposite State Parliament on Macquarie Street, Fratelli Parlamento looks set to become one of the city's go-to dining options, serving up the mouthwatering Italian for which the name Fratelli has become famous. The Parlamento location will be open for lunch and dinner, and includes a pizzeria and a bar. The menu will mirror those of fellow Fratelli restaurants, with delectable antipastos leading into a hearty array of pastas, risottos and seasonal Italian cuisine. Everything on the menu is available to take away, making it a perfect option for busy office workers — or even NSW legislators. Fratelli Parlamento's drinks menu appears to be equally well stocked, with healthy selection of spirits, wines and cocktails. If their Alexandria location is anything to go by, we recommend the Italian Sour. One of Sydney’s leading providores, Fratelli Fresh owns a number of retail stories and eateries, with locations in Potts Point, Walsh Bay and Alexandria, in addition to the CBD. They also own Cafe Nice near Circular Quay. Unfortunately, Fratelli Parlamento does not include a fresh produce store. Find Fratelli Parlamento directly opposite NSW Parliament House at 229-231 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Watching The Vow, you can be forgiven for wondering how the details and events that fill its frames all managed to actually happen. It tells a tale that seems like it should be a work of fiction, as many of the best true-crime docuseries do. But as the old adage goes, truth is stranger than fiction — and that definitely proves to be the case when there's a creepy self-improvement group involved. NXIVM dates back to the 90s, but it wasn't until the past few years that it started attracting newspaper headlines, with its leader Keith Raniere first arrested and indicted, and then convicted of a spate of crimes including sex trafficking. Across its first nine-episode season, The Vow chats with former members of the group about their unsurprisingly disturbing experiences, and also spends time with journalists who've dedicated a hefty chunk of their lives to exposing NXIVM. Yes, it's one helluva story.
Darcy St Project isn't just a cafe: it's a social enterprise. Here, students and youth — particularly those at risk of unemployment — can gain the skills, training and confidence necessary to becoming gun baristas. Others who take part in the program include refugees, newly arrived migrants and those experiencing homelessness. While knowing that your money is going to a good cause, kick back and enjoy a fine cup of coffee. Rather than sticking with just one kind of bean, Darcy St runs a feature roaster program, letting regulars taste their way across a bunch of single origins, from Seven Seeds' Kainamui (Gichugu, Kenya) to Pablo & Rustys' Bella Vista (Narino, Colombia). Meanwhile, the house blend, dubbed Big Tasty, is roasted in-house, in small batches. It's a smooth blend of three beans, from Kenya, Colombia and Brazil. Darcy St Project's headquarters for coffee drinkers is the OG Brew Bar, a cosy spot dotted with yellow stools and backdropped by a cheery green feature wall. True to the name, the focus really is on coffee, with food limited to bakery treats.
A few weeks back, the City of Sydney got together with Carbon Arts to run the City Data Slam. It was essentially a directed hackathon for Sensing Sydney, which takes the data the City uses to try to meet its sustainability goals and makes it interesting. Over a three-day weekend, invited artists, coders and some ISEA guests tried to find new information buried in this city data and ways to explain it. On the Sunday, each of the teams presented their solutions and Concrete Playground went along to check out some of the ideas. Data'll Be All Making sense of complicated numbers is a problem we've been struggling with for decades, and you've probably got the results of previous attempts on your phone. Whether you've personally been trying to make sense of big space numbers, powers of ten, two hundreds years of development or just trying to sort your tax, you've been working the problem. And there's stuff hidden in there. XML data, web publishing and mp3s weren't obvious candidates to revolutionise radio until they added up to podcasts, nor combining the tech in Gmail and word processing to make something like Google Docs. Equally, who knows what City data — like waste, water use or cycling sensors — could add up to in the right combinations? Sustainability and climate change are two of the City of Sydney's big focuses in interpreting their data, and they're also, as Carbon Arts founder Jodi Newcombe says "often identified as 'wicked problems' or 'very wicked problems'. And those are [problems] characterised by the fact that people who are trying to solve them are also creating the problem as well." The visualisations and ideas from the Slam are meant to give individuals a way of finding a little leverage into these wicked problems. Lycra Forecast: Low Artists Tega Brain and Gavin Sade used a speed data feed from city cycleways — which output a daily report on how many cyclists go in what direction — combined with the inference that fast cyclists are likely to be harder-core, lycra-clad 'MAMILS' (Middle Aged Men in Lycra). So their plan is to measure this with the Lycra Index. Slow moving cyclists like Sunday riders or families can use the index to work out whether it's a good day set out on the lanes at low speed. MAMILS, conversely, get to see whether it's a good day for a speedy commute into work. Cycling 365 Brain and Sade's choice to work with cyclists acme sprung from the work of Mitchell Whitelaw, who also tapped into public bike feeds to prototype a tool visualising a year's worth of cycling data in a web browser. The city has magnetic sensors in bike lanes, much like the ones that detect cars at a set of traffic lights. In the troughs of the usage data, Christmas, New Year's and bike festivals start to become obvious. Race for a Low Number Carbon Arts was also looking to commission an artwork for Art and About that played with City data feeds. The winner of the commission was artist Keith Deverell, who plans to use sport to make some inner-city buildings' environmental footprints more obvious. Six or so screens will be lined up side by side in September. On each, the image of a marathon runner will represent each building's energy usage, drawn from public energy data. Low usage will make these virtual runners run a better race, high usage a poor one. Each runner's image will be assembled live using VJ software, pretty much like a computer voice assembles its artificial sentences out of prerecorded pieces. Keep Up With the Joneses Zina Kaye and Mr Snow from Holly were similarly interested in big buildings. Engaging with the problem of modern apartment blocks with no incentive to keep their fancy water recycling systems running efficiently, they proposed a series of lobby indicators, reports and rewards to help residents to both keep up with the Joneses, and stay up to date with how well their building's waste systems are working. Get Some Data With Your Coffee Jon McCormack and Greg More worked with data tallying how cafes use energy in different parts of their shop. They split the data into colour-coded graphs picking apart each element of the premises' electrics. From this, they proposed all cafes have coffee cups and outdoor branding colour stamped with their own energy consumption profile. Like shopping for organic, single origin or fair trade coffee, you'd be able to shop for a more efficient caffeine fix. More Plumbing, Less Hack Javier Candeira described his idea as more plumbing than hack, per se. Rather than receive data from cities, banks or media, he'll help people broadcast their own sustainability data outward on the wider web. The idea is to upload it to compare your own usage against what other people use living in similar circumstances. Say, in an apartment or in a three-person share house. "Facebook for devices" Xively does this already, but needs special hardware. Candeira's plan is to get all this going with the stuff you have already. Sucking Up Info from Around Town Andrea Polli, and fellow members of ISEA guests the Social Media Workgroup, proposed networked sensors called GNOMES (Geo-locative Networked Outdoor Monitoring Environment). These sensors measure ambient environmental conditions, like the energy that can be sucked out of the air around a city via RF (radio waves). By Sunday they've set up a functional recording device using a coffee cup cabled to electronics. Less innocuous than the GNOMES, it records passers-by's ideas on how to make the city more sustainable. Photos by Lucy Parakhina. Lycra index mock ups by Tega Brain and Gavin Sade, apartment foyer mockup by Zina Kaye and Mr Snow, street interface by Jon McCormack and Greg More, and GNOME by the Social Media Workgroup.
Opening a hotel restaurant in a CBD renowned for independent hotspots left right and centre has its ups and downs. For example, the backing of a 40-strong hotel chain is undoubtedly impressive, but unlike say New York, where three-Michelin-star chefs can be found hanging out at Trump International Towers, Sydney hasn't quite yet jumped on the bandwagon. Abode, the new addition to Park Royal down on the corner of Day and Bathurst Street, is at least a leg up in that direction. Street-facing and impressively decked out in apparently only a few weeks, Abode already deals with the whole hotel 'problem': any casual passer-by could easily be forgiven in thinking this restaurant/bar decked out in white woods, creams and greys is simply that, sans the attached accommodation. While it's no Jean-Georges, its size is impressive, and, with a sunken bar and lounge area, hidden-away games room and main dining room complete with cushioned banquettes, comfy and welcoming, Abode does live up to its name. According to restaurant and bar director Christian Rasmus, the main focus here is the food, whipped up by green-on-the-scene head chef Ryan Hong. We began with three selections from the raw bar, including salmon belly ($16), an oyster each ($4) and yellow fin tuna tartare ($18). Oyster lovers will like the accompanying cucumber and coriander for its freshness, while the wasabi gel and kewpie mayo alongside the salmon gave a delish sashimi kick. The best was probably the tuna but mainly because of the avocado puree. Love an avo puree. Breaking open a warm Bread and Butter Project roll ($3) with the most generous hunk of almost cheese-like butter, we moved onto 12-hour cooked lamb shoulder ($16) with Panko crumb, celeriac and apple jelly. Three words: move over pork. Apple with lamb is a hit. As was the juicy 9+ Wagyu flank ($40) that came after, cut into short fat chips, with a flavour-packed king mushroom and pumpkin puree. On the side we enjoyed some roasted carrots ($9) — it's great how something so simple can be so delicious — and not double but triple cooked fries ($9). Finally we finished with the corn-fed chicken (nice and juicy, $34) and the Tassie king salmon ($34), which while cooked well was sadly drowned by a small ocean of butter. With a strong wine list and seasonally changing cocktail menu, including an awfully wintery Spiced Blazer served in an espresso cup ($20), it's clear Abode's focus is in the right place. The best thing any hotel restaurant can do in a city unaccustomed to non-guest dining is remove the idea of a hotel altogether. Something this hospitable wannabe home in the CBD has done nicely.
A dip in Walsh Bay itself might not seem all that appealing, but some summertime splashing in a harbourside pool sure does. So tomorrow — just in time for the balmy days to come — harbourside hotel Pier One is launching a pop-up called The Pool, featuring an actual plunge pool out on its private pontoon. Promising a luxe poolside experience for hotel guests and visitors alike, the space has been kitted out with lush foliage, umbrellas, deck chairs and pool toys to complement an upscale food and drink offering. In between dips, punters can enjoy classic Aussie-style barbecue dishes from on-site smokehouse The Kerrigan, like spiced calamari rings and fried chook wings. Pier One's Sydney Harbour Bar will be slinging a summery array of signature cocktails, while local DJs will grace the decks, bumping up the party vibe. It's all on offer Fridays through Sundays from noon till sunset throughout summer, and open daily from 3pm between December 26 and January 1. Access to The Pool will cost you $30, including a towel, use of the pool toys and an alcoholic beverage. It's for adults only and they don't take bookings, so you'll want to get in early to nab a primo poolside spot. If you've got a spare $499, you can also get on board The Pool's huge New Year's Eve party, taking advantage of that prime, harbourside fireworks-viewing real estate.
Freedom Time — the free-spirited festival synonymous with balmy summer days, dance-fuelled nights and lush DJ sets — has been giving Melburnians good times for two years now, and it's gearing up for another huge summer season. And in 2018, it will drop by Sydney too. This time around, the Freedom Time gang are spreading the love even further, adding a January 7 visit to Sydney's Manning Bar and Gardens on top of the usual shows in Perth on New Year's Eve and at Melbourne's Coburg Velodrome on January 1. As always, the festival's gifting us with a diverse lineup of musical guests, assembling a mix of international greats and homegrown heroes that'll have you dancing your little feet off no matter your style. Headlining this eclectic bunch is famed Chicago house producer Larry Heard (aka Mr Fingers), Jamaican dancehall legend Johnny Osbourne and an inter-generational collaborative effort from Leroy Burgess and Melbourne's own Harvey Sutherland. Meanwhile, Rhythm Section International's Bradley Zero will present a handpicked label showcase in each city, featuring a crop of local acts performing alongside modern soul duo, Silentjay and Jace XL. Sydney's lineup includes appearances from the likes of Simon Caldwell, Rimbombo and local producer Jonti. FREEDOM TIME 2018 LINEUP Larry Heard (aka Mr. Fingers) Leroy Burgess Harvey Sutherland Johnny Osbourne Sassy J Bradley Zero Nai Palm Jonti Freda & Jackson Ben Fester Simon Caldwell Boogie Monster Rimbombo SilentJay & Jace XL Inner West Reggae Disco Machine Jimmy Sing Love Bombs Mike Who Cazeaux Oslo
You spent 17 hours watching one of Australia's most famous trains as it travelled across the country, all as part of the slow TV trend. Now, you can splash out and spend seven-to-nine days leisurely riding the rails through the outback yourself. And while you're lapping up the scenery at a very relaxed pace, you'll be doing so on another historic vehicle — one of the nation's oldest passenger locomotives. The Spirit of Progress first went into operation back in 1937, travelling from Melbourne to Albury. Then, from 1962–1986, it made nightly journeys between Melbourne and Sydney. But it has been largely out of action since, other than commemorative trips to mark its 50th, 60th and 70th anniversaries. This year, however, it's powering up its engines again — first retracing its familiar Melbourne–Sydney leg overnight at the end of March; then heading from Melbourne to Sydney, on to Broken Hill, then back to Sydney, all in early- to mid-July. Tickets for the first one-night trip have all been snapped up, but you can still hop onboard the second, lengthier journey, which has been dubbed the Far West Express. Feeling like treating yo'self and seeing the countryside? If so, you'll travel 4100 kilometres if you depart from Melbourne, and 2300 kilometres if you jump on in Sydney. Run by tour operator Cruise Express, the trip includes an overnight stop in Orange on the way there and two nights in the same spot on the way back. In Broken Hill, you'll hang around for three nights — touring sights that include filming locations for both Mad Max 2 and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Passengers won't just be riding on a famed 83-year-old train, either, or simply exploring the country at a slow pace — they'll be part of the Spirit of Progress' longest-ever trip. That said, this isn't a cheap venture. Prices start at $5890 per person twin-share and $6490 for solo travellers out of Sydney, and cost $6390 per person twin-share and $7190 for solo travellers out of Melbourne. The Spirit of Progress' Far West Express trip departs Melbourne on Wednesday, July 8 and Sydney on Thursday, July 9 — visit the tour operator's website for bookings and further details.
Disney is getting into the streaming game, and it's unleashing its new platform upon Australian and New Zealand audiences this year. Called Disney+, the service was first revealed in 2018, but just when it'd hit local screens had remained a mystery. Now, anyone eager to watch new Star Wars and Marvel TV shows — plus all of Disney's animated movies — should mark November 19 in their diaries. It's great news for folks Down Under. The Mouse House announced the service's US launch date a few months back, but had left things vague otherwise, explaining that it "plans to be in nearly all major regions of the world within the next two years". While Disney+ was expected to be operational in Australia and New Zealand sometime in 2020, locals will only be left waiting a week after the service's American debut. With Disney recently merging with competitor Fox, Disney+'s range is hefty, spanning Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National Geographic. During its first year of operation, it's due to release more than 25 original series and ten original films, documentaries and specials — including five Marvel series (Loki, WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Hawkeye and Marvel's What If), and two Star Wars shows (The Mandalorian from The Lion King director Jon Favreau, plus a spinoff from Rogue One about Diego Luna's Rebel spy Cassian Andor). Two new Toy Story projects, as well as science series The World According to Jeff Goldblum, are also on Disney+'s lineup. Going big when it comes to bringing the company's well-known properties to the new streaming platform, a High School Musical TV series, another show based on Monsters, Inc. and a live-action Lady and the Tramp movie will be on the bill, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrXNtj84owc Price-wise, subscriptions will cost AU$8.99 and NZ$9.99 per month (or AU$89.99 and NZ$99.99 per year). Disney has also unveiled the devices that'll feature Disney+, which will be available both HD and 4K. Viewers will be able to access the service via Apple products (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV), Google devices (Android phones, Android TV devices, Google Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices), Roku, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and all Android-based Sony TVs. Disney+ will launch in Australia New Zealand on November 19. To sign up for further updates, visit the streaming platform's website. Top image: The Mandalorian.
Heated outdoor spaces are a hot commodity during the cooler months. They offer a rare occasion to enjoy some fresh air even when the warmth from the sun has vanished. Luckily, The Grounds of Alexandria has you sorted. The venue holds regular after-dark music events held in its fairy light-lit urban garden, and the next instalment is all about blues and mulled wine. Go straight from work and grab a glass from 6pm. Music will be going throughout the night — the soulful Karen Lee Andrews will be complemented by the blues-heavy harmonica tunes Kane Muir. Dancing is encouraged. The $30 ticket price includes entry and the music, with food and drinks available to purchase from the kitchen — think burgers, bowls, buttermilk fried chicken and other dishes from the barbecue. It's a top date idea or, alternatively, one for you fam — children and four-legged friends are welcome. Updated: August 23, 2019.
Of Sydney's rapidly developing inner city suburbs, Redfern is one that's changed the most in recent years. The area's main drag, Redfern Street, is almost unrecognisable to what it was five years ago. But, while lots of small bars and fancy cafes have moved in, the history of Redfern hasn't been lost, and neither has the community feel. Redfern locals are understandably passionate about their home and are big believers in buying local. So we've teamed up with American Express to show you where they shop small — whether it's for late-night obscure groceries, homewares or a good bottle of plonk. Shop small at these venues with your Amex Card.
There's a reason conversation is referred to as an art. It's not an exact science, for starters, but when done properly it's something that can organically take on a life of its own — it can be colourful, inspiring, thought-provoking and radical. Whether you're a veritable Caravaggio of conversation or you've not quite nailed your chat game just yet, interesting — and, yes, provocative — conversation prompts can go a long way to you uncovering more about people you think you already might know so well. Inspired by our upcoming event The Slow Lounge in partnership with American Honey, we put out a call to you, our readers, to reveal your favourite conversation starters — and we're delighted to report that you did not disappoint. Sure, not all of these will be appropriate for every situation (who's your favourite Muppet? might not be a solid opener for your future mother-in-law), but here are some of your go-to catalysts for good chat. What makes you happy? Would you rather be a metre taller or a metre shorter? What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? What's been the best part of your day so far? What is a language you love to listen to, even if you don't speak or understand it? Instead of "What's been happening?", ask "What's the most important thing happening in your life right now?" If you could go back and change one decision you've made in your life, what would it be and why? Who's your favourite Muppet? What's the most outrageous thing you've done in your life? What food best describes your personality? What song describes your life to now? Who would you least like to get stuck with in an elevator? What's your favourite cocktail? What has been the best thing about emerging out of COVID-19 hibernation? What are your three favourite vegetables? If you could be a fruit, what fruit would you be and why? What's something about you that people are surprised about when they first hear it? What is something about yourself that you love? What is your fondest live music memory? What is your favourite Arnott's biscuit? What do you want to achieve this year? What's been the best moment of your week? When was the last time you built a Lego set? What was it and what have you done with it since? If you were sent to Antarctica and could only take one person and two objects, who and what would you take? If a squirrel could talk do you think it would have a really high voice or a really low voice? Who would play you in a movie about you? For more inspo on how to create your own golden moments with mates, head to the American Honey website. Top image: Cottonbro (Pexels)
As temperatures soared across Australia this week, one of Sydney's chilliest spots received bad news, with the Macquarie Ice Rink slated for demolition to make way for multimillion-dollar upgrades to the Macquarie Centre. An unhappy turn of events for the generations of Sydneysiders who've flocked to the facility over the past 39 years, the move has been met with community backlash — and now the shopping centre's owner, AMP Capital, is reconsidering its plans. In a statement, the company announced that it "has asked City of Ryde Council to put on hold the centre's development application while there is further community consultation about the proposal". The pause comes as a Change.org petition to save the site has garnered 22,363 signatures. Macquarie Ice Rink has been the training ground for Olympians and a cool escape from the summer heat for many little (and big) Sydneysiders since 1980. As part of AMP Capital's original plans, the facility was set to be torn down in January 2020. According to News Corp, the shopping centre's $195 million redevelopment would include improved links from the shopping centre to the train station and bus interchange as well as a public plaza, which would impact the space where the ice rink is currently located. After first revealing the rink's demolition in a press release earlier this week — which revealed its lease would finish at the end of January next year — the ice rink's owners have welcomed AMP Capital's announcement, but note that the site hasn't been rescued yet. "This is the first step in what could be a very long battle to save Macquarie Ice Rink," said Dr Frank Gregg in a statement. "It shows what people power can do and I would like to thank the community for their overwhelming support. I would urge everyone to now contact AMP and tell them that an Olympic-size ice rink at the Macquarie Centre is a must now and into the future." https://www.facebook.com/macquarieicerink/posts/2513306518686394 The initial news of Macquarie Ice Rink's demolition was a case of particularly bad timing, with the ice rink given a considerable upgrade just last year. "We recently spent millions of dollars refurbishing the ice rink and laying new ice for the athletes and the public," Dr Gregg originally revealed. In his latest statement, he explained that "there is no way I would have spent $3.5 million dollars upgrading the rink if I expected it to close on January 31, 2020". For those eager to provide their thoughts on the potential revamp, Macquarie Centre will display plans on level three of the shopping centre during the development application process — and will make staff available to discuss the proposal from 10am–1pm on Saturday, January 19, 11am–2pm on Monday, January 21 and 5–8pm on Thursday, January 24 as part of AMP Capital's feedback process. While the situation plays out, you still have at least 12 months to visit the Macquarie Ice Rink, which is open to the public at various times throughout the week and all-day on Sunday, as well as for disco sessions on Friday nights. While Macquarie Ice Rink was originally slated for closure on January 31, 2020, we'll keep you updated with changes as the situation progresses.
Returning for its second year, Chippendale's Ethical Christmas Market will once again take over the laneway behind cafe Something for Jess on Sunday, December 1. It's run by the cafe's owners, Valentina Borin and Rob Campbell, who are all about local, sustainable and ethical gift-giving. The market will kick off at 10.30am and feature 17 stallholders ranging from art and fashion to music and food. For starters, expect local art from Chippendale's Galerie Pompom, limited edition prints from Michelle Perry and watercolour animal illustrations by Erlen Meyer. Then there's bespoke jewellery by Red Sky at Night, luxe towels by Addison Art + Design and skateboard swag by The Totem Collective. Ceramic stalls by Nina Field and the Blue Mountains' MLK Design are also on the docket. Meanwhile, Ary Plants has created a range of floating gardens for the plant lovers in your life. And homeopaths will enjoy healing crystal designs by Nimala and naturally dyed fabrics by Natural Dyes. Alongside the stalls, the cafe will be slinging its vegan cheese toasties and Network Connection Records will be on the decks throughout the day. The first 100 guests to arrive will receive a free Christmas hamper, too — full of all-vegan, locally sourced goodies, of course.
The Sydney opera scene is dynamic, with our world-famous Opera House considered the home of opera, but it's not the only place to catch an epic opera in the city. No, some of the most impressive and enchanting performances happen across the water at Mrs Macquaries Point. And it's there that next month you'll find Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, an outdoor waterfront performance with room for additional extravagance. For the company's next title, it's bringing back a classic show that dates back to the early 20th century, Madama Butterfly. The story is that of Cio-Cio-San, a Geisha living in Japan who falls for a visiting American named Pinkerton. The two have a whirlwind romance that flies to great heights — but crashes and burns as quickly as its takeoff. It's described as an intimate ode to unrequited love, where devotion is met with disregard and disappointment. All this plays out on a stunning waterfront set, where costume changes, musical numbers and other delights of stagecraft add a new level to an already impressive production. To elevate one of Australia's most memorable outdoor events into a memorable outdoor evening, you can make use of pop-up bars and eateries that will be dotted along the shoreline of Mrs Macquaries Point and the Fleet Steps. There you can find exclusive and themed menus, VIP dining and a drink selection worthy of the opera. Illuminated by the lights of the harbour, the stage and a final dazzling fireworks display, it will make for a spectacular experience. Madama Butterfly comes to Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour on Friday, March 24 and plays nightly, 7.30-10.30pm until Sunday, April 23. For more information and to book tickets, visit the website.
One of Sydney's premier collections of venues, The Maybe Group, has just been acquired by its longtime collaborator PUBLIC. The hospitality group that currently oversees the likes of The Strand Hotel, Oxford House, The Lady Hampshire and its recent Maybe Group team-up El Primo Sanchez, will now also take control of award-winning venues including Maybe Sammy, Sammy Junior and Dean & Nancy on 22 in partnership with the current Maybe Group team. You'll soon be able to sip cocktails from the Maybe team on The Strand Hotel's rooftop or in The Lady Hampshire's beer garden as part of the acquisition, with PUBLIC announcing it will be working to bring the bar group's world-class approach to martinis and margaritas to existing PUBLIC venues. You can also expect ambitious new spaces and projects that utilise the best of the two hospitality groups in the future. "The success of El Primo Sanchez and the feeling of family within PUBLIC meant there was no question when it came to joining Jon and the team," said Maybe Group Owner and Co-Director Vince Lombardo. "We're feeling more inspired than ever with the exciting new concepts underway and we're looking forward to welcoming new guests into the next generation of hospitality with PUBLIC and The Maybe Group." Before the acquisition was announced, the two accomplished crews had already been hard at work together, collaborating on the aforementioned El Primo Sanchez, as well as the currently-running Maybe Cocktail Festival that's brought bartenders from some of the world's best bars to Sydney for an eight-day cocktail extravaganza. PUBLIC is already planning to go bigger with the festival next year, teasing plans to bring it to Melbourne and Byron Bay. [caption id="attachment_888369" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Strand Rooftop[/caption] Head to the PUBLIC website for more details on the group's venues.
At the merging of physical space, storytelling and cultural identity, there's the formation of a songline, or a pathway of knowledge. This wide-reaching concept is a pillar in the way First Nations people share knowledge and maintain connection to the land and each other. In the Dreamtime narrative of the Seven Sisters, ancestral women forged these tracks across deep red deserts as they fled a relentless pursuer. Visitors to Museum of Sydney right now are invited to walk among an immersive interactive exhibition centred around this key component of Indigenous Australians' worldview at Walking Through a Songline. [caption id="attachment_854767" align="alignnone" width="1920"] James Horan for Sydney Living Museums[/caption] Running until Sunday, July 17, this creatively charged exhibition will allow you to explore these cultural foundations and stories via vivid beams of light and surreal sounds, while paintings swirl around you as knowledge is imparted and the stories of Australia's ancestors are shared in a fascinating new way. The exhibition is open daily and entry is free, so there's every excuse to take yourself on a cultural excursion. The event is on now, so grab tickets online to avoid missing the chance to immerse yourself in the deep beauty and cultural significance of songlines. Head to the website to plan your visit. And when you get there, use the hashtag #WalkingSongline to stay social. Top images: James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
Something delightful is happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are starting to reopen — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney and Brisbane (and, until the newly reinstated stay-at-home orders, Melbourne as well). During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made over the past three months, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIzchAe5H5A WAVES Waves begins with streaming sunlight, the scenic sights of South Florida, and a blissful young couple singing, smiling and driving. Their happiness is captured by fluid, enticing camerawork that circles around and around, and their exuberant attitude — the carefree feeling that comes with youthful first love — is mirrored by the use of Animal Collective's upbeat, energetic 'FloriDada' on the soundtrack. But this isn't a joyful movie. As the drama's name intimates, this contented moment is soon smothered by waves of tragedy and pain that ripple through the lives not only of high-school wrestling star Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr) and his girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie), but their loved ones, school and community. Following the breakdown of the pair's romance, Tyler's self-sabotaging struggles with injury and pressure, and the impact on those closest to them, Waves tells an immensely affecting tale of one African American family's ups and downs. While he already has the excellent Krisha and effective It Comes at Night to this name, writer/director Trey Edward Shults crafts his best work yet — a stunningly visceral, moving and profound drama that makes audiences feel every moment and plot development deeply. Also exceptional: Harrison's powerful performance, Taylor Russell as his younger sister Emily, Sterling K Brown as their domineering but well-intentioned dad and Hamilton's Renée Elise Goldsberry as their supportive stepmother, as well as the film's raw and resonant grappling with life, loss, love, and the chaos and emotion of being a Black teenager in America today. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYl1DVIgbAg SHIRLEY Unlike the rest of us, Elisabeth Moss is having a great year — on-screen, at least. While the star of The Handmaid's Tale, Mad Men and Top of the Lake has actually enjoyed a fantastic past decade, she has turned in two of her best performances yet in 2020. First came her lead role in The Invisible Man, which twisted the classic horror tale in firmly modern directions, including exploring gaslighting and society's lack of willingness to believe women. Now, in Shirley, she steps into the shoes of horror and mystery novelist Shirley Jackson. This is a movie by Madeline's Madeline director Josephine Decker, though, so it as never going to be a standard biopic about the The Haunting of Hill House author. Indeed, Shirley is drawn from a fictional novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, stepping inside Jackson's home life with her husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) during a 1964 period when teaching aide Fred Nemser (Logan Lerman) and his wife Rose (Australian The Daughter star Odessa Young) come to stay. An agoraphobic who prefers her own company to that of others, Jackson's routine is unsettled by her new houseguests, although an unexpected connection springs with seemingly unlikely kindred spirit Rose. In telling this story, Decker is far more interested in capturing the essence of her subject and Jackson's sensibilities than slavishly sticking to facts, and her film all the better for it. The result is a subjective and engaging character study that's daring, disarming, dark and, unsurprisingly, anchored by a pitch-perfect Moss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqXRg9D9SXg&feature=emb_logo A WHITE, WHITE DAY When grief plays a pivotal part in a film's narrative, one of two things typically happen. Far too often, it's used as an easy crutch, deployed to quickly explain a character's poor actions without diving particularly deep (see: this year's Ben Affleck vehicle The Way Back). When mourning is thoughtfully unpacked and interrogated, however, the difference is immediately noticeable. And, that's the case with excellent Icelandic thriller A White, White Day. Set in a remote town and often noticeably cloaked in a thick fog (symbolising its lead character's loss-afflicted head and heart, too), the film follows widower Ingimundur (Ingvar Sigurðsson), an off-duty police chief struggling with the death of his wife. While assisting with caring for his eight-year-old granddaughter Salka (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir) helps give his days purpose, after Ingimundur begins to suspect that his deceased spouse was unfaithful, he's rocked by more than bereavement-induced misery. Sigurðsson is phenomenal as a man overcome by his heartbreak and anger, and his scenes with young Hlynsdóttir are immensely tender and touching. What particularly stands out in this tense, haunting and all-round excellent movie, though, is director Hlynur Palmason's (Winter Brothers) striking visual storytelling — whether he's spending an hypnotic minute watching a rock tumble down a hill and off a cliff, staring at his central actor's expressive face, or splashing his frames with spellbinding bursts of colour amidst the rampant grey-hued frostiness. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas, check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 2 — and our full review of The Personal History of David Copperfield.
Beers or cocktails? There's no need to go without thanks to a new drinks and dining hub on the Lower North Shore. Centred around two impressive venues – Depot Brewery and Buckle Cafe & Distillery – both share a stunning glass-domed space. Perfect for making the most of summer, this sprawling operation has a massive beer garden to boot alongside family-friendly features, so no one has to miss out on the fun. Starting with Depot Brewery, this industrial-chic venue offers 250 seats for beer-drinking goodness with all your pals. With large-screen TVs spread throughout the space, it's a stellar choice for catching the big game. Plus, there's a vibrant beer garden where you can soak up the sunshine while downing a refreshing pint. Speaking of pints, Depot has 12 rotating taps of house-brewed craft beers, from bold IPAs to fruity pale ales. There's also a great food menu bursting with gastronomic pleasures. A selection of signature pizzas spans classic flavours like margherita, pepperoni and meat lovers, while mains hit the spot with fish & chips, a 250g rump steak and the Depot double cheeseburger. If you're keen to mix things up, there's also a quality line-up of Australian wines and punchy cocktails, including espresso martinis and negronis. Next door, Buckle Cafe & Distillery is a day-to-night cafe and restaurant. When the sun is shining, quality coffee is the main event. But as the evening kicks off, expect cocktails crafted with house-distilled gin and vodka. Spanning brunch, lunch and dinner, this place is just as good for avocado on toast as beer-battered barramundi or the Buckle wagyu cheeseburger. Pair with an Aperol spritz or a glass of pinot gris to make your get-together even better. If you're heading along with the kids, a dedicated play zone surrounded by lush plants makes it a little easier for adults to kick back. Buckle also has a pet-friendly outdoor area, so you can bring the pooch too. Find a cosy outdoor lounge beneath the festoon lights for your group, then relish the last moments of daylight with a refreshing drink in hand. Depot Brewery and Buckle Cafe & Distillery are open at 1 Frederick St, Artarmon. Head to their websites for more information.
In Netflix's ongoing quest to keep our eyeballs glued to the small screen, the platform pumps out new original shows with frequency. There are now so many to choose from, you could easily watch nothing else. But, still, there are some that stand out from the crowd. Combine filmmaker David Fincher (Seven, Gone Girl), true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and a whole heap of real-life serial killer cases, and you get the best show the streamer has ever made. For two seasons between 2017–2019, Mindhunter has drawn on its factual source material to dramatise the origins and operations of the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit — aka the folks who interview mass murderers to understand how they think, then use the learnings to help stop other killings. The show's main characters are fictional, such as agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), but the details they're delving into aren't. Also real: notorious figures such as Ed Kemper (played by Cameron Britton), David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper) and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman), to name a few. It's the kind of concept that easily could span on forever — with plenty of killers and cases to cover — and still prove fascinating and gripping in this meticulously made show. Sadly, hopes for a third season now look as paltry as Holden Ford's social etiquette, with Netflix releasing the cast from its contracts, Deadline reports. The fact that Mindhunter wasn't swiftly renewed after its second season dropped last August has always been a worrying sign, which is compounded by the current news. The series hasn't been cancelled. Still, its cast is free to move onto other projects — so if Mindhunter does come back somewhere down the line, its stars mightn't be available to return because they're now working on something else. The show does boast a premise that could lend itself to an anthology format, though, so returning with a new bunch of characters taking on new cases wouldn't be the end of the world. Netflix let the cast's options expire due to Fincher's current workload, because he's quite busy making other things for them at present. As well as producing a second season of Love, Death and Robots, he's directing a Netflix film called Mank. Due to hit the platform sometime later this year, the biopic will focus on the feud between screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz and innovative director Orson Welles over screenplay credit for a little movie called Citizen Kane, with Gary Oldman and The Souvenir's Tom Burke playing the two men. Already missing Mindhunter? Check out the trailer for its excellent second season below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHlJQCyqiaI Via Deadline.
Sometimes a needle drop just works, even when it simply states the obvious. One of those instances: playing a remix of Nas' 'Got Ur Self a Gun' throughout the latest trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4. The song famously samples Alabama 3's 'Woke Up This Morning', the tune forever famous as the opening theme to iconic HBO series The Sopranos, and fits John Wick as much as the original fit Tony Soprano. Just over a month out from the latest John Wick flick hitting cinemas, the third sneak peek at what's to come has been unveiled. Unsurprisingly, plenty of action-packed confrontations are in the works, as brought to the screen with plenty of frenetic stunt choreography. Just as expectedly, Keanu Reeves is still using every weapon at his disposal in his fourth stint as cinema's favourite dog-loving assassin. If you're thinking that Wick's luck might run out at some point, the new film understands. But this stunt-filled saga still has one last way to give its namesake his non-violent life back. As past trailers have explained, he can agree to a duel against the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård, Barbarian) — but of course only one can survive. With that premise, expect the ante to be upped on the saga's latest onslaught of fights, as the latest trailer goes all-in on. Anywhere that Wick can shoot, fight and dispense with everyone trying to take him down, he will and does. This flick involves hopping around the globe, in fact, including Paris, New York and Berlin — and also getting into sword fights in Japan, riding horses through a sandy desert, using cars as weapons and boasting one mighty handy canine. Accordingly, as all John Wick movies have so far — the first in 2014, John Wick: Chapter 2 in 2017 and John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum all included — this one follows the hitman that other hitmen fear as he takes on his ever-growing list of adversaries. Whatever gets thrown his way hasn't stopped Wick yet, after he got dragged back into the assassin life when a past batch of enemies messed with his pet pooch. Reeves' former stunt double-turned-filmmaker Chad Stahelski directs again, as he has on all three prior movies. On-screen, Reeves is also joined by a roster of familiar and new John Wick faces, with fellow franchise mainstays Ian McShane (American Gods) and Lance Reddick (Godzilla vs Kong) returning, and Reeves' The Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne — after appearing in the past two movies — as well. And, Donnie Yen (Mulan), Hiroyuki Sanada (Mortal Kombat), Shamier Anderson (Son of the South), Rina Sawayama (Turn Up Charlie) and Scott Adkins (Triple Threat) are all also set to feature. In similarly excellent news, a fifth John Wick movie is already in the works, because more ass-kicking Keanu is always a great thing. And, so are two spinoffs: The Continental and Ballerina. The first is a streaming series, clearly set around the hotel that features so prominently in the films as a safe haven for hitmen. As for the second, it's a movie that ties in with John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, and will star Ana de Armas (Blonde) — and also feature Reeves and McShane. Check out the latest trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4 below: John Wick: Chapter 4 releases Down Under on March 23.
Whenever the words "we made a terrible mistake" are uttered in a movie, nothing good can follow. When they're said early in the just-dropped new trailer for Jurassic World Dominion, they simply state the obvious — because having dinosaurs rampaging around the globe was always going to result in chaos. Yes, the franchise started back in 1993, with director Steven Spielberg adapting Michael Crichton's novel of the same name to box office glory, is returning for its sixth film — the third entry in its second trilogy, in fact. The initial mega-hit flick spawned sequels in 1997 and 2001, which then led to the Jurassic World saga — aka 2015's Jurassic World, 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and now 2022's Jurassic World Dominion — because humanity just won't stop messing with ancient predators. Where the initial Dominion trailer back in February went heavy on two things — stressing that the movie will wrap up the story for now, and also reuniting OG cast members Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill — this new sneak peek emphasises the enormous stakes. If you've always wanted to hear Goldblum chat about genetic power being unleashed and doomsday clocks running out of time, and also sounding as wryly bewildered as he can while asking Chris Pratt why he made a promise to a dinosaur, you're in luck: they're all accounted for. Also looming large over the new trailer: "the biggest carnivore the world has ever seen", as Neill's paleontologist Alan Grant explains, because Dominion is going big with its terrifying creatures. Or, as Goldblum's mathematician Dr Ian Malcolm would put it — although he doesn't in the clips so far — "life... finds a way". Directed by Colin Trevorrow, who also helmed the first Jurassic World film, Dominion jumps back into this dino-filled vision of earth four years after the last flick — which saw Isla Nublar destroyed. The franchise's pivotal critters now live alongside humans, which is obviously a tenuous, tense and terrifying situation. Understandably, co-existing with dinosaurs threatens life as everyone knows it, not to mention humanity's future. Chris Pratt (The Tomorrow War) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Rocketman) return for Dominion, after starring in the past two Jurassic World movies. Also featuring: DeWanda Wise (The Harder They Fall), Emmy nominee Mamoudou Athie (Archive 81), Dichen Lachman (Animal Kingdom), Scott Haze (Minari) and Campbell Scott (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), plus returning cast members BD Wong (another original Jurassic Park star, and part of all three Jurassic World films), Justice Smith (Pokemon: Detective Pikachu), Daniella Pineda (Cowboy Bebop) and Omar Sy (Lupin). Movie-goers will be able to see how this whole humans-and-dinosaurs mayhem all pans out in full when Dominion hits cinemas Down Under on June 9. It'll arrive in what's shaping up to be a big month or so for on-screen dinos, after the unrelated documentary series Prehistoric Planet — narrated by David Attenborough, brother to original Jurassic Park franchise star Richard Attenborough — hits streaming in late May. Check out the trailer for Jurassic World Dominion below: Jurassic World Dominion releases in cinemas Down Under on June 9, 2022.
If you're a wannabe wizard or witch looking for more Harry Potter magic in your life, there's no shortage of ways to accio up some enchanting fun. Harry Potter-themed potions bars have been popping up across Australia and New Zealand for a few years. Pokemon Go-style game Wizards Unite is available to play whenever you like. In London, the Fantastic Beasts films have even inspired a natural history exhibition. And Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is still casting its spell on Melbourne, a city that's also home to Australia's biggest Harry Potter store — and screenings, parties, escape rooms, scavenger hunts and other HP-centric events are extremely common everywhere, really. Soon, all of above might pale in comparison to the kind of space HP fans can really lose themselves in — and one that, hopefully, visitors would need a Marauder's Map to get around. That'd be a dedicated Harry Potter theme park, which could be coming to Tokyo soon, The Japan Times reports. It seems that the owners of the Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo's Nerima ward are thinking about closing down, ending its 94-year run. And, at the same time, it seems that Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc is contemplating taking over the venue — waving a few magic wands about and turning it into a Harry Potter-theme park. [caption id="attachment_761496" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Toshimaen. Image: Rsa via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Few other details have been revealed as yet but, if it does happen, it's unlikely to open until at least 2023. Variety notes that it'll probably feature sets that patrons can tour, rather than rides — so if you were hoping to play quidditch, travel by portkey or ride the floo network, that doesn't seem to be on the agenda. Generally, it appears that the Tokyo park will be modelled after the existing Harry Potter attraction in London, which also spans costumes, props, exhibitions and special events. For Valentine's Day, it's hosting romantic feasts in the Great Hall, for example, while 'A Celebration of Slytherin' will also deck the place in shades of green and silver later this year. Japan is already home to a Harry Potter theme park zone at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka — so diehard devotees just might have to visit two of the country's cities. If it does come to fruition, add the dedicated Harry Potter theme park to Japan's hefty range of pop culture-themed attractions. A Super Nintendo amusement park zone is due to open at the aforementioned Universal Studios Japan in Osaka by mid-2020, a forthcoming Godzilla attraction will let you zipline into the monster's mouth, and a Studio Ghibli theme park is in the works — and Tokyo already boasts huge Godzilla and Gundam statues, as well as the Studio Ghibli Museum just outside the city. Via The Japan Times / Variety. Top images: Warner Bros Studio Tour London.
The meat pie is often described as humble, but I think it’s about time we gave it the respect it deserved. Any meal that’s bold enough to rely solely on the pairing of meat and carbs is a dish we should be honouring through meat-themed parades in the street at the very least. Over the decades, crafting the perfect pie has become an art form. The meats are slow cooked for hours, the gravy is complex, and the pastry is impossibly buttery but still manages to retain its structural integrity. As it’s a well documented fact that the mighty meat pie should form a large part of any balanced diet, we've created the failsafe list of go-to places to get your affordable pie fix. PIE TIN Tucked away under a tree on Brown Street in Newtown, the Pie Tin is located in a heritage building, the interior is flanked with glass cabinets brimming with pastry delights and a communal dining table where friends and strangers alike can bond over their mutual love of pies. It’s worth mentioning that their sweet pies are off the chain and most slices are adorned with whipped cream and are as big as your forearm. As for the savoury pies, there are a plethora of options to satiate both carnivores and vegetarians alike. They serve their pies on old timey silver tin plates which make you feel like a extra in a film about the gold rush. If by any chance you have enough stomach space to opt for one of the sides, the sweet potato fries are the bee's knees. 1a Brown Street, Newtown INFINITY BAKERY Each of the pies on offer at Infinity Bakery are tenderly crafted with hand-layered puff pastry and meats that have been cooking for hours, which is definitely the recipe for success. A pie isn’t worth eating unless its contents have been bubbling away on a stovetop for at least six hours. We recommend grabbing a few pies to go and sitting on the wall overlooking Manly Beach with your legs slightly apart so any rogue pie bits land in the hair of unsuspecting sunbathers. Shop 3, 15a Market Lane, Manly HARRY'S CAFE DE WHEELS You can’t write a list about the best pies in Sydney without giving a mention to Harry’s Cafe de Wheels. Believe me, I’ve tried. But Mr. de Wheels is a particularly persuasive man, and his Tiger Pies are even more so. The crisp pastry and peppery filling, topped with a precarious tower of creamy mash and mushy peas is a tourist attraction in its own right. The pool of the gravy on top can come dangerously close to breaking its little mash moat and running down unsuspecting forearms. Harry’s is an old favourite that stays open until 4am on weekends — a feature that should be rolled out across all pie depositories worth their weight in pastry. Various locations BLACK STAR PASTRY The lamb shank and red wine pie at Black Star pie is hands-down turn-around touch-the-ground the best pie Sydney has to offer. The pastry somehow manages to defy physics and stays crispy and intact despite the fact that there are no less than nine teaspoons of butter in each delicious bite. The red wine gravy is rich and robust, and the lamb is so impossibly tender it’s bordering on liquid. Black Star in Newtown is cosy and only seats a handful of lucky patrons, and due to the legendary nature of the pies, it’s frequently packed out, so we recommend getting a few pies to take away, picking up some copper ales such as James Squire's The Constable and heading down Australia Street to Camperdown Memorial Park to spend an afternoon watching dogs play in the sun. 277 Australia Street, Newtown BOURKE STREET BAKERY There’s a reason why there’s a line around the block every minute of every day to purchase the foods at Bourke Street Bakery, and that’s because the pastries really are next level. There’s three different variations on the classic beef number, and then the particularly adventurous chicken pie with sweet potato, pea and lime pickle. We recommend going with a group of friends so you can sample all four, or failing that, coming armed with a particularly empty stomach. Various locations
Break out the sugar honeycombs, grab your bag of marbles, and get ready for a few more games of hopscotch and tug of war. Squid Game is coming back, as Netflix confirmed at the beginning of 2022 — and now the second season has its first teaser trailer. Well, it has an extremely short animated clip of the series' killer Red Light, Green Light doll, with the teaser short on details but big on mood. That said, the new video came with a statement by Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, who started chatting about season two in 2021, and confirms a few details. Hwang Dong-Hyuk writer, director, producer, and creator of @squidgame has a message for the fans: pic.twitter.com/DxF0AS5tMM — Netflix (@netflix) June 12, 2022 "It took 12 years to bring the first season of Squid Game to life last year. But it took 12 days for Squid Game to become the most popular Netflix series ever," Hwang shared. "And now, Gi-hun returns. The Front Man returns. Season 2 is coming," he continued. "The man in the suit with ddakji might be back. You'll also be introduced to Young-hee's boyfriend, Cheol-su. Join us once more for a whole new round." So, get ready to spend more time with more Lee Jung-jae (Deliver Us From Evil) as the show's protagonist. And, to learn more about its masked villain (Lee Byung-hun, The Magnificent Seven) as well. How the narrative will play out in season two hasn't yet been revealed, and neither has exactly when it will return. But if you want to live life like you're actually in Squid Game — with the puzzles, not the murders — you can start trying to piece together its clues now. The series was always bound to return for another round. Compulsively watchable from its opening moments, the South Korean show was one of the best new TV programs of 2021, and proved enormously popular for Netflix — becoming its most-watched show ever, in fact. And yes, Hwang also advised last year that lead actor Lee would be coming back, but now that detail is locked in. If you somehow missed all things Squid Game last year, even after it became bigger than everything from Stranger Things to Bridgerton, the Golden Globe-winning series serves up a puzzle-like storyline and unflinching savagery, which unsurprisingly makes quite the combination. It also steps into societal divides within South Korea, a topic that wasn't invented by Parasite, Bong Joon-ho's excellent Oscar-winning 2019 thriller, but has been given a boost after that stellar flick's success. Accordingly, it's easy to see thematic and narrative parallels between Parasite and Squid Game, although Netflix's highly addictive series goes with a Battle Royale and Hunger Games-style setup. Here, 456 competitors are selected to work their way through six seemingly easy children's games. They're all given numbers and green tracksuits, they're competing for 45.6 billion won, and it turns out that they've also all made their way to the contest after being singled out for having enormous debts. Squid Game's first season is available to stream via Netflix. We'll update you with a release date for season two when one is announced. Images: Noh Juhan/Netflix.
Felt butter. Felt SPAM. Felt condoms. Snuggle up to your groceries in this new, adorable installation from London artist Lisa Sparrow. Taking over a Bethnal Green cornerstore, Sparrow has stitched, stuffed and hand-priced hundreds of Coke cans, milk bottles and Men's Health magazines to stock the shelves with her latest artwork. Partly crowdfunded by Kickstarter, the Cornershop project took eight months to put together, realising the contents of an entire Bethnal Green shop in felt (with a tiny bit of lycra and plastic detailing). Crafting canned goods, confectionery, alcohol, toiletries, frozen food, cigarettes, ice cream, chewing gum, newspapers and magazines, Sparrow posted up the full inventory on her blog. While by no means an entirely never-done-before idea, it's pretty damn cute. The store will stick around for the month of August at 19 Wellington Row, then move to Brighton in October. Channeling artists like Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and Michael Landy with their embracing of the humble store, Sparrow's obvious penchant for nostalgia shines through felt Extra gum packets and felt Fanta. "[The corner shop] is something that's disappearing with the growth of supermarkets, and the loss of the corner shop has adversely impacted our high streets and communities," said Sparrow. "I hoped that this project would remind people just how much the corner shop cemented life in local communities." But the Cornershop Project isn't merely a vessel for shining a light on consumerism; Sparrow's work often makes a big statement on art audiences (and their undeniable hierarchy). "The Cornershop is a tactile project and I felt it was important to create some art for communities that normally find themselves excluded from mainstream art," Sparrow told Dezeen. Opening doors to all art enthusiasts, the Cornershop Project includes sewing workshops for children and people with neurological disabilities. "I chose felt because it's a naive, almost childlike material that everyone comes into contact with at a young age when first they start to sew," Sparrow explains. "It's a very forgiving fabric that's approachable and is available in a huge range of colours. It was just the right material to give the pieces saturation, stroke-ability and a uniform appearance." Sparrow introduces the often underapplauded realms of craft to the more recognised world of contemporary art. Mainly working with felt and wool to tackle the politics of consumerism, Sparrow has crafted food many times before — a movement she's called 'feltism' and 'craftivism' — crafting everything from felt cigarettes to oversized giant felt burgers. Alongside reams of huge group shows — over 35 including the annual 'Modern Panic' exhibition in London and Nottingham's City Art Institute of Mental Health Exhibition —the London artist was notably shown alongside Banksy in the Victoria and Albert Museum's touring street art exhibition 'Urban Take-Over' in 2013. So whip out that cuddly credit card, let's go shopping. The Felt Cornershop will be open until 31 August in Bethnal Green, London before moving to Brighton in October. Via Dezeen.
You'll have a new perch to soak up Sydney's summer weather, as the Watsons Bay Hotel has just revealed its fully renovated top and middle decks. With work commencing back in April, this significant update breathes new life into the 190-year-old venue, with a cool $3 million going towards shaping these much-loved decks into contemporary spaces that not only elevate events but also make the most of the harbourfront views. Embarking on a new vision, the primary goal behind the transformation was to create a seamless connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Punters who know and love the Watsons Bay Hotel will now discover wrap-around bifold windows, making the most of the fresh air and scenery. At the same time, a newly added dry bar is lined with high stools, meaning just about every guest can find a place to admire the world-class skyline in the distance. "The Top Deck has always been a special part of our venue — it's where locals and visitors have gathered for years to enjoy those incredible harbour views," says Laundy Hotels owner, Danielle Richardson. "With this renovation, we've enhanced what was already great about the space while solving practical challenges that allow us to better serve our community and guests who have made this venue a Sydney institution." Now with a capacity of 150 seated guests, the top deck has been reshaped with weddings and special events in mind, adding a dedicated internal entrance and direct bathroom access. Meanwhile, the middle deck's revamp has gone further, with a full-scale rethink bringing about new decking, banquette seating and reimagined furnishings that Emilie Delalande, Director of Etic Design, says will foster a space "where people feel they can stay for hours." Beyond both decks, the Sunset Room & Bar has also received a significant refresh, with a redesigned bar, flooring and bathrooms evoking the look and feel of a Hamptons estate. Think beachside charm but with better flow and functionality for year-round use. Combining with a colour palette brimming with coastal blues and deep harbour tones, oversized sculptural lighting elevates the evening atmosphere with creative touches that rise above tired nautical themes. Dining also has received an uplift, with Head Chef Damian Heads introducing a fresh summer menu. Inspired by Sydney coastal cuisine, expect top-quality seafood and plenty of pub classics. The venue is also levelling up its day party offering, as the Watsons Bay Hotel introduces Club Amalfi. Looking to the Med for inspiration, a bustling beach club will take over the top deck once a month, featuring share plates and premium wine magnums made for sun-drenched Sundays. Watsons Bay Hotel's top deck and mid deck have reopened. Head to the website for more information.
Over the past decade or so, Orange has become recognised as one of Australia's finest culinary regions. And, for one special weekend next month, Orange Winter Fire Festival will have the town bursting with great food, drink and cultural events, all with a wintry flavour. The festival will capitalise on the town's winemaking status as some of the best local drops are showcased at events inspired by classic Australiana images, such as crackling bonfires and chargrilled feasts. Held across the weekend of August 3–5, the festival kicks off on Friday with the nearby village of Millthorpe being transformed into a winter wonderland as country-folk duo Smith and Jones light up the stage and Pym Street bustles with food and wine market stalls. Meanwhile, back in Orange, Ross Hill Wines will host acclaimed chef Michael Manners, who'll serve up a casual meal of soup and paella by an outdoor fireplace. The fire theme continues on Saturday. The standout event sees Small Acres Cyder, See Saw wines and Canobolas Dance Hall join forces for a raucous night of 'wassailing' by the bonfire in preparation for spring. For the uninitiated, wassailing is an ancient act of chanting to trees, thus ensuring their prosperity. Nobody likes underwhelming wine, so be sure to belt out all good notes over your two-course feast. With poetry sessions, 'astronomical journeys' and Sunday roasts plus so much more taking place over the festival, a road trip to the Orange Winter Fire Festival would make for a pretty perfect winter weekend. Orange Winter Fire Festival 2018 will take place from Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5. Head to the festival website for event and ticket info.
Only an egg-suckin’, yellow-belly coward would miss a Back to the Future charity event featuring two-thirds of the timeless time-travelling trilogy and the DeLorean that made it all possible. It's the movie series that launched Michael J Fox into stardom and made science seem cool. It gave us hoverboards, flux-capacitors and even scary Libyans (though how could Spielberg have known that back in '85 unless he somehow travelled forward in … oh my god!!). Most important of all, it showed us that the greatest danger of irresponsible time travel was the possibility of hooking up with your own mother. Now fans of the movies will have a rare chance to be photographed in and alongside the iconic DeLorean as part of a special charity event in support of people living with Parkinson's disease. The mini movie-marathon will feature a screening of the digitally re-mastered Parts II and III, as well as offering ticket holders some delicious Back to the Future-themed cocktails (surely to be nicknamed the 'Great Scott', 'Lighting Strike' and ‘1.21 Gigawatts’), an exclusive photo-op with the original DeLorean and even a karaoke sing off to the strains of Huey Lewis' ‘The Power of Love’. There'll also be prizes for the best Back to the Future-themed costumes and a huge collection of memorabilia on show, including many props and costumes used in the actual films. It's the perfect opportunity to bust out your best “Mag Dog” Tannen, Doc Brown or Marty McFly outfits and show your support for the 80,000 or so people living with Parkinson’s disease in Australia. The Future is Back event will commence 6pm this Sunday (April 3) at the Event Cinemas on George Street, with tickets now available here or at the Event Cinemas George Street box office.
Buy this for a dollar: a history-making gay rom-com that's smart, sweet, self-aware and funny, and also deep knows the genre it slips into, including the heteronormative tropes and cliches that viewers have seen ad nauseam. Actually, Billy Eichner would clearly prefer that audiences purchase tickets for Bros for more that that sum of money, even if he spent five seasons offering it to New Yorkers in Billy on the Street while sprinting along the sidewalk and yelling about pop culture. Thinking about that comedy series comes with the territory here, however, and not just because Eichner brought it back to promote this very movie. Starring and co-written by the Parks and Recreation and The Lion King actor — with Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Bad Neighbours franchise's Nicholas Stoller directing and co-scripting — Bros both presents and unpacks the public persona that helped make Billy on the Street such a hit: opinionated, forceful and wry, as well as acidic and cranky. No one person, be it the version of himself that Eichner plays in the series that helped push him to fame or the fictional character he brings to the screen in Bros — or, in-between, his struggling comedian and actor part in three-season sitcom Difficult People, too — is just those five traits, of course. One of Bros' strengths is how it examines why it's easy to lean into that personality, where the sheen of caustic irritability comes from, the neuroses it's covering up and what all that means when it comes to relationships. The movie does so knowingly as well. It's well aware that Eichner's fans are familiar with his on-screen type, and that even newcomers likely are also. Accordingly, when Bros begins, Eichner's in-film alter ego is shouting about pop culture and being adamant, grumpy and cutting about it. In fact, he's on a podcast, where he's relaying his failed attempt to pen a script for exactly the kind of flick he's in. A mainstream, studio-produced gay romantic comedy that starts out riffing on the difficulties of making a mainstream, studio-produced gay romantic comedy? Yes, that's Bros. ("Am I going to be in the middle of some high-speed chase and all of a sudden fall in love with Ice Cube?", Eichner asks as the feature's protagonist Bobby Lieber.) A film about a gay man known for a biting and droll disposition, starring a gay man similarly known for that type of biting and droll disposition? Yes, that's Bros as well. It's also a movie that makes fun of Hallmark rom-com schmaltz while featuring one of the US network's go-tos — that'd be Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen, A Shoe Addict's Christmas, Christmas in My Heart and The Mistletoe Promise's Luke Macfarlane — and a flick blasting Schitt's Creek some scorn while charting a comparable queer storyline. So, it's a feature that wears its obviousness and its contradictions in tandem, purposefully and proudly. Eichner's Bobby is 40, just received an LGBTQIA+-community Best Cis Male Gay Man award and has a dream gig setting up America's first national queer history museum. Rom-com logic, which Bros heartily subscribes to, means he has to discover his seeming opposite in a memorable way: a gay dance party where he complains to shirtless probate lawyer Aaron Shepard (Macfarlane) and finds sparks flying. How Stoller and Eichner handle this scene says plenty about the film, and the authentic view of gay romance, dating and sex it's committed to. Neither man — Grindr-swiping, emotionally unavailable, hardly content as they both are — is anything but himself. For Bobby, that means awkwardly flirting, getting furious when Aaron disappears mid-conversation, tracking him down and telling him about it, but also being non-committal and even angry for being attracted to him. For Aaron, it involves continuing to breeze around the party like nothing out of the ordinary has happened; "I'm supposed to fuck him and his husband later," he tells Bobby about two other buff, sweaty guys on the dancefloor as they're chatting. Even when the genre isn't giving the world the first romantic comedy about two gay men to be released by a major Hollywood studio — the first romantic comedy both written by and starring an openly gay man as well, and also one with an entirely LGBTQ+ main cast — rom-coms adore Bros' basic scenario. In the broad strokes, there's plenty that's universal in the overarching storyline about opposites attracting, the chaos that springs, and the risks and vulnerabilities it takes to love someone. Still, even when it's nodding to Meg Ryan's filmography and also managing to be a Christmas flick as well — and when it's brightly shot and bouncily paced, which is always — this is never a movie where its leads just happen to be gay. A straight couple couldn't just be subbed in with zero changes, and the chief aim is never to show that the same stock-standard struggles plague everyone in matters of the heart regardless of sexuality. Instead, Bros is brimming with detail specific to being a gay man today. That's true in the throuples, group sex and "must see pic of ass" dating-app requests that spark a hunt for ring lights and razors, and in the commentary about tragedy-heavy mainstream queer movies that typically catapult heterosexual actors to Hollywood awards. And, it echoes in the short but hilarious gag about a fictional new app called Zellweger, "for gays who want to talk about actresses and go to bed". Bros spans further, however, examining how Bobby has internalised a lifetime of homophobia directed his way, how that's shaped the persona he projects to the world, its influence over his romantic outlook and his underlying self-criticism. When the film also ponders why he's so conflicted about Aaron, and so acerbic and cynical towards parts of queer culture and its stereotypes, it digs into the same ideas — with a joke always mere seconds away, but with both thoughtfulness and heart. Bros remains unashamedly frothy, although never syrupy or saccharine. It's predictable, even if you've somehow only ever seen one rom-com before now. It runs on charm, care, warmth and insight, though — and more than enough eagerness to make the most of making history. There's just as much willingness, too, to add weight and heft to the picture's gay take on rom-com conventions, all amid Debra Messing appearances, Cher gags, Fire Island's Bowen Yang having all the fun as a rich investor, and the savvy bickering between Bobby's museum colleagues about the infinite shades of the rainbow gleaming in the LGBTQIA+ community. Crucially, there's an engaging and heartfelt boy-meets-boy story at the core of it all, as brought to the screen with two well-matched and affecting performances, in a movie that's determined to be equally honest, pioneering and entertaining.
Equal parts Campari, gin and vermouth, the simple-yet-outstanding tipple is the reigning champ of cocktails. And that's not hyperbole — it currently holding the title of the best-selling cocktail worldwide. In 2022, Negroni Week — the seven days of festivities in honour of the delicious red sip presented by Campari and Imbibe — is holding up a glass to ten big, aperitivo-loving years. Over the past decade, some of the best bars and restaurants across the planet have put negronis front and centre for one week and given back to charity at the same time. And from Monday, September 12 till Sunday, September 18, a swishy roll call of Sydney venues will be doing just that. (Plus, as a celebratory bonus, Campari is giving you the chance to sip your way to Italy.) Concrete Playground is home to more than a few negroni lovers, meaning the only difficult part of this where-to-go list was deciding on a top spot. But before we share our picks, a few notable mentions. If you head to Aalia, the 25 Martin Place fine diner, don't go past the Ancient Negroni. It adds arak and bitter cacao to a classic negroni, then levels it up further with a run through a cold-drip coffee filter. In Double Bay, Matteo is serving an Arancia Negroni with notes of smoky citrus, while CBD spot Door Knock has added rhubarb to the mix with its Rhude Boi, which delivers a tart edge to the sweet 'n' slick classic. Now, without further ado, here are the spots CP's editors are heading to get their fix this Negroni Week. [caption id="attachment_787138" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nikki To[/caption] LILYMU: STRAWBERRY AND YUZU NEGRONI I really like negronis. So, Negroni Week is basically Christmas for me. This year, I'll be gathering my nearest and dearest and heading to Lilymu in Parramatta to sample its celebratory version of the beautifully bitter and citrusy bev. Combining Campari (of course) and strawberry-infused yuzu gin with yuzu sake and americano vermouth, this cocktail has everything I look for in a twisted classic — a bold step away from the original (via the strawberry and yuzu flavours) while maintaining the structural integrity of the drink's origins. Plus, with spring on the horizon, this drink is giving the flirty tits-out-at-the-beach energy that I am longing for after a cold, wet winter in Sydney. Perfect. Courtney Ammenhauser, Branded Content Manager IN SITU: NEGRONI SOUR There are few options that pair as harmoniously as a big bowl of cheesy pasta and a well-balanced negroni. Negroni Week is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of all the creative riffs on the classic all around Sydney, like In Situ's tart and refreshing Negroni Sour. A cross between a whisky sour and the week's namesake cocktail, the classic negroni is given a slick, modern makeover with blood orange and a tall glass. Ellen Seah, National News and Features Editor TITUS JONES: LOVE NOTE TO MANDY One of life's true delights is finding a nook in a bustling cocktail bar and catching up with friends over a negroni. This Negroni Week, cocktail connoisseurs of the Inner West should head to Marrickville favourite Titus Jones, where they can nab a table and pair their cocktail of choice with Titus's beloved tacos. The friendly neighbourhood cocktail bar has whipped up two bitter red creations to celebrate. The first, Love Note to Mandy, plays it elegantly safe, adding the citrus notes of a mandarin-infused gin to Campari and Cinzano Rosso. Meanwhile the more extravagant Nero Negroni mixes things up with dashes of Lillet Blanc, Quiquiriqui Mezcal and blackened sesame oil. Ben Hansen, Junior Editor HICKSON HOUSE DISTILLERY: CONQUISTADOR I don't care what anyone says, a negroni isn't just a perfect drink to have before dinner — it's a damn fine way to end an evening, too. That's why I'll be heading to Hickson House Distillery for this year's edition of Negroni Week. The premium venue — under the shade of the Harbour Bridge — is offering three varieties of the classic cocktail, including one that sounds like a dreamy liquid dessert. The Conquistador combines equal parts Campari and the excellent Hickson Rd. Australian Dry Gin — which is made onsite — with a nip of Mr Black coffee liqueur and two dashes of chocolate bitters. This tipple, which is served in a Nick & Nora glass with a cheek of fresh orange, also features Pedro Ximenez for a sweet, slightly umami kick, making for a perfect nightcap. Nik Addams, Branded Content Manager DONNY'S BAR: WHITE RHUBARB NEGRONI Just a short stroll from the glistening waters of Manly Beach sits Donny's Bar, a dark and moody escape from the tropical-holiday vibe of the rest of the Northern Beaches 'burb. This Negroni Week, you'd be well placed to pick a seat — in the loft is my rec — and ask for a White Rhubarb Negroni. Acidic notes of the berry-hued fruity vegetable are delivered in the shot of gin and sealed off with Suze, Lillet and a spritz of orange bitters. The creative cocktail isn't as bitter as the original, but you're still in for a strong kick. Catch the ferry in and really make the most of the oceanic surrounds. Grace MacKenzie, Branded Content Producer Campari's Negroni Week takes over Sydney from Monday, September 12 till Sunday, September 18. Head to the website to find the full list of participating venues. Top image: Tim Levy
The bustling interior of Love Supreme brings together a comfortable rustic feel with a dash of modern industrialism, giving it a laidback, effortless appeal to long-time customers — and fresh faces. Famous for using largely organic ingredients to create some slightly left-of-centre pizzas, this is a great spot for a casual date night or a dinner with friends. Grab a serve of stuffed zucchini flowers to start, then perhaps a pumpkin vegan pizza with leek and olive tapenade. If you aren't actually keen on a slice (or several), there's a great selection of salads and pastas including a particularly tasty pappardelle with lamb ragu. Love Supreme also boasts an impressive wine list, and also serves locally brewed beers from Batch, Yulli's and (for the more adventurous) Wildflower. Images: Kitti Smallbone
Everyone has a childhood memory about discovering chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. A staple at several ice cream chains, the flavour is as simple as it sounds. Take some ice cream, add chocolate chip cookie dough, then mix it all together — with dessert fiends then able to lick their way through a creamy but also chunky mashup of two sweet treat favourites. Ben & Jerry's is one of the brands that has been dishing up the frosty treat for years, introducing it in 1984. In 2021, however, it has just launched a range of cookie dough chunks that don't come with ice cream. Available for a limited time only, you can snack them from the packet rather than enjoy them in a cone or cup. Two types are on offer, in 180-gram and 227-gram pouches. If you're all about choc chips, you can grab a whole packet of doughy chunks filled with them. If you're keen to mix it up, you can opt for both chocolate chip cookie dough and fudge brownie pieces in the same packet — so a version of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked flavour, sans ice cream. The separate packs of cookie dough chunks are only available until sold out, with the range on offer in select Ben & Jerry's Scoop Stores now — in Manly, Bondi and Chatswood in Sydney; Flinders Lane, Burwood Brickworks and St Kilda in Melbourne; Mooloolaba, Noosa, Surfer's Paradise and Pacific Fair in Queensland; and Hillarys, Joondalup, Fremantle and Northbridge in Western Australia. Ben & Jerry's cookie dough chunks are available at select Ben & Jerry's stores in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia for a limited time — in 180-gram and 227-gram packs.
On the outskirts of Paris, an epic electronic legend is working harder, better, faster and allegedly on a solo album. One half of Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo, has been reported by French magazine Tsugi as working on his own solo release — and apparently Charlotte Gainsbourg's on board. Dates are in the dark at present, with the album actually yet to be announced. Tsugi have reported the presence of guests on the album, taking the liberty to confirm the appearance of fellow French legend Charlotte Gainsbourg. Yep. Formidable. The absence of Daft Punk co-captain Thomas Bangalter is a pretty Big Deal, but the pair have their own solo ventures from time to time — Guy-Man produced Kavinsky and Sébastien Tellier's albums and Waves compilations out on his own Crydamoure label. The first new material since last year's Grammy-blitzing album Random Access Memories, the album whisperings come with crossed fingers of an Australian return. We're all too aware this is absolute blue sky, but we'll keep shining up our helmets anywho. Via Tsugi and Your EDM.
Vampt is the stuff your daydreams of vintage Scandinavian sideboards are made of. These stylish folks describe themselves as "the Sydney specialists in highly collectable and unique pieces of vintage and mid-century modern design." Sourcing their furniture, lighting, wall art and homewares from Denmark, wider Europe and Australia, Vampt believe quality, classic pieces should last you a lifetime. All their pieces are one offs – think 'futuristic' '60s chairs, vintage Danish pendant lights and art deco drink cabinets that'll have you seriously planning extravagant future Gatsby-esque parties in the architectural wonder of a mansion you've just decided you're going to need.
If you're a fan of a stiff drink, finding a bar, pub or other boozy establishment generally isn't difficult. Locating a bottle shop selling your beverage of choice usually isn't, either. But if you're giving your liver a rest for a month or longer, you're often the designated driver, or you're staying away from the hard stuff for health, cultural or any other reason, filling your fridge, cupboard and bar cart with decent non-alcoholic alternatives isn't always as easy as it should be. Enter Killjoy Drinks, the new curated online store that specialises in booze-free beverages that you can knock back while your pals are hitting the sauce. It's set to launch on Tuesday, December 1 — and to showcase the best in non-alcoholic drinks from around the world. No, opting away from booze doesn't just mean consuming copious amounts of soft drink. Indeed, showing that there's much, much more to sipping alcohol-free tipples than being stuck with juice, lemonade or water is one of Killjoy Drinks' aims — hence its curated approach. The brainchild of Brisbanite Kat Brophy, who decided to launch the online store after her own experiences trying to find tasty booze-less bevvies, it'll be selling standout local and international drops across three categories: drinks for the wine glass, drinks for the bar cart and drinks to hold in your hand. Think non-alcoholic Melbourne gin, alcohol-free rum from Sweden and zero-proof wine from London, plus non-boozy cocktail premixes from the UK and ready-to-drink G&Ts sans alcohol from our own shores. Heroing indie makers and distilleries, Killjoy Drinks' range will all be available to purchase via its site — and it'll then be delivered to your door anywhere in Australia. You'll be able to nab packs, too, in case you don't quite know where to start. Some will focus on recreating the cocktail experience ($60–80), and others on making you feel like you're sipping wine ($85–170) — or you can opt for a pack with a bit of everything ($160). Explaining her motivation for starting the online store, Brophy explains that "so many of us have enjoyed a glass of wine on a wintry evening. And if you want to spend your Saturday doing Jaegerbombs, go for it. But our philosophy is that you shouldn't have to feel bad for not drinking alcohol. And you shouldn't have to sacrifice your tastebuds either". Killjoy Drinks launches on Tuesday, December 1 — head to the online store's website for further details. Images: photo credit Annika Kafcaloudis / styling credit Nat Turnbull.
Earlier this year, Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks revealed the names of the five young Australian choreographers whose works will feature in the acclaimed New Breed initiative at the end of this month. This year's program features four performances created by Melanie Lane from Melbourne and Berlin, Tyrone Robinson from Perth, Petros Treklis from Melbourne and co-creators Cass Mortimer-Eipper of Melbourne and Nelson Earl of Sydney. The work created by both Mortimer-Epper and Earl will be New Breed's very first co-created performance. New Breed is an incredible initiative by Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks, in conjunction with arts-focused, philanthropic organisation Balnaves Foundation. In its fourth year, the initiative recognises five up-and-coming choreographers from across Australia, commissioning them to create new works with members of SDC and giving them the support and opportunity to showcase their fresh, unique styles. This year's participants have been working on their four pieces since August, in preparation for the New Breed performance at Carriageworks from Thursday, November 30 to Saturday, December 9. In addition to fostering a new generation of choreographers, New Breed provides a testing ground for unorthodox styles, with previous choreographers going on to win awards including the prestigious Tanja Liedtke Fellowship and the Helpmann Award. Image: Pedro Greig. By Quinn Connors and Jonathan Ford.
The Grounds of Alexandria-inspired Flower Child Café has been open in Chatswood, inside Westfield, for just over a year and the team has already expanded to a second location at Westfield Warringah. Co-founders Chris Lu (Bondi Hardware, Happy as Larry Pizza Truck) and Adam Choker (ex-manager at The Grounds of Alexandria) are taking their same philosophy and holistic approach to the northern beaches, this time with a venue that doesn't just seem outdoors, but actually is. While Flower Child Chatswood acts as a indoor garden that naturalises an otherwise typical shopping mall, Flower Child Warringah is actually located outdoors. The large windows allow for a flood of sunlight into the restaurant, which sits in the open mall's ground floor courtyard. The space has again been designed by ACME & Co (The Grounds, Archie Rose, Fred's, Charlie Parker's) and features an open plan kitchen, whitewash timber, custom tiles, and a colourful, floral-textured interior, all of which are meant to give the venue a "beachy and tropical" feel that acts as a nod to their northern beaches location. The freestanding circular structure is surrounded by a sprawling water feature that encompasses the venue and is accompanied by planter boxes which will be used to grow a variety of tropical plant species. Like the Chatswood venue, the all-day menu will focus on breakfast, brunch and lunch, including favourite dishes from the original location —like ex-Merivale chef Nik Jovicki's French toast with banana mascarpone, dark chocolate crumb, fresh berries and salted toffee — as well as new dishes like a pumpkin gypsy toast and Japanese pancakes that will be exclusive to Warringah. Flower Child Warringah will also feature more extensive takeaway options and they'll be introducing a venue-specific dinner menu in the coming weeks. As with the first location, The Grounds Roasters will provide single origin and seasonal blend coffees and The Grounds Bakery will deliver fresh bread, cakes and pastries each morning.
Can you think of a better Sunday than being surrounded by some adorable greyhounds, enjoying a couple of top-notch craft beers and raising money for a good cause? Yulli's Brews is bringing together oh-so-many of our favourite things on Sunday, July 16 for the Greyt Masters Art and Ales auction. A bunch of super adorable greyhounds from Greyhound Rescue have all put their creative hats on and painted some colourful artworks that are being auctioned off to raise money and some much-needed funds for the organisation which rescues, helps rehabilitate and re-home greyhounds from the racing industry. "Greyhounds are invited to participate in creating artworks as a form of enrichment. Enrichment activities are excellent to help rescued hounds develop confidence and decision-making skills," Greyhound Rescue states on its website. The live auction will be happening at Yulli's Alexandria brewery from 2pm. Yulli's wide range of craft brews will be on hand at the brewery alongside a karma keg which will be contributing to the fundraising. Plus, the pups will also be in attendance for some much-deserved pats and cuddles. If you can't make it on the day, you can bid online for your favourite greyhound-made masterpiece.
Go on, get feasting in one of Sydney's newest tunnels. Nigella Lawson wants you to. Either part of the Vivid Sydney Dinners series setup — the unique location or the famous chef curating the menu — is reason enough to head along. Combine the two and you have one of the key events of Vivid 2025. The setting: Martin Place's Muru Giligu pedestrian tunnel. The spread: whatever takes Lawson's fancy. And to make a great event, or three, even better, a light and sound experience will work its magic on the tunnel while you dine. "Visitors cram themselves into Sydney in summer, but for me the magical time is in winter, during Vivid Sydney," said Lawson about her collaboration with the Harbour City's annual midyear arts, lights, ideas and food festival. "And having loved it for years, it is the hugest thrill to be part of the Vivid Food program this year. I'll be curating an exclusive menu for the three Vivid Sydney Dinners, and it is simply a dream come true. I mean, you know me: there can never be too many fairy lights! See you there!" As announced in 2024, Vivid 2025 runs from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14, celebrating its 15th year with all things dreams its theme. A bucket list-type meal overseen by Lawson? Well that's a dream inclusion. So are Tangerine Dream and Anohni and the Johnsons on the music lineup, an immersive Stranger Things experience at Luna Park, and the fact that the entire Vivid Light Walk is free. In fact, more than 75 percent of the entire just-dropped program won't cost you a cent to enjoy. On the Vivid Light Walk, that includes installations and 3D projections spanning across new backdrops, such as the Museum of Sydney, The Bond in Barangaroo and Challis House in Martin Place. At those locations and beyond — at the Argyle Cut in The Rocks and the CTA Building in Martin Place, too, to name just a couple of other spots — this lit-up reason for scenic stroll will feature swings, seesaws, animation activated via voice, a tennis match made out of light and 150 pieces a week designed by patrons. Still on the broader Vivid Light strand, Sydney Opera House's sails will boast work by the late David McDiarmid, Vincent Namatjira will take over the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia's facade and House of Romance, hailing from fashion label Romance Was Born, has a date with Customs House. Alongside German electronic-music icons Tangerine Dream at City Recital Hall and Anohni and the Johnsons at the Opera House, the Vivid Music bill includes Sigur Rós performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Portishead's Beth Gibbons , Japanese Breakfast, Marlon Williams, Soccer Mommy, RONA, Ravyn Lenae and Pete & Bas. On the lineup as well: Heartbreak High star Ayesha Madon, Prince's former bass player MonoNeon, V-pop via Mỹ Anh and Chi Xê, Winston Surfshirt, Grammy-winner Dobet Gnahoré, Mall Grab, Ngaiire, Skegss and more. The Upside Down has come to Sydney before, but Stranger Things: The Experience will make its first trip — and add a must-attend event to the Vivid Ideas portion of the program. Get ready to visit 1986, and Hawkins, of course, in what promises to be an immersive and interactive stint of Stranger Things-loving fun. Locations from the show are part of the event, as is a supernatural mystery. Vivid Ideas is also bringing TIME Magazine Creative Director DW Pine this way to deliver the keynote 'Where Do Ideas Come From?', tasking scientist Professor Matthew Walker with diving into why we sleep, amassing First Nations storytellers at Barangaroo Reserve each week and getting Sydney's Legs on the Wall performing new theatre work Endling. And, it's why Haus of Horror screenings of Poltergeist and Edward Scissorhands are on offer, too. At Vivid Food, Vivid Fire Kitchen will be back at The Goods Line; Vivid Chef Series will enlist Jean-Philippe Blondet, James Lowe and Brent Savage teaming up with Sydney eateries; Maryanne Street is becoming the festival's Spice Lounge; and Golden Age Cinema, Hollywood Hotel and The Soda Factory will feature in food and gig trails in the Hollywood Quarter in Surry Hills. The Carriageworks Night Market returns, and so does eating on the Sydney Harbour Bridge's southeast pylon thanks to Luke Mangan. This year's Vivid is focused on five zones, spanning Circular Quay and The Rocks, Barangaroo, Martin Place and CBD, Darling Harbour, and The Goods Line and the inner city, with each hosting Light, Music, Ideas and Food events. "Dreaming is as old as time and as universal as life itself. Dreams can be prophetic, life changing and inspirational, as well as trivial, hilarious or terrifying. These interactions are evident in every aspect of Vivid Sydney's program this year," said Vivid Sydney Festival Director Gill Minervini, announcing the lineup. "Captivating light installations and 3D projections for everyone, thought-provoking and enlightening experiences, awe-inspiring performances from the world's best musicians, along with cutting-edge culinary collaborations and dinners in unexpected places: it can all be found at Vivid Sydney. In 2025, the festival celebrates creativity, innovation and connection in one of the best cities in the world." [caption id="attachment_994734" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Pollack[/caption] [caption id="attachment_994726" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacquie Manning[/caption] Vivid Sydney 2025 runs from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14 across Sydney. Head to the festival website for further information.
In Stay of the Week, we explore some of the world's best and most unique accommodations — giving you a little inspiration for your next trip. In this instalment, we take you to the Manly Pacific on Sydney's Northern Beaches. We partnered with this lush hotel to give CP readers a special deal — a luxurious one-night stay — that can only be found on Concrete Playground Trips. WHAT'S SO SPECIAL? This boutique hotel serves up top luxury features alongside uninterrupted beach views, creating a relaxing city escape just 20 minutes from Sydney's CBD. THE ROOMS There are stacks of room and suite options at Manly Pacific. Some look out over the town and are minimal on inclusions — but still have that luxe calm feel thanks to the soft and neutral colour pallette used throughout. Then you have the ocean view rooms and suites that scream 'treat yourself'. The Sun Lounger rooms (where you'll stay when booking our luxury one-night stay) comes with a huge 100-square-metre sun terrace looking over the beach. The Coastal Suites come with a large living area, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and sliding doors that lead out onto a private balcony. And then there's The Infinity Residence. The 177-square-metre suite has one bedroom, large bathroom, living area, kitchen and a 100-square-metre terrace. Renowned Sydney design firm Coco Republic also gave this suite some extra love, featuring opulent marble surfaces throughout — elegantly complementing the striking black and white beach palette. FOOD AND DRINK Manly Pacific has three main drinking and dining spots. First, there's Bistro Manly. The French-inspired menu focuses on local seafood, bistro classics and seasonal produce — of course, paired with Australian and French wines. Tokyo Joe is Manly's latest Japanese restaurant helmed by ex-Nobu Sydney Chef, Marcelino Elamparo Papio Jr. It focuses on sushi, delicately cut sashimi, steamed buns and more traditional mains. You've also got to grab some cocktails from 55 North during your stay. Bartenders serve up all the classics as well as some of their own creations throughout the day and night. [caption id="attachment_892193" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fabio Santo (Unsplash)[/caption] THE LOCAL AREA There are heaps of things to see and do in Sydney's beachside burb of Manly. You can either follow our extensive guide or just hit up some of the top spots. Walking along the Manly Scenic Walkway should be at the top of your agenda, heading in the direction of North Head to sneak in a swim at Shelly Beach. We also recommend grabbing some brekkie from Belgrave Cartel, downing afternoon drinks at Manly Wharf Hotel, having a spa and sauna sesh at Rimba Sweat and treating yourself to a few cocktails at The Steyne's hidden whisky bar. THE EXTRAS When you book The Infinity Residence, you'll get one totally unnecessary — but brilliantly extravagant — addition. A personal Beach Butler will be all yours for the entire duration of your stay. They'll do all the heavy lifting to and from the beach, even setting up umbrellas and towels before packing them up when you're done. Feeling hungry? The butler will set up the outdoor dining table on your massive balcony for a glam dinner or organise a luxurious picnic on one of the nearby beaches. It's over the top. But we are all for it. Feeling inspired to book a truly unique getaway? Head to Concrete Playground Trips to explore a range of holidays curated by our editorial team. We've teamed up with all the best providers of flights, stays and experiences to bring you a series of unforgettable trips in destinations all over the world.
