The cutest little Jedi in a galaxy far, far away is back — and the most adorable one in our own on-screen realm as well. Although The Mandalorian won't release its third season until 2023, Disney+ has just unveiled the first sneak peak at the Star Wars spinoff's upcoming batch of episodes. The best and most important news? Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, returns (and obviously remains as charming as ever). If you've somehow missed it before now, the Emmy-nominated show follows the titular bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent); however, it's his encounter with a fuzzy little creature first known as The Child, affectionately named Baby Yoda by everyone watching, and officially called Grogu, that's always had everyone talking. So, it comes as zero surprise that one of the Star Wars universe's best-ever double acts is pushed into the spotlight in the debut glimpse at The Mandalorian's third season. In fact, the trailer confirms that Mando, aka Din Djarin and Grogu's big reunion, picking up where The Book of Boba Fett left off. But the events of the pair's past streaming adventures have consequences, including seeing The Mandalorian disowned by his fellow Mandalorians. It wouldn't be a Star Wars series if everyone got along — the 'wars' part is right there in the franchise name, after all. Accordingly, this first sneak peek teases the obligatory battles, as well as the fallout when its namesake doesn't actually have that title any more. Oh, and plenty of Grogu, naturally. Yes, the Star Wars universe certainly does sprawl far and wide these days, both within its tales and in its many different movies, shows, books and games. When this one first arrived in 2019, it started five years after Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi. Also on offer across its run so far: a cast that's included everyone from Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Carl Weathers (Toy Story 4), Taika Waititi and iconic filmmaker Werner Herzog through to Timothy Olyphant (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Rosario Dawson (DMZ), Katee Sackhoff (Another Life) and Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett. While The Mandalorian fans will have to wait till next year to see what comes next, the Star Wars franchise has already delivered Obi-Wan Kenobi to streaming already in 2022 — and Rogue One spinoff Andor arrives on Wednesday, September 21. Check out the latest trailer for The Mandalorian below: The Mandalorian's third season will hit Disney+ sometime in 2023 — we'll update you with an exact date when one is announced. Images: ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
The Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), curated by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin, are annual awards for First Nations artists from across the country. Due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19, the 2021 Telstra NATSIAA award winners will be announced via the Telstra NATSIAA website — and all Australians can get to know the finalists and winners via a virtual gallery, which will go live from 6pm AEST on Friday, August 6. Each year, the awards celebrates contemporary artworks across a broad range of disciplines. Think paintings, craftsmanship, photography and textile works. There are 65 finalists from across the country, and what makes the awards so special is the diversity in storytelling; there are perspectives from coastal regions, desert towns, cities and everywhere between. For 38 years, Telstra NATSIAA has represented the art of the nation — culturally, geographically and historically, as well as looking to our future — with 2021 marking 30 years with the awards' long-standing partner, Telstra. For those who plan to visit the Northern Territory, you can also experience the artworks in person at the Telstra NATSIAA Exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory from Saturday, August 7 right through till Sunday, February 6, 2022. And it's good news for those of us who'd usually miss out on the awards ceremony, as this year's presentation (usually held on the grounds of the Museum) will be broadcast online. You can join host Rachel Hocking on Friday, August 6 to find out which artists have won by visiting the website from 6pm AEST. While you're there, check out the fully interactive, virtual gallery and chuck a vote in for your favourites in the Telstra People's Choice Award, too. Head to the NATSIAA website on August 6 at 6pm AEST to catch the announcement of this year's winners. Images: Charlie Bliss and MAGNT
Captain Sustainability and brains behind Silo Joost Bakker has relaunched his cafe as a soup kitchen. Of course, it's no ordinary cooking-with-groceries soup kitchen; the stocks for the soups are made from bones that go unused by high-end eateries such as Rockpool, Attica and the European. It's called Brothl, the kind of pun that might have been best made and forgotten but is now the legitimate name of a place we'll be spending plenty of time in. Bakker, originally a florist and a designer, had been doing the flowers at Rockpool for years when he finally asked Neil Perry if he could take the discarded bones for soup stock. Perry did not hesitate to give them away. The result is four nutritious broths packed full of flavor: A Cape Grim beef stock simmered for 48 hours, a 24-hour chicken stock, 12-hour seafood stock made from marron and crab, and a vegetarian stock made using kelp foraged from the Bellarine Peninsula. On top of that, all of the broths are made with rainwater from Monbulk. If that’s not some thrifty practice, we’re not sure what is. For those who are both sustainability- and health-conscious, the menu includes details of which nutrients, vitamins and minerals each broth will bring you. Getting involved with this Brothl is going to be good for you in more ways than one, it seems. It will cost you a tenner for a hearty bowl of broth, and once you’ve got the base down you can add extras, such as sea bounty muscles, poached chicken, house-made soba or spelt noodles and seasonal vegetables. They even have chicken feet if you’re craving it. If you want to know more on this no-waste venture, just make sure you type Brothl exactly like that into your Google search; it will save you from seeing all the things you can’t unsee.
Films about terminal illness can be a tricky proposition. There’s only so much drama that can be wrung from the mundane inevitability of death, a process that, by its very nature, is so horribly undramatic. Too often do filmmakers and actors make the mistake of overcompensating, wallowing in misery or resorting to cheap emotional manipulation. It’s for its avoidance of these pitfalls, as much as anything else, that Still Alice deserves your attention. Adapted from the novel by neuroscientist turned author Lisa Genova, Still Alice tells the story of Columbia linguistics professor Alice Howland (Julianne Moore). In one of the first scenes we see her, she’s giving a lecture in Los Angeles, when suddenly she finds herself unable to recall a specific word. At first she dismisses the lapse as one of those inevitable side-effects of turning 50. When she gets lost on her regular morning jog, however, she realises something more serious is amiss. A visit to her doctor brings a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s, a disease without a cure. In the film’s lead role, Moore is simply magnificent — she’s already taken home the Golden Globe, and seems a lock to win the Oscar. Alice deals with her condition proactively — at one point she even visits a nursing home, under the guise of finding a room for an elderly parent. Inevitably, however, the illness takes its toll. Slowly, we watch her go from an articulate, passionate, independent woman to a shell of her former self. It’s a heartbreaking transition, and Moore captures every moment — with honesty, nuance and whatever small measure of dignity she can muster. So too do we witness the effect the disease has on the afflicted person’s family. Alec Baldwin gives a terrifically understated performance as Alice’s husband, John, a New York intellectual suddenly confronted with a future he may not be able to accept. Even more impressive is Kristen Stewart as Lydia, the youngest of John and Alice’s adult children. Although she's (rightfully) bemoaned for her wooden performances in the Twilight movies — frankly, no one could make that dialogue sound good — it’s abundantly clear that Stewart has talent. Here, both the actress and her character exhibit a maturity far beyond their years. Credit must also go to the movie's married co-directors, Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer. They’re the perfect fit for the project, having experienced similar medical hardship themselves. Glatzer lives with ALS and is unable to speak, communicating with actors on set via an iPad. It’s their sensitive, compassionate storytelling — channeled by their cast — that ensures Still Alice sticks in your memory even after Alice forgets.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a superhero? No, it's a stunning festive display hovering above the Royal Botanic Gardens as part of new Christmas festival Noël Sydney. This massive event is already filled with luminous sights, including light projections across buildings, but it's the nightly drone show running until Christmas Eve that'll get you looking up. To give you an idea of how big Noël Sydney is, it's had to extend its space throughout the Royal Botanic Gardens by 50 percent. The Noël Christmas Skyshow isn't small, either. Telling a Christmas story called Santa's Coming to Sydney in the heavens, this aerial wonder features 500 drones flying, soaring and dancing in the air over Farm Cove. The term 'making shapes' truly does apply here — including words, stars, a globe, a Christmas tee, animals, decorations and the jolly red-suited figure synonymous with this time of year. These images come together to spin a Aussie Christmas tale about a kangaroo called Sydney leading Santa and his present-filled sleigh from the North Pole to the Harbour City. Sydney's first major Christmas drone show, entry to the Noël Christmas Skyshow is free, with two viewings each evening — at 8.15pm and around 10pm — until Saturday, December 24. And the best place to scope it out? The Parade Ground.
Lena Dunham has announced a return to filmmaking. At the 15th New Yorker Festival, held over the weekend, she spilled the beans on her plans to adapt and direct Karen Cushman’s coming-of-age novel Catherine, Called Birdy. “I’ve been obsessed with it since I was a kid,” Dunham told author Ariel Levy on Friday night. In fact, in a 2012 interview with the New York Times, she identified it and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita as the “two best books about girls” she had ever read. It's a project that will allow the Girls creator to extend her voice well beyond beyond her generation. Narrated as a diary and set in England in the 1290s, Catherine, Called Birdy recounts a 13-year-old girl’s struggle against arranged marriage. “[She] gets her period and her father basically says, 'Well, it's time for you to get married,' and she's like, 'Uh, no,'" Dunham explained. “It's hyper realistic and really pretty and it's full of incest and beatings, but it's a child's story.” Fortunately there were no Q-Tips in the 1290s, so audiences will at least be spared that Dunham-patented horror. The writer-director is intending to produce the film via her production company, A Casual Romance, which she set up with Jenni Konner, executive producer of Girls. However, they’re still in need financial support from “someone who wants to a fund a PG-13 medieval movie.” In the meantime, she is busy promoting her debut essay collection, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s 'Learned'. Via Indiewire.
If you're always trying to stay up-to-date with all of the new shows and movies hitting Netflix, but you're also attempting to do so on the cheap — by borrowing a pal or your parents' login details — you might soon have to change your viewing strategy. Some of the service's subscribers have started reported receiving warning messages about using other people's accounts, with the platform currently testing a new feature to block password sharing. "If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching," states the message, which then gives users a few options. If you are indeed watching via your own account, you can get a verification code sent to you via email or text. If not, you can sign up for a 30-day trial. There's also a 'verify later' option, which'll let you keep watching — but only for a short but as-yet-unspecified amount of time — and then verify later. Images of the message have started appearing on social media, and Netflix has confirmed the move to media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and ABC News. THR reports that how the feature is being rolled out varies per country, and that protecting accounts from unauthorised use is one of the reasons behind it. To ABC News, a Netflix spokesperson advised that "this test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorised to do so." Converting folks who use other people's passwords to access the platform into paying customers is obviously one of the strategy's aims, too, especially as more and more streaming services pop up in competition. And, after most folks have just spent more time at home than usual — and more time streaming Netflix, too — the company is likely looking at ways to keep growing its numbers. Whether the password-sharing block will become a permanent feature is yet to be seen, but it isn't the only thing that Netflix has been testing of late. The platform is also working on a shuffle function, that'll automatically pick your next thing to watch and save you from scrolling for hours and hours — which is expected to be rolled out in the first half of this year. Netflix's new password-sharing block is being tested now — we'll update you when more details are announced. Via The Hollywood Reporter/ABC News.
Returning for its fourth iteration, The Fork Festival sees top restaurants across the country offering sit-down meals for up to half the usual price. Yep, up to 50-percent off your total food bill, folks — think of it as the proverbial carrot luring you out of the house. Up and running as of today, Friday, April 22, the offer is a blessing for those feeling a little light-pocketed after Easter — or thanks to the spate of long weekends we're currently enjoying. To snag a half-price meal (or, in a few cases, 30-percent off), you just need to make a reservation through The Fork website or app at one of the participating eateries for any service (breakfast, lunch or dinner) during the six-week period. There are some great venues coming to the party, too. In Sydney, you'll find cheap eats at the likes of Kings Cross Distillery, Monopole, Sydney Brewery in Surry Hills, Diana at Potts Point, Bentley Restaurant & Bar in the CBD and Cirrus Dining at Barangaroo. Victoria's lineup includes Brunswick Mess Hall and the Sarah Sands Hotel in Brunswick, Gasthaus on Queen, Amazing Graze Tea Rooms, and everywhere from Korr Jee Chicken and Lezzet to Neo Lemonade and Scarpetta. In other states, the list is much smaller — so you'll need to head to TGI Fridays Robina in Queensland; the brand's outposts in WA as well; The Pelican Place in the ACT; and spots such as Pier Bar and Grill, Christies Beach Hotel, Sammy's on the Marina and Red Ochre Barrel and Grill in South Australia. You might want to revisit an old favourite or you could get a little adventurous and road-test somewhere new. Either way, there's ample time to squeeze in a fair few discounted feasts before the festival wraps up on Sunday, May 29. The Fork Festival runs from Friday, April 22–Sunday, May 29 at select restaurants nationwide, excluding the NT and Tasmania. Top image: Sarah Sands Hotel.
International Dog Day is coming up and The Golden Sheaf is getting in on the action by designating an afternoon at the pub to the cutest four-legged friends that the eastern suburbs has to offer. In collaboration with Pound Paws, The Sheaf will be running a host of dog-based activities while raising awareness about pet adoption in Double Bay and surrounding suburbs. While the official International Dog Day is on Friday, August 26, The Golden Sheaf's adorable celebration is going down a couple of days late on Sunday, August 28 from midday until 4pm. There will be a variety of pet market stalls popping up in the venue's dog-friendly beer garden, as well as live entertainment, talks on responsible pet ownership and dog tarot card readings. Possibly the cutest activity of the day will be the Rescue Dog Adoption Parade, where pups looking for a home will get to strut their stuff and possibly catch the eye of a new owner. Those bringing their own furry best friend can also enter them in the best tricks and best-dressed competitions, with a range of prizes to be won. Head to Eventbrite to reserve your spot. It's free for general admission passes, and $6.36 for pet owners that want to enter their talented furball into the competitions.
The play that launched Brendan Cowell’s theatre career is having somewhat of a fifteenth birthday celebration by returning to its birthplace at the Old Fitz. Men was written by Cowell, who also starred in the first production, alongside Toby Schmitz and Anthony Hayes, in the three male roles of Poet, Penis, and Panther. Red Line Productions is now remounting Men with Ben O’Toole, Sean Hawkins and Jamie Timony. Cheree Cassidy will be the maternal presence onstage, watching these three try to out-macho each other. It’s a script that requires intense acting prowess from the cast, but, with the pressures of masculinity changing, does it still resonate? Director Jessica Tuckwell thinks so, and will likely add complexity and empathy from her own vantage point. Warning: Men may provoke observations and discussions about Australian masculinity culture — make sure to go with friends who embrace debate.
At a time when the hard questions have never been more important to ask, Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), in partnership with The Good Room, is wading through a combat zone rife with smashed avo and cries of 'OK Boomer' to reopen the conversation with I've Been Meaning To Ask You. I've Been Meaning To Ask You takes a bunch of thorny questions asked by kids and the best answers adults could muster and turns them into a high-energy dash to the future. You can even submit your own answers via meaningtoaskyou.com. The questions may not be what you're expecting (and the answers may raise a few eyebrows), but this is a chance to see the plans being hatched by tomorrow's great minds to solve the problems we all grizzle about today. Naturally, the production is created and performed by an ensemble of local youth performers. And it's making its way to Riverside Theatres on Wednesday, March 17. Chance of a spicy car ride home: high. 'I've Been Meaning To Ask You' is a production by ATYP, created by The Good Room and presented by Riverside Theatres and Critical Stages Touring. To nab tickets, head here.
Every September and October, Germany erupts with brews, food and lederhosen-wearing revellers for its annual Oktoberfest celebrations. When that time rolls around Down Under, Australia follows suit. One such festivity is Oktoberfest in the Gardens, which has been throwing big Bavarian-themed celebrations around the country for 14 years — and is returning to Sydney for 2024. Oktoberfest in the Gardens will make its latest Harbour City stop at The Domain on Saturday, October 26. If you're keen to head along, expect company; the event expects to welcome in over 65 people enjoying steins, schnitties and German shindigs across this year's seven-city run. Sydney's fest will serve up the same kind of beer- and bratwurst-fuelled shenanigans that Germany has become so famous for. So, if you have a hankering for doppelbock and dancing to polka, it's the next best thing to heading to Europe. Oktoberfest in the Gardens boasts a crucial attraction, too: as well as serving a variety of pilsners, ciders, wine and non-alcoholic beverages, it constructs huge beer halls to house the boozy merriment. When you're not raising a stein — or several — at the day-long event, you can tuck into pretzels and other traditional snacks at food stalls, or check out the hefty array of entertainment. Live music, roving performers, a silent disco, rides and a sideshow alley are all on the agenda.
For half a century now, The Rocky Horror Show has been astounding. And, with the Richard O'Brien-created production lasting that long, perhaps time really is fleeting. Either way, whenever this sci-fi/horror musical hits the stage — and wherever — a glorious kind of madness takes its toll. In 2023, Australian audiences will be able to listen closely — and watch Jason Donovan as Frank N Furter take a jump to the left, then a step to the right, too — when the famed musical heads around the country on a huge 50th-anniversary tour. The Rocky Horror Show's brand-new Aussie run will kick off at Theatre Royal Sydney in February, with other stops and dates yet to be announced. On offer: the tale that theatre audiences have loved for five decades — and movie-goers as well, thanks to 1975's iconic big-screen release The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For the uninitiated, the story involves college-aged couple Brad Majors and Janet Weiss getting a flat tyre, then wandering over to an old castle to ask for help. That's where they discover an extra-terrestrial mad scientist from the galaxy of Transylvania, plus his staff and his Frankenstein-style experiments — and, yes, doing 'The Time Warp' is essential. As well as Donovan slipping on Frank N Furter's fishnets (fresh from popping back up in Ramsay Street to farewell Neighbours), the new Australian tour will star Myf Warhurst as The Narrator. Also set to feature: Ellis Dolan (School of Rock) as Eddie/Dr Scott, Darcey Eagle (Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical) as Columbia, Ethan Jones (9 to 5 The Musical) as Brad, Deirdre Khoo (Once) as Janet, Loredo Malcolm as Rocky (Hamilton) and Henry Rollo (Jagged Little Pill the Musical) as Riff Raff. Since first premiering in London in June 1973, The Rocky Horror Show has played in more than 30 countries — and over 30 million people have seen songs like 'Science Fiction/Double Feature', 'Dammit, Janet!', 'Sweet Transvestite', 'Over at the Frankenstein Place' and 'Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me'. If you haven't been before, this is your turn to join in. The Rocky Horror Show's 2023 Australian tour kicks off at Theatre Royal Sydney in February, with tickets on sale from 10am on Monday, October 17. Head to the production's website for further details. We'll update you with information on seasons in other cities when they're announced. Images: Richard Davenport, The Rocky Horror Show UK tour.
It has been 23 years since Mecca opened its first store in Melbourne, with the beauty retailer expanding to more than 100 Australian and New Zealand shops over that time. But none of its locations so far can match the company's soon-to-open latest addition — a huge new site in Sydney, which not only marks Mecca's first flagship store, but will also become the biggest dedicated beauty store in the southern hemisphere. Slated to open on Friday, November 27, the new shop will take over the heritage Gowings building on the corner of Market and George streets — sprawling across four levels and 1800 square metres. That's where Topshop used to sit and, if you're wondering how it compares to Mecca's other digs, it'll be more than twice the size of its current largest store at Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne. It'll also span over 20 times more space than its very first store did two decades back. All that room means plenty of space for beauty products, of course — including a heap of new brands that the retailer hasn't stocked before. You'll be able to pick up Tom Ford, Moon Juice and Resorè items, which will join a curated lineup of more than 200 brands. Returning favourites range across everything from Nars and Shiseido to Drunk Elephant and Sunday Riley, plus Mecca's own signature lines Mecca Cosmetica and Mecca Max. As well as shelves upon shelves filled with foundation, lipstick, face creams, mascara, masks and more, Mecca's flagship store is dedicating more than a third of its floorplan to beauty services, too — such as naturopath Anthia Koullouros and hair salon EdwardsAndCo. Jewellery designer Sarah & Sebastian will also be on hand, doing piercing and bracelet soldering. Mecca's dedicated labs — for skin, makeup and brows — will be a feature, as will its biggest perfumeria yet. And, there'll be a Mecca gift-wrapping bar, which'll be present all-year-round but is obviously perfect for end-of-year shopping. Plus, the Mecca concierge will help point you in the right direction as you're wandering around the revamped, colour-heavy space, as designed by Sydney's Meacham Nockles. You'll be shopping while surrounded by neon yellow lifts, mosaic walls and a beauty chute — which transports products between levels. Find Mecca's new flagship store at 45 Market Street, Sydney, from Friday, November 27. Top image: Maksym Kozlenko via Wikimedia Commons.
"Movies are dreams that you never forget," says Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) early in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans. Have truer words ever been spoken in any of the director's 33 flicks? Uttered to her eight-year-old son Sammy (feature debutant Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), Mitzi's statement lingers, providing the film's beating heart even when the coming-of-age tale it spins isn't always idyllic. Individual pictures can come and go, of course. Only some — including on America's most populist filmmaker's own resume, packed as it is with Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jurassic Park, West Side Story and the like — truly stand the test of time. But as Mitzi understands, and imparts to her on-screen Spielberg boyhood surrogate, movies as an art form are a dream that keeps beaming in our heads. We return to theatres again and again for more. We glue our eyes to films at home, too. We lap up the worlds they visit, stories they relay and fantasies they incite, and we eagerly add our own. To everyone that's ever stared at the silver screen in awe and wonder, The Fabelmans pays tribute far more than it basks in the glow of its director. Because everyone is crafting cinematic autobiographies of sorts of late, Spielberg adds this tender yet clear-eyed look at his childhood to a growing list of similarly self-reflective flicks; however, he's as fascinated with cinema as a dream-sparking and -making force as is he with fictionalising and mythologising his own beginnings. Slot The Fabelmans in alongside James Gray's Armageddon Time, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast, Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths from the past year or so, then, and easily. Don't consider it merely Spielberg jumping on a trend, though. This is a sincere, perceptive and potent movie about how movies act as a mirror — and a vividly shot and engagingly performed one, complete with a pitch-perfect late cameo that's pure cinephile heaven — whether we're watching or creating them. First comes the viewing, as it does with us all no matter if we end up picking up a camera. While The Fabelmans charts Sammy's film fixation as it quickly expands from devouring celluloid dreams to fashioning them — giving Spielberg's career an origin story, clearly — that initial dalliance with the big screen in the 1950s couldn't be more pivotal. Heading to catch Cecil B DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth with Mitzi and dad Burt (Paul Dano, The Batman), the boy is anxious. And, when his debut experience with cinema involves witnessing a train crash in the movie, he's haunted afterwards. The Fabelmans makes that obsession the source of nightmares as well as inspiration, but once Sammy begins working through and rewriting his feelings by restaging the scene using a model train set, plus capturing it on Burt's Super-8 camera, the latter wins out. Both before and after Sammy hits his teen years (where he's played by The Predator's Gabriel LaBelle), The Fabelmans adores staging the wannabe filmmaker's DIY shoots. The horror of the dentist, mummies wrapped in toilet paper, westerns, war flicks: enlisting his sisters Natalie (Sweet Magnolias' Alina Brace as a kid, then Hunters' Keeley Karsten) and Reggie (Pivoting's Birdie Borria, then Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's Julia Butters), and his Boy Scout troupe, he's constantly filtering what he spies in darkened rooms into his enthusiastic work. There's a touch of Be Kind Rewind to these moments, joyously, but Spielberg highlights technique, too, such as Sammy's genius idea to make gunfights look more realistic. Cinema isn't just about storytelling, he reminds, but also science — even if career-minded computer engineer Burt can't see past the art, disapprovingly and to Mitzi's dismay, to the technique behind dolly tracks, camera angles that convey meaning and careful editing. Every filmmaker wants their audience to forget they're watching a movie, getting so immersed that everything else fades from mind while the projector whirls, but Spielberg loves the dream as well as the method behind it. He highlights the push and pull between the two into The Fabelmans from the outset, from the instant that the young Sammy stands in the middle of the frame outside the cinema, putting his creative, emotive, ex-concert pianist mum on one side and his analytical, data-driven, workaholic dad on the other. That's a gorgeous and intelligent touch, benefiting from luminous lensing by Janusz Kamiński, Spielberg's regular cinematographer. As built into the screenplay co-penned with fellow returning collaborator Tony Kushner — the helmer's first script since 2001's A.I. Artificial Intelligence — it also speaks to the family chaos that keeps thrusting Sammy and the Fabelmans in an array of directions. This movie isn't called Sammy, after all. Filmmaking is a communal experience — again whether you're enjoying the end result or toiling for it — and Sammy's pursuit of it doesn't occur in a vacuum. That maiden cinema visit wouldn't have happened without his mother and father. His response to it, right through to wanting to make the pictures his career, couldn't have either. Just like the nocturnal kind, cinema's reveries flow from an everyday reality, with The Fabelmans deeply invested in Sammy's. That spans hopping around the US following Burt's work, from New Jersey to Phoenix and then California; Mitzi and Burt's fragile chalk-and-cheese pairing, plus her obvious fondness for his best friend Bennie (Seth Rogen, Pam & Tommy); fitting in as a Jewish family amid antisemitism; words of wisdom from a long-lost uncle (Judd Hirsch, The Goldbergs) with a Hollywood background; high-school romances, bullying and other dramas; and sibling rivalries and complicated parent-child bonds. As a memoir, The Fabelmans isn't nostalgic about anything except cinema's undying allure — crucially so for the film's performances. Spielberg's mother was a pianist. His dad was an engineer. They moved to same spots seen in the movie, and their relationship didn't survive the director's childhood. Every choice in The Fabelmans is warm, including the John Williams score, but that doesn't mean sweeping past Mitzi's unfulfilled professional and romantic desires, overlooking Burt's work focus or ignoring the restlessness simmering within the family. Embracing those complexities gives Williams, Dano and LaBelle ample fuel for thoughtful, moving and multi-layered portrayals that always feel personal. Playing your director's mum, dad or younger self isn't guaranteed to have that impact, but Spielberg's compassionate direction makes it a given. His clever, insightful, funny and oh-so-astute ending here also makes The Fabelmans unforgettable; "how would you like to meet the world's greatest director?" indeed.
Every year, the Japanese Film Festival, presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney, takes over cinema screens across Australia. But, thanks to the global pandemic, the annual cinematic event will look a little different this time around, returning for its 24th year as a digital festival called JFF Plus. So, warm up the popcorn and get ready for ten days of Japanese flicks that you can catch from the comfort of your couch. If there's one thing that Japanese cinema is known for, it's variety. So, expect everything from heartfelt anime to time travel adventures and geisha-inspired musical comedies. Overall, there'll be more than 25 films in this year's online program, covering feature-length flicks, documentaries and shorts, with a mix of new titles and cult classics. Highlights include quirky rom-com Tremble All You Want, family drama One Night, a documentary on the on the world-famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo and legendary director Yasujirō Ozu's 1952 film The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice. Oh and did we mention it's free? [caption id="attachment_788623" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Tsukiji Wonderland', 2016 Shochiku Co., Ltd.[/caption] To check out the full program, head to the Japanese Film Festival website. Top images: 'One Night', 2019 'One Night' Film partners; 'The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice', 1952/2017 Shochiku Co., Ltd.; and 'Tremble All You Want', 2017 'Tremble All You Want' Production Committee.
Travelling to a galaxy far, far away sounds rather nice at this point in 2020. If you're a Star Wars fan, that's actually quite easy, too. While this year won't deliver a new movie in the franchise for the first time since 2014, the second season of TV spinoff The Mandalorian's is heading to Disney+ from Friday, October 30. For those that missed it or need a refresher — the Star Wars universe certainly does sprawl far and wide, both within its tales and in its many different movies, shows, books and games — the Emmy-nominated show follows the titular bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal). In the series' first season, which was set five years after Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi and aired last year, that meant tracking his latest gigs. And, it also involved charting his encounter with a fuzzy little creature officially known as The Child, but affectionately named Baby Yoda by everyone watching. Also on offer the first time around: Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito playing villain Moff Gideon, aka the ex-Galactic Empire security officer determined to capture The Child; everyone from Carl Weathers and Taika Waititi to Werner Herzog playing ex-magistrates, droids and enigmatic strangers; and plenty of planet-hopping. Yes, it was firmly a Star Wars TV series, and yes, it plans to continue in the same manner. As both the previously released first trailer and the just-dropped new glimpse of The Mandalorian's second season shows, it also intends to once again focus on one of television's best pairings. Not only is Mando back, but so is the oh-so-adorable Baby Yoda. The duo's quest to return to The Child's home planet continues, and they aren't parting ways on the journey — "wherever I go, he goes," Mando advises. In addition to showering viewers in Baby Yoda's cuteness, the eight-episode new season will see Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) pop up — it is a show about a bounty hunter, after all — plus Timothy Olyphant and Rosario Dawson join the cast. Behind the lens, directors include showrunner Jon Favreau, Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard, Dope's Rick Famuyiwa, Ant-Man's Peyton Reed and Alita: Battle Angel's Robert Rodriguez, as well as Weathers doing double duty on-screen and off. If you're missing Star Wars on the big screen, don't spend too long stressing. Like any good rebel, this franchise is destined to keep returning. After introducing the world to new lightsaber-wielding characters, farewelling old favourites and delving into stellar side stories for five years straight between 2015–19, more Star Wars movies are planned, because of course they are — but wannabe Jedis won't be watching them just yet. Check out the latest trailer for The Mandalorian below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICuqzhViWAI The Mandalorian's second season hits Disney+ on Friday, October 30. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy. Top image: Disney+
It might be the cheese, the wine or the pastries (don't make us choose), but when it comes to food, the French just know what's up. And with Sydney flying the French flag, you certainly needn't book flights to Paris to satisfy your inner Francophile this Bastille Day. Between special events held at the city's beloved brasseries and kicking your heels up to do the can-can, there are plenty of options for celebrating France's National Day — and biggest party — on Friday, July 14. TAKE A TASTY TOUR OF FRANCE AT FELIX For the week of Bastille Day, the folks at Felix will take you on a culinary exploration of France, presenting a different regional French dish each night. Choose from confit duck on Monday, beef bourguignon on Wednesday, through to Basque chicken on Sunday. Ruinart Rose Champagne will be offered by the glass or bottle or you can go for the wine that's been matched to the dish. If you've got a bit more budget, on Friday, July 14, they're going all out with a six-course degustation for $180. When: July 10–16. Where: Felix, 2 Ash Street, Sydney. Cost: Dishes at a la carte prices, degustation $180 per person, or $250 with matching wines. EAT AND DRINK YOUR WAY THROUGH FRENCH STALLS AT BASTILLE FESTIVAL You might want to pace yourself for this one. Now in its fifth year, Sydney's Bastille Festival will be gathering all the best of French food, wine and culture to Circular Quay in a four-day extravaganza. The French village will also include lifestyle stalls, spruiking wares such as tablecloths, art prints, jewellery and any other knick-knacks you might want to stock up on. Not just French-centric however, as food vendors will also offer delights from Madrid, Brussels, Rome, Munich, Amsterdam and more. There'll even be an outdoor cinema set up screening French films. When: July 13–16. Where: Circular Quay. Cost: Free entry. PULL UP A STOOL AT LOLUK BISTRO Surry Hills' quaint Provincial bistro will be offering a three-course set menu with traditional French fare, such as onion soup, cheese soufflé and slow-cooked lamb shank. The cost for three courses also includes a glass of sparkling wine. If you can't make it, be sure to look out for their stall at the Bastille Festival or head there on a Tuesday or Wednesday for raclette night. When: July 14 and 15. Where: 2/411 Bourke Street, Surry Hills. Cost: $85 per person. CAN-CAN WITH COCKTAILS AT THE ARGYLE Numerous French organisations unite for a sixth consecutive year of The Argyle's Alliance Française Bastille Day bash. And it is one hell of a party — last year's attendance of over 2000. A can-can show, French DJs and a photobooth is all included, with the option to gorge yourself on crepes and of course, cheese and saucisson (that's cured pork sausage, similar to salami). A trip for two to New Caledonia will also be up for grabs in a raffle too. When: Thursday, July 13. Where: The Argyle, 18 Argyle Street, The Rocks. Cost: $15 entry (food and drink not included). GO FULL FRENCH AT BISTRO MONCUR An exclusive menu at Bistro Moncur will see a very French four-course feast on the cards for Bastille Day. Dishes will include bouillabaisse (a fish stew) and rum baba, which, if you've not had it, is a small yeast cake saturated in syrup made with rum and is bloody delicious. Curated by chefs Mark Williamson and Jon Trouillet, the selection will aim to represent a tour of France. Diners will have the option to let the chefs take the wheel and enjoy all four courses, or free to select dishes from the pla du jour or a la carte menus. Wine to match is also an option. Bookings are recommended. When: Friday, July 14. Where: Bistro Moncur, 116A Moncur Street, Woollahra. Cost: $140 per person, $55 extra for wine pairing.
The Norfolk's leafy beer garden is a familiar sight to many an inner city beer-drinking, $3 taco-loving pub-goer. But regulars to the Redfern pub might start to see some changes, with both the outdoor courtyard and interior set to undergo renovations over the next month. The pub — along with The Forresters in Surry Hills and The Oxford Tavern in Petersham — was taken over by the Dixon Hospitality Group when they bought Jaime Wirth's Drink 'n' Dine group earlier in the year. Wirth will be returning to his old stomping ground to oversee the pub reno, along with business partner Mike Delaney. Fresh from resurrecting Club 77, the pair have come on board with the Dixon Group as consultants. So what will the inspiration behind the renovations be? The team have described their plans as something close to "Benicio del Toro eating a Cajun gumbo whilst watching Miami Vice". We don't know exactly what that means, but somebody pass us a margarita and Cuban cigar, pronto. The food and drinks menu will also undergo some changes, but we've been told not to worry – regulars will still be able to find plenty of pub staples on the menu, with new and improved substitutes for old favourites. A favourite with locals for good reason – the Norfolk's beer selection is vast and the food menu is well priced. Loyal punters should keep their eyes peeled for a launch party, with the exact date TBA.
Running on some serious Weetbix numbers, cereal-loving Irish twins Alan and Gary Keery want to bring their childhood love of milk and grain to East London's Shoreditch. Stocking 100 cereals, 12 milks and 20 toppings, the puntastically-named Cereal Killer Cafe sounds like the breakfast bar of our dreams, with cereal cocktails, 18 Pop-Tart flavours, toast variations and local London tea and Saturday morning cartoons on tap. Developing the idea after a huge night out, the Keerys craved that cereal fix of yesteryear but found London wanting for participating breakfast spots. Inspired by existing cereal cafes in the US like Cereality (where counter staff are called "cerealogists" and wear pyjamas as a uniform), the brothers saw a niche in the London market to indulge fellow cereal enthusiasts. "Cereal Killer Cafe will re-imagine how we enjoy our cereal... letting you, the customer, tailor a bowl to your exact taste," say the twins on their Indiegogo site. "And because of our extensive range of milks we will cater to vegans, vegetarians and even awkward children." Hooray! Even awkward children! The Keerys have been working on the business plan for eight months, finding inspiration for the interior design in their favourite breakfast friends. "The whole look [is] based on a bowl of Lucky Charms," they said, further detailing their vision for milky cream walls and exposed brick interiors. "Cereal cafés already existed in America so we have put our own twist to it, presenting the cafe with a vintage style and having it decorated wall to wall with old cereal boxes and memorabilia." The Shoreditch cafe will feature old televisions playing cereal's longtime soulmate: cartoons (showing exclusively on Saturday mornings, as things should be). Stocking every last boxed breakfast favourite from Lucky Charms to Special K, Cereal Killer will serve up small, medium and large bowls, as well as 'combo meals' paired with toast, Pop-Tarts, local tea and juice boxes. Adventurous breakfasters might be up for the cereal cocktails like 'Smore Than Words' (golden graham crackers, mini marshmallows and chocolate milk) and 'Crunchy Nutcase' (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Crunchy Nut Clusters, walnuts, pecans and hazlenut milk). https://youtube.com/watch?v=u_h1pHxfnHA Having scrimped and saved their own small dosh hoard, the twins aren't entirely without funding. But London's cafe market runs on a sword's edge (particularly in Shoreditch) so the pair looked to Indiegogo for the final push. "We have already put together 20k of our own savings, but before approaching the banks we want to let our customers be part of the journey. Because we know there are other people out there as passionate about cereal as we are!" Having only raised £785 of their £60,000, the Keerys are hopeful more early-risers and sugar-craving, Saturday morning cartoon-loving Big Kids will invest. But if Crunchy Nut's Londoncentric campaign (below) is indicative of positive market research results, the Keerys will surely find fellow cereal killers around town happy to throw them a pound or two. Via London24 and Buzzfeed. Top image credits Gary and Alan Keery.
For the eighth time, Golden Plains Festival is coming back to the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre, and the ballot is open today. 2014's festival goes down from March 8-10 and has announced that the headliner will be none other than the hip hop megastars Public Enemy. The festival is all about a chilled long weekend of camping, picnicking, watching bands and generally loving life. Last year featured the likes of Cat Power, Flume and the legendary George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. Golden Plains Festival promises to be a haven away from your more traditional festivals. No crummy stores, no corporate sponsors and especially no dickheads (they maintain a self-policing 'Dickhead' Policy). You take your own booze, you camp wherever you want and spend the weekend as if you were living in a weird and lovely commune. As per previous years, tickets are being sold in four ways, the first being the ballot. The first round is for existing subscribers, and entries close October 21. Non-subscribers have until October 28. Public sales in selected stores open on November 7, and online sales open on November 8. Each ticket costs $319, plus booking fee and postage. The ticket gets you in on Saturday, gives you free parking and camping, and gets you out again on Monday. So get yourself into the ballot, and don't forget appropriate footwear.
Food truck addicts rejoice. You can now track down your favourite food truck, not by running hungrily through the city, but by downloading a newly released app from the City of Sydney. With the click of a button on your smartphone you can find a burger, tacos, noodles or whatever your late-night craving is the second your mouth starts to water. Once the app is downloaded, hungry Sydneysiders can see where food trucks are serving and get directions to the truck from their current location. Menus, pictures and prices are available through the new app, and users will be able to check the latest updates and specials for each truck too. Just then you thought your smartphone did everything, it now makes gourmet food on the go one step easier. Say goodbye to the days of chasing your favourite food truck down the street only to watch it drive away leaving you teary-eyed with a growling stomach. Download the app here.
It's well known fact that the current image we have of Santa Claus, with a jolly red nose and big white beard, was invented by Coca Cola some time early in the 20th century. Rather than bemoaning the consumerisation of Christmas though, why not embrace the gift giving? Giving and receiving gifts gives us no end of pleasure. Shopping for them can be almost as much fun, especially when done at exciting summer night markets. So pop on down to Addison Rd, visit the Indigenous art in the gallery, rummage through the Bower, check out the sustainable items in the Make A Difference Gallery, shop among the many stalls set up by local artists and crafters, eat the array of international food on offer and listen to the sweet melodies of Gypsy band Lola Lovina. Coca Cola entirely optional.
Even for an industry that thrives on the baffling and the bizarre, Snoop Dogg's recent announcement that he is Bob Marley reincarnated and is changing his name to Snoop Lion is one of the weirder things you're likely to hear in music. But Snoop is not the first and certainly won't be the last celebrity to transform his image and develop an alter-ego. Musicians are notorious for their reason-defying epiphanies that are usually indicative of either groundbreaking creativity or mid-career slumps. Here are seven more wacky, wonderful celebrity musician transformations. David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust David Bowie made a career out of defying audience expectations through his bizarre ensemble of alter-egos and jumpsuits. With Ziggy Stardust and its associated album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie became a sex-crazed rock star from Mars and his popularity hit stratospheric levels. Joaquin Phoenix/Weird Hairy Rapper Phoenix went from being that strangely handsome, Oscar-nominated film star of Gladiator and Walk the Line to being the punchline of every talk show host in Hollywood after his unexplainable foray as a distinctly unshaven rapper as part of mockumentary, I'm Still Here. Bob Dylan/Born Again Christian Bob Dylan's infamous turn as a born again Christian seemed to split fans right down the middle. While Grammys and fawning critics continued to flow, his mid-show preaching and refusal to play any of his old "atheist" music wore thin pretty quickly. Katy Hudson/Katy Perry Katy Hudson was the clean-cut gospel singer, raised by preacher parents and forbidden from listening to "secular" music. In a drastic sexformation she then kissed a girl, married a sex addict and the rest, as they say, is history. Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines Country musician Garth Brooks was not satisfied with multi-platinum success and decided to channel his emo tendencies into his alter-ego, Chris Gaines. After a combination of utter bemusement followed by wild laughter from critics and fans alike, the Gaines experiment was (mercifully) shelved for good. Lady Gaga/Jo Calderone After meat dresses and gratuitous nudity it's pretty hard to be surprised by Lady Gaga anymore. But appearing at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards dressed as a bloke named Jo Calderone and looking distinctly like John Travolta in Grease was pretty weird, even for her. Lizzy Grant/Lana Del Rey Pop music's newest pin-up girl, bringing wide-eyed, vacant heartbreak to the masses, started her career as Lizzy Grant and the far less headline-grabbing stage name, Sparkle Rope Jump Queen. One failed album and a sleepily seductive YouTube clip later, pop-music juggernauts Stranger Records scooped her up and transformed Lizzy into Lana and had radio stations across the globe gossiping about her ad nauseam.
While many industries across the country have contracted during the pandemic — with hospitality venues closing, live music events cancelled and some sports banned for months — surfing has boomed. It makes sense, really. It's the ideal socially distant sport that gets you out of the house and into nature. When 2022 rolls around, Sydney surfers will have a new place to take their board to: a surf park and resort right on the Hawkesbury River. Approved by The Hills Shire Council yesterday, the 45-acre Wisemans Surf Lodge will be Australia's first premium resort-style wave pool. The pool itself will be massive — four football fields in length — and the waves powered by US tech company Surfloch, which has the ability to generate 2.5-metre peaks in multiple shapes every 10–12 seconds. As well as the wave pool, the resort will be home to a nine-hole golf course, a 54-suite hotel, a restaurant and a bar, all surrounded by bushland and right on the river. The hotel will see the renovation of an existing 90s-built hotel overseen by architect Kelvin Ho who's behind Merivale venues like The Newport and Palmer & Co, as well as resorts in the Maldives. Access to the Surf Lodge will be via membership. Details on this are scarce for the moment, but we're hoping it's not too spenno. When Wisemans does open, it won't be Australia's first surf park. That title goes to Melbourne's Urbnsurf. In fact, it might not even be Sydney's first surf park, with Urbnsurf set to open a second location in Olympic Park in 2021. Kelly Slater also has plans to open one of his famed Surf Ranches on the Sunshine Coast, too, but that doesn't yet have an ETA. Wisemans Surf Lodge is set to open in Wisemans Ferry, NSW in 2022.
A film about abstaining from alcohol probably shouldn't make its audience want a drink, but that's exactly what Ruben Guthrie does. On one hand, perhaps the desire to knock back the hard stuff after watching the film speaks to its intended commentary about Australia's booze-friendly culture. On the other, maybe it's just the natural reaction to a movie that is both slickly packaged and self-pitying. Either way, Ruben Guthrie doesn't let the topic of drinking wander far from anyone's minds, whether its titular advertising wunderkind (Patrick Brammall) is guzzling champagne then jumping off the roof of his waterside mansion — and breaking his arm when he almost misses the pool below — or talking about past benders at the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting his mother (Robyn Nevin) swiftly drags him to. Often, he's just arguing about his consumption, first with his disapproving model fiancée Zoya (Abbey Lee), who gives him an ultimatum to stop, and then with his enabling father (Jack Thompson), boss (Jeremy Sims) and best mate (Alex Dimitriades), who can't accept his hiatus from partying. Transitioning from yelling "let's get smashed!" to looking longingly at half-filled bottles, it's the kind of scenario that feels like art imitating life — or a movie adapting a theatre production that was inspired by real experiences more accurately, because that's what it is. Brendan Cowell turned his own attempt to get sober after a big binge into a play, and now fashions it into his first big-screen full-length directorial effort. As a character, Guthrie's aim — and Cowell's before him — is to get through a year without beer, wine, spirits and other tipples. That's clearly a difficult feat for the ad man in the film, made more so by the brash manner in which both the situation and everyone involved in it is depicted. Guthrie feels sorry for himself and seeks redemption, but his behaviour warrants little understanding in return. He lives large, then mopes and yells, with Brammall doing his best to simultaneously channel Cowell and bring nuance to the role. The supporting players, meanwhile, become little more than one-note reminders of Guthrie's conflicting urges. Of course, the constant Aussie fondness for a pint, glass or shot that Ruben Guthrie highlights proves an interesting subject; here, it's just treated a little too superficially, and further suffers when the movie tries to conjure up too much sympathy. Stagey dialogue and travelogue-like shots of Sydney don't add any depth, nor do routine scenes of debauchery contrasted with outdoor activities. Also missing is comedy that does anything more than try to wring laughs out of stating the obvious — as well as the more satirical tone of the play, which might've made the feature and its protagonist feel like a statement. Instead, this cinema cocktail is shaken in its ingredients and, in its final blend of hedonistic excess, garnished with sober navel-gazing. You'll need a stiff drink will wash away the aftertaste.
'Fresh' may be what we've been told to go for, with every other cafe and restaurant coaxing us in with the term, but not all things should be consumed according to a 'best by' date; some, dare we say, should have a 'better after' date instead. Really, some things are just better with age (see: wine, whisky, wisdom). So, in partnership with Coopers to celebrate their 2017 Vintage Ale release, we're exploring the lesser-known delicacies which can also improve with a bit of time — like beer. From increasing depth of flavour in drinks to the endless health benefits of ageing certain foods, time can sometimes be of the essence when it comes to the finest things in life. BEER While the idea of a wine cellar is pretty commonplace, far fewer have heard of a beer cellar. Like the ageing of a fine wine, beer too can get better with age. Whether preserved in a bottle or barrel-aged, saving your beer for a later date can often bring out complex characteristics that could not be achieved when freshly brewed. This is true of most darker, bigger beers, like stouts, porters and barley wines (which is actually just a style of ale). They hold deep malt flavours and high alcohol content that has yet to be unpacked when still fresh. Take the Coopers Limited Release 2017 Vintage Ale, for example, which is specifically brewed to be cellared, saved for a later date. This year's recipe balances caramalt with Denali and Calypso hops to bring out a fruity and delicate aroma that gives way to rich, sweet, caramel characters when aged. Many sour beers are also prime for saving, especially those brewed with brettanomyces yeast, notable for its rather funky character. While ageing dark beers generally intensifies flavours, ageing sours normally mellows out the brew, so if you're into a big funky beer, then cellaring it may not be the right choice. Now, not all beer is better when aged. Though Coopers ales have a 'best after' date due to the secondary fermentation that takes place in the bottle or keg, and while their pale ale is better with time and even an aged version of their sparkling ale is starting to pop up on tap at certain bars, IPAs and golden ales will struggle to last if stored away. These beers should be consumed fresh, or they'll lose their hop flavour and often go skunked. And whenever you are looking to save a special bottle of beer, the same rules apply as for cellaring wine — keep in a dark, cool place. Though, unlike wine, beer should be stored upright, or else it can lose its carbonation. TEA Not all teas are created equal. While some teas are meant to be consumed fresh and young, like white, yellow and most green teas, other teas are best consumed once they've been 'rested'. Rested teas are simply those that have been stored away to, well, rest for some time. Much like the contrast of storing dark and sour beers, rested teas can be stored to allow for any sharp flavours to soften, or conversely, to deepen flavours and bring out a richer character. Once a tea has been stored long enough, it can then fall into the 'aged tea' category. While there's no definitive timeframe for when a tea will be officially considered 'aged', generally teas that have been rested for at least five years can receive the title (and in turn a hefty price tag). And as with cellaring wine and beer, you shouldn't store any old tea. Deciding which teas to age depends on the type of tea, quality of the leaves and, most importantly, what will happen with the flavour profile as it ages. BEEF Old meat is spoilt meat, right? Wrong. Pretty much all of the beef you eat is aged because, as it turns out, it actually tastes better that way. Strangely enough, fresh beef actually tastes less like what we think beef is supposed to taste like. So, all fresh beef is aged for at least a few days and up to several weeks in order to allow the natural enzymes to break down the muscle tissue, making for a better texture and flavour. For optimal tenderness, dry ageing is most effective between 14–28 days, while some high-end restaurants age beef for up to 240 days to enhance flavour — they'll charge you a pretty penny for that 'old' meat, too. The general consensus is that 30–40 days of dry ageing will bring you some pretty tasty meat, though. Wet-aged beef is also popular, though less spoken about, and is when meat is aged in a vacuum-sealed bag to retain moisture. SOURDOUGH The pillowy addictiveness of sourdough bread is known far and wide, which is not so much the case for where the 'sour' comes from. This type of bread is made from an aged starter, which begins as nothing but flour and water and is then fermented over time with wild yeast and lactobacillus. That same starter is used time and again, for years and years, because generally the older your starter, the better tasting the bread. Some of the best are over 30 years old, with supposedly some that have even aged over 100 years. And as a bonus, this ageing process doesn't just help make the bread incredibly airy, but also makes it healthier for you. The slow fermentation and long preparation time of sourdough neutralises phytic acid, making it better for your gut to digest, even for those sensitive to gluten. [caption id="attachment_599287" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Steve Woodburn.[/caption] VEGETABLES The idea of aged veggies isn't a very pleasant one. Like meat, we're taught that fresh is the ultimate way to get your greens. Though, that fresh veg crunch is something we crave, and even some raw vegetables are best that way (lettuce), experimenting with the ageing process can enhance the flavours (and health benefits) of your vegetables. The world of fermented foods is pretty vast. You have your known — cabbage into sauerkraut, cucumbers into gherkins — and you have your lesser-known, which includes an extensive list of veg that you can age using various pickling techniques. Fermenting vegetables usually only requires some salt, water and, depending, maybe some whey. Plus, you can pickle almost anything, from the usual cabbage and cucumbers to root vegetables, radishes, string beans, garlic, cauliflower, ginger and even pineapple. Sometimes ageing can be a great thing. Get your hands on some Coopers Vintage Ale 2017 and try it yourself. Words: Marissa Ciampi and Quinn Connors.
Cadbury, stahp. Cadbury, please staaaahp ruining everything we hold dear. We don’t know who keeps telling Cadbury that we want new, exciting and messed-up chocolate flavours, but they’ve released three new grotesque creations to the coveted Milk Tray lineup and it truly is a sign of the end times. Introducing Kale Crème, Wasabi Crunch and Beetroot Jelly, the next generation’s equivalent of Top Deck, Snack and Caramello. Let’s have a moment of silence to mourn simpler times. Apparently, Beetroot Jelly is meant to cater to health nuts (who will not be eating chocolate anyway, so why ruin it for the rest of us?), while Wasabi Crunch will capitalise on the popularity of "Asian flavours" (because there are apparently no more dessert-appropriate flavours in all of Asia to choose from). Then there's Kale Crème, the most vulgar flavour of them all, which is a response to a demand for savoury tastes. You guyyyys, we meant peanuts. Salt. Maybe chilli. These are the savoury flavours we want, and of all the savoury flavours you had to choose from kale was the winner? It’s not even tasty in its natural form (and don’t you dare pretend it is, health nuts) Unsurprisingly, it was reported that testers found the wasabi too sharp and the kale too bitter, although beetroot did pass (still doesn’t mean it should take up a whole pocket in a Milk Tray though). News.com.au were brave enough to see what lies beneath the new Milk Tray additions, here's their snap: Dramatics aside, Cadbury have been getting fairly… experimental with their flavours lately (need we remind you of Vegemite chocolate?) and this is not the first time the Milk Tray has been changed (RIP lime cordial). But after 100 years, the international confectionery giants are still trying to appeal to a younger audience who apparently can’t get enough of gimmicks. Well, you know what, they’re probably right. We need to try that Kale Crème. Goddammit, you’ve got our number Cadbury. Via The Vine. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
It feels like every second week some huge piece of hardware is unveiled to the world by wireless headset-wearing marketing execs with click-through presentations — indeed, Apple launched their new iPhone 7 in September — and today it's Google's turn. After 18 years in the biz, they're releasing their own phone: the Google Pixel. Now, before you Google what a Google Pixel is (and it comes up as the first result, naturally), you should know that this isn't just another Android phone. Unlike Samsung or Sony phones, which use the Google-developed operating system, the Pixel is the first phone that is fully Google — that is, they've designed it from start to finish, so both the hardware and the software is by them. What does this mean? Well it means everything's a a lot smoother and more integrated because Google has been able to develop both technologies to work closely together. Sort of like how Apple build the iPhone and then develop iOS to go with it. But aside from being the ultimate phone to run Gmail on, the Pixel has a heap of features to give the iPhone a run for its money. These include a camera which apparently wins out against all other smartphones, a super advanced Siri-like Google assistant and unlimited storage. But enough with the brand speak. Here's six details about the Google Pixel in dot point form that you can use for prime water cooler convo at work today (if not just to annoy your pro-Apple colleagues). THE CAMERA IS GOOD — LIKE, REALLY GOOD So good, that it's been given a rating of 89 by DxOMark Mobile, a body that tests and ranks smartphone features and camera. By contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge scored an 88 and the iPhone 7 an 86. So it's just a little bit better, supposedly. It boast 12 megapixels an f/2.0 aperture and a video stabilisation feature that'll really up the ante on your Snapchats. THEY'VE CREATED AN AUSSIE SIRI-LIKE ASSISTANT Just like how Google Maps recruited a local to help give you directions, Google Assistant (which is already being used with other apps like Google Home) will too be an Aussie. That doesn't just extend to its voice though — it will also recognise words that tend to blow tiny robot brains. Google Assistant will hear your "arvo" and "brekkie" and know exactly how to respond to it — with a list of places that do brekkie in the arvo. Assistant makes use of Google's insane web search algorithm, which makes it extremely intelligent. IT'S GOING TO MAKE VR AN ACCESSIBLE THING Come November, you'll also be able to buy a virtual reality headset to go with your Pixel — the Daydream View. The Daydream is like a way more advanced (and ergonomic) version of Google Cardboard. It works in the same way that you stick your Pixel (so far the only Daydream-compatible device) into the front and navigate using a wireless remote. It's also made of fabric and is a lot comfier that other clunky VR headsets — we tried it, and it was one of the better ones we've worn. It's clear Google think mobile VR can be the next big thing, so it'll be interesting to see what they do with it. THE FINGERPRINT UNLOCK 'BUTTON' IS ON THE BACK Pretty much the only thing that distinguishes the Pixel from the iPhone at a glance (while the Pixel is a bit bigger, it's very much the same shape and width as the iPhone) is its lack of home button at bottom centre. That's because Google has put it on the back. Like the iPhone you can choose to use fingerprint encryption (and/or a pattern) — you just use your pointer finger instead. THERE'S NO LIMITS ON STORAGE Because it's Google, it's kind of a given that this phone will be strongly tied to Google Drive and Google Photos. So the good folks at Google (perhaps to make you feel okay about backing up all your data ever with them) are throwing in unlimited cloud storage with your device — which means, unlike a regular free account, you have no limits on the size of the files you're storing. IT COMES IN TWO SIZES AND COLOURS They're very well-named as well. There's the five-inch and the five-and-a-half-inch (the Pixel and the Pixel XL, respectively) and they come in Quite Black and Very Silver. Self-explanatory. The Google Pixel will be available from today, Thursday, October 20. For more info, visit madeby.google.com/phone.
You've done your CrossFit and F45 this week, enjoyed some early morning yoga and a green juice, and almost kicked your weekly burger habit. But what about when it's time for weekend drinks with the crew? Enter FAIR Açai liqueur, which turns the superfood staple into booze. Launched in Australia at Melbourne's Good Food & Wine Show on June 2, FAIR Açai liqueur is made using ethically grown and sustainably farmed handpicked açai berries from the Amazon rainforest, which are then pressed to extract their essence to form the base of the beverage. This maceration process also harnesses the qualities that make the berries so healthy — aka all of those antioxidants, fibre and heart-healthy fats. As you're sipping away, you'll be kick starting your metabolism and helping make your hair and nails shine. Basically, it's a beverage filled with all the things you need to look your best on a night out and easily digest that 'cheat meal' 3am kebab. As well as being good for eager drinkers, the liqueur is good for the environment, with FAIR ensuring that every bottle made follows rigorous sustainability and ethical agriculture protocols. Plus, in addition to supporting farmers in the region, they're also donating a portion of the profits to sustainability programs in the developing world. With flavours of red berries, cherry, blackcurrant and cranberry just bursting through on the palate, you wouldn't be blamed for wanting to pour it on your morning yoghurt and muesli combo. But for a more traditional way to drink the liqueur, try a twist on a gimlet. Shake up some gin, lime, sugar syrup and ice with a splash of this, and you'll be feeling those antioxidants working in no time.
Australia has always championed innovation in its agricultural pursuits, with our land — and its unique flora and fauna — intrinsically linked to our national identity. Indeed, geographic isolation has meant that the over one million different native species of flowering plants are unique to our landscape and unlike plants in any other part of the world. It's this innovation that distillers from all around the country are tapping into, creating bespoke and limited-edition spirits that are uniquely Australian in flavour. With that in mind, here's five gins from around the country you should try before they're gone for good (or until next year's plants are in season). ARCHIE ROSE x HORISUMI WINTER GIN The second release in the Archie Rose x Horisumi collection, this winter gin conjures up the essence of winter through its grassy and herbaceous notes, while also showcasing slightly sweet hints of jasmine, white grapefruit and a delicate line of sea spray. It's a harmonious unification of Japanese and Australian flavours, highlighting locally grown ingredients including Tasmanian kombu and Fuji apples, and also using sencha and genmaicha teas in the distillation blend. "We experimented with a wide range of ingredients that included trialling multiple varieties of seaweed distillate including nori, wakame and different types of kombu before settling on a Tasmanian harvested and cured example," explains Archie Rose master distiller Dave Withers. Like its previous release, only 2000 bottles have been made, with the first 200 hand wrapped in a traditional Japanese furoshiki wrap featuring the individual bottle number and winter kanji script. FOUR PILLARS BLOODY SHIRAZ GIN 2017 Can't decide if you want a glass of red wine or a gin and tonic tonight? Don't worry, Four Pillars is familiar with this common dilemma and has come up with a solution. Meet the Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin, a rare dry gin blended with premium shiraz grapes from the Yarra Valley. With the 2017 wine vintage in the Yarra proving particularly cooler, this has created a more savoury aromatic style of gin, along with a lighter, more ruby-like colour than its previous incarnation. Expect flavours of fresh pine needles and incredible spice, and a peppery, dense raspberry character. The palate is lovely and sweet, with long juniper and spice characters to finish. DASHER AND FISHER MOUNTAIN, OCEAN AND MEADOW GIN Based in north-western Tasmania, Southern Wild Distillery is the new kid on the block but has come out in full force, with three very unique expressions of the Tasmania landscape: Mountain, Meadow and Ocean. The gins are named after the two wild rivers, Dasher and Fisher, and are carefully crafted by local distiller George Burgess. Each gin is uses anywhere between 11 to 15 individual botanicals sourced from passionate local growers, with all three gins featuring the 'Tassie trio' of botanicals: native pepperberry (Mountain), lavender (Meadow) and wakame (Ocean). The Mountain gin is earthy with hints of pepper and licorice root, the Meadow tipple conjures up images of springtime with lavender, rosemary and just a hint of sage, and rounding out the trio is Ocean, which is like plunging your head straightforward into the sea thanks to its flavour profile of sea salt, nori and hints of jasmine flower. KANGAROO ISLAND SPIRITS OLD WHISKY BARREL GIN Love whisky? Love gin? You're in luck. Kangaroo Island Spirits have taken their most well-known gin, the Wild Gin, distilled it using native Kangaroo Island juniper (myoporum insulare) and aged it for two months in Australian whisky barrels. The process gives the booze a softer mouthfeel, with vanilla, persimmon, clove and amber flavours on the tongue. Making all of their projects in small batches, with every one of their spirits hand bottled and labelled, attention to detail shows in the quality of the KIS range. Think cold nights by a warm fireplace sipping this neat — or with one big ice cube — and you're headed on the right track for a great winter's night in. MARGARET RIVER DISTILLING CO. GINVERSITY BOTANICAL GIN Established in 2015 as the sister distillery to the famous Limeburner's Distillery in Albury, the Margaret River Distilling Co. created their first gin using carefully selected and handpicked botanicals. The likes of eucalyptus, lemon myrtle and boronia were chosen to reflect a unique native Australian recipe. What makes this gin special and unique, however, is that every time it's made, each botanical is individually distilled and then infused together to create a distinctive aromatic style that is quintessentially Australian — like the smell of gumtrees or the fact that magpies always attack you in summer. This is your classic gin and tonic style tipple, perfect for sitting on a balcony trying to capture those last moments of the sun's rays listening to the kookaburras cry into the twilight.
What if Quentin Tarantino made spaghetti and meatballs? Or Wes Anderson made s'mores? They're not questions most people ponder — but food artist and commercials director David Ma did. In his new Food Film series, he offers up cooking tutorials made in the style of famous movie directors. When it comes to the Kill Bill filmmaker and making bolognaise, for example, expect plenty of blood. So far, Food Films features not only juicy Italian and intricately created marshmallow and cracker combinations, but also a Michael Bay-esque take on making waffles and Alfonso Cuaron-type interpretation of pancakes. As well as coming up with an artistic and clever concept for revitalising the rather routine recipe video trend, Ma has savvily matched his chosen filmmakers with his food dishes. S'mores are perfect fit for the creative mind behind the visual precision of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel, of course, and you can't make waffles without some machinery, which the Transformers-directing Bay clearly loves. A second series is currently in the storyboarding phase, which means more stylised culinary cinema fun will be coming our way soon. Just who he'll be emulating, and what meals he'll be shooting, hasn't been revealed — but surely a David Lynch-style cherry pie or doughnut video (or something with creamed corn, thanks to Twin Peaks' darker side) would go down a treat. Check out QT's take on a pasta staple below, and head to Ma's website for the full series. Via Fast Company.
It's Cinco de Mayo time again, and with the holiday always comes a slew of Mexican food offerings. For the occasion, Redfern's Norfolk Hotel is hosting an all-you-can-eat taco and bottomless margarita lunch on Sunday, May 5 — so best start making room in your stomach now. For $59, you can tuck into as many tacos and down as many margaritas as your tum can handle. There'll be five different tacos — think sticky pulled beef, grilled fish, barbacoa eggplant and crispy pork belly — and five different margarita flavours, including watermelon, coconut, tiki and Italian. If you think your tum can handle quite a few tacos, you can also enter a taco-eating competition, which'll kick of at 1.30pm. Entry will cost $10 and you can signup here. While all of this is happening, there'll be a live mariachi band playing to keep the Mexican vibes going all day long. All-you-can-eat tacos and bottomless margaritas are available at 12pm or 2pm. Bookings can be made via the website.
Australia's latest environmental protests will span an entire week, featuring rallies, marches, flash mobs, sing-alongs and more. Organised by Extinction Rebellion Australia — which has been ramping up its actions around the country over the course of the year — the co-ordinated series of national events is once again designed to demand government action on climate change. Running until Sunday, October 13 in Australia's major cities, the protests form part of the group's international Spring Rebellion campaign. The rallies kicked off on Monday, with different activities planned each day in each location. Reports from the Spring Rebellion's first two days include inner-city road closures, groups of 'dead bees' blocking major thoroughfares and meditation sessions outside Victoria's parliament. They also include plenty of arrests — Victoria Police reports that, along with yesterday's arrests, 59 people were taken into custody in Melbourne today, as was a protestor who suspended himself from Brisbane's Story Bridge in a hammock. Like September's Global Climate Strike, which was overseen locally by School Strike 4 Climate, the current events aim to draw attention to the changing state of the global environment — drastic changes that've caused soaring temperatures, prolonged drought conditions, and the horrific bushfires that plagued Queensland and NSW last month. Extinction Rebellion's Aussie protestors are also focusing on three demands: that the government declares a climate emergency, and urgently communicate the need for change; that state and federal governments commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025; and that a Citizens' Assembly on climate and ecological justice is convened. As always, disruptions and delays are expected as a result of the protest actions, including possible road closures and traffic diversions. If you're planning to join the crowds or need to consider your transport options for the week, here's how the events will go down in your city. [caption id="attachment_735589" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Extinction Rebellion SEQ[/caption] SYDNEY Extinction Rebellion's Sydney activities will change daily, with flash mobs meeting at Belmore Park at 9am tomorrow, Wednesday, October 9, before hopping on trains from Central Station and spreading their message through the rail network. From 12.30pm on Friday, October 11, protestors will literally place their heads in the sand (in holes that still allow enough room for them to breathe) on Manly Beach. At 9.30am on Saturday, October 12, they'll amass on the Coogee Beach Esplanade wearing blue and green, all to highlight the impact of climate change on the seas — and then, from 10.30am on Sunday, October 13, they'll descend on Bondi Beach to form a huge hourglass near the Icebergs end. For public transport and traffic updates each day, check Transport NSW and Live Traffic Sydney. MELBOURNE Melburnians can stop by the week-long family camp at Carlton Gardens, which forms Extinction Rebellion's local hub — it'll be holding arts and crafts, philosophy workshops, family-friendly Q&A sessions, music and performances throughout the week. From 3pm on Wednesday, October 9, they'll head to RMIT to rally, with traffic disruptions along Swanston Street likely. Then, from 7.30am on Friday, October 11, they'll perform a dress rehearsal for one of the group's next big actions — a blockade of the International Mining and Resources Conference between October 28–31 — by protesting outside of BHP's offices. The week culminates on Saturday, October 12 with the Nudie Parade, with folks stripping down to their underwear, painting their bodies with messages and marching from Carlton Gardens from 10am. For public transport and traffic updates each day, check Yarra Trams and Vic Traffic. BRISBANE Setting up shop in Queens Gardens on George Street, Brisbane boasts a jam-packed protest schedule — with flash mobs starting from outside the casino each morning until Friday, October 11. They'll gather from 7.30am, with sing-alongs taking place from noon each day, speakers hitting the microphone from 1pm daily, market stalls selling arts and crafts from 9am–5pm and a photobooth onsite as well. Live performances will also take place from 5pm, featuring bands on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a freestyle rap battle on Thursday. Tuesday will also see a public rally demanding action from the gas industry, which'll take place from midday at 32 Turbot Street, plus slam poetry in Queens Gardens from 7pm. On Wednesday, there'll be a weaving session at 10am in Queens Gardens, then a zero-waste gathering at the same site from 3pm. Come Thursday, protestors will stage a funeral procession down William Street to Parliament House from midday. And, on Friday, the group will occupy the William Jolly Bridge from 10am. For public transport and traffic updates each day, check Translink and Qld Traffic Metro. Extinction Rebellion's Spring Rebellion protests will take place at various times until Sunday, October 13. For further details, visit the organisation's website. Image: Extinction Rebellion Victoria
Street art enthusiast and fine art teacher Lou Chamberlin has spent a good part of the last decade documenting the creative work that has graced laneway walls all over Melbourne. Her latest book, Street Art: Melbourne, includes photographs of everything from stencils to yarn bombing. The street art movement has not blossomed in Melbourne alone, of course; it has become a global phenomenon that shows no sign of slowing down. Lou believes that this positive reaction has a lot to do with the accessibility of this type of art. "It has been likened to pop art and how that was a reaction to the very intellectual and academic art that was being put in galleries," she says. "I think the same thing was happening with postmodernism, it was becoming difficult for people to understand. That's why I think street art is such a revolution; it's giving art back to the masses." Lou also believes that the temporary nature of this art form is also very appealing to both passers-by and artists alike. "The artists do not have a sense of preciousness. Their work is expressive and serves a purpose, but when it's gone, it's gone." Street Art:Melbourne is not Lou's first book dedicated to street art photography; she has previously released Street Art: Rio and Street Art: Valparaiso. She has recently returned from a trip to New York, where Banksy is currently working as an artist in residence, selling his stencils for $60 a pop and driving around in a livestock truck filled with wailing stuffed toy animals. "I was three blocks away when that happened!" says Lou. "I'm working on a book for New York now. I think I'll do one for Berlin soon; there are some absolutely enormous walls with the best artists working there.” Lou’s favourite street art lane in Melbourne is Hosier Lane, but she also recommends that we keep our eye on Artists Lane in Windsor for some exciting new pieces. Out of the hundreds of street artists work she has snapped, she has her favourites both from the local and international scene. "I love TWOONE, I like the quirkiness of Ghostpatrol. I love Ears, he's a Sydney-based artist. Internationally I like Herakut, and Blu." Lou says that she has noticed a change in practice and in quality of street art in Melbourne over the last eight years. "It's become more complex," she says. "I think it's become more collaborative, as there are more groups of artists working together on particular walls. And the quality has become a lot stronger, a lot better." We had Lou tell us about six or her favourite works of Melbourne street art that no longer remain. All the photographs are from her book Street Art: Melbourne, out on November 1 through Explore Australia Publishing, RRP $39.95, and used with permission. "This stencil is one of the first to pique my interest. I photographed it in Rutledge Lane in Melbourne's CBD in 2006. I was so impressed by it that I used it in a secondary school art textbook as an example of contemporary art borrowing from the past to make a social comment." "This glorious work by German duo Herakut was painted in Union Lane in Melbourne's CBD in February this year. It has since been slowly covered by tagging so that only one eye and the top of the head remain. Herakut were in Melbourne painting an enormous wall as part of their global Giant Storybook Project." "This collaborative piece by Ears and Adnate adorned the wall of a small lane in Fitzroy for a short time. I love the way it fragments and reassembles the features of the face. It's almost a 21st-century twist on Picasso's Cubism." "Ghostpatrol has painted some wonderful commissioned walls in Melbourne's inner suburbs. I photographed this one in 2008. It was repainted by the same artist in 2012. It's very interesting to see how artists' styles and subject matter change over time." "Owen Dippie (known internationally as OD) painted this portrait of Heath Ledger as The Joker in Hosier Lane in 2012. I've just been to New York where I saw an enormous piece by OD at the fabled (and soon to be demolished) 5Pointz in Brooklyn. His photorealist style is readily recognisable." "It doesn't get much more transient than this! I was fortunate enough to be walking down Swanston Street one night when the Taiwanese artist who uses the title Splash Baron was painting in water. His animal characters lasted about 10 minutes before disappearing forever." Street Art: Melbourne by Lou Chamberlin, published by Explore Australia Publishing.
Everyone needs a little Tarzan time. But, between work and YouTube and cocktails, it's not always easy to find. The good news is that, in Sydney, there are plenty of ways to experience the great outdoors — without leaving the city limits. You can swing through trees while catching glimpses of Sydney Harbour, jetpack like James Bond over human-made lakes and skydive with a roof over your head. So, next time you get to feeing antsy, but can't skip the big smoke, let this list be your guide to outdoorsy fun. TIPTOE THROUGH THE TREETOPS AT THE ZOO Opened in April this year, Taronga Zoo's Wild Ropes gives you 90 minutes of treetop time with loads of city panoramas. In between scrambling up aerial rock walls, tiptoeing over bridges and hanging out on a hoverboard, see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from dizzying new angles. There are four courses to master — two for nervous types and two for people whose brains are missing their fear centres. Conquer them all and you'll have dominated a total of 40 obstacles. Wild Ropes is open from 9.30am-3.30pm seven days a week, 364 days a year. Tickets start at $35, which buys you two courses' worth of fun. Online bookings are essential. [caption id="attachment_602615" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Jasmine Crittenden.[/caption] CASUALLY JETPACK ACROSS A LAKE If you're a James Bond freak, then you've probably been dreaming about this since 1965, when Sean Connery jet packed to safety from two furious gunmen in Thunderball. Now, you can get your 007 on at Penrith Lakes, with Jetpack Adventures. Powered by water, you'll launch three storeys into the air and then steer yourself using your hands or your feet. It's very, very surreal and very, very fun. As far as transport modes go, you have a choice of a Bond-style jet pack (a backpack fitted with a 5-point safety harness) or an Astro Boy-inspired jet board. Newbies can get started with a $99 teaser pack, which gives you a 30-minute experience, including in-water training. Make your booking over here. GO ROCKCLIMBING IN THE INNER WEST Sydney Indoor Climbing Centre, found in St Peters, is Australia's biggest indoor climbing joint. There are 3700 square metres of walls on which to test your mettle. Among them, you'll find more than 300 routes (up to 25 metres long), 145 top ropes, over 60 lead lines, 90 boulder problems, a slack line and caves. Beginners get one free lesson and are also invited to join a five-session course, which runs on Monday and Wednesday evenings. If you're keen to refine your skills, then go for a one-on-one class. For climbing only, pay as you go for casual, unlimited single sessions or invest in a membership. [caption id="attachment_602614" align="alignnone" width="1280"] iFly.[/caption] GO SKYDIVING WITH A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD Try skydiving while indoors, without a parachute — and without fear of a gruesome death — at iFly Downunder, Penrith. It's an enormous, vertical glass tunnel, beneath which there's a mighty wind generator. All you have to do is lean through the door, stretch out your arms and let the breeze carry you upwards, while your mates stand around, laughing at your inability to control your face. If you've never flown before, then you'll get a one-hour intro session, which includes training and jumpsuit fitting. Become a frequent iFlyer to score future discounts and to learn clever tricks, like formation, free fly and freestyle sky diving. RIDE THROUGH 416 HECTARES OF SYDNEY GARDENS The Royal Botanic Gardens are impossible to miss, but fewer Sydneysiders are familiar with the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan. Found a 40-minute drive southwest of the CBD — just outside of Campbelltown — it's home to 416 hectares of nature, including numerous beautiful gardens (one being devoted to 950 wattle species) and a world-class mountain bike track. Pedal your way along 13 kilometres of scenery, catering to competent, intermediate and advanced riders. If paved, shared paths are more your thing, then stick to the 20 kilometres of them outside the MTB section. [caption id="attachment_603336" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Centennial Parklands.[/caption] RIDE A HORSE IN THE MIDDLE OF CENTENNIAL PARK There are few cities in the world where you can go horse riding within a few kilometres of the CBD, but Sydney is one of them. Centennial Park's Equestrian Centre gives you loads of options. Surprise your squeeze with a romantic ride, which is a guided, one-hour circuit at dawn or dusk, or a ride to lunch, which is exactly what it sounds like. Alternatively, upskill with lessons or courses at one of the centre's riding schools. Riders of all levels of experience are welcome. If your first ride has you hankering for more, then find some more horse riding options near Sydney over here. GO WHITEWATER RAFTING IN PENRITH Even if you've never so much as seen a rapid, you can have a crack at whitewater rafting at Penrith Whitewater Stadium. Built for the 2000 Olympic Games, the venue is the only human-built whitewater course in the Southern Hemisphere. The only requisites to climbing aboard are fitness and confidence in the swimming department (yep, there's a high chance of capsizing in all that bubble and froth). Two ways of travelling are available — with a guide and up to eight crew members or without a guide and up to four crew members. Either way, each ride gets you 90 minutes of excitement. You can book via phone or in person. TEAM UP AT INDOOR PAINTBALL IN TURRELLA Paintball sites can be a whole day trip away from Sydney, but there's one place that's just a short train from the CBD — and it's indoors. At Diehard Paintball, you go to war across two levels connected by bridges, runways and platforms. This epic space, littered with wrecked cars, piles of used tires, wheelie bins, post boxes and paint-splattered drums, looks like a scene out of Mad Max. And, because it's indoors, you can play at any time of day or night, in any kind of weather. You'll find it in Turrella, which is near Rosedale and about 15 minutes' train ride from the city. Groups of all sizes are looked after and pricing starts at $50 per person, which buys you 200 paintballs over two hours. [caption id="attachment_603391" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Adam J.W.C.[/caption] GO KAYAKING IN ROSE BAY Rose Bay is an easy, ten-minute ferry ride from Circular Quay. From the wharf, stroll west along the coast for about 500 metres to reach Rose Bay Aquatic Hire, which sets up in Tingira Memorial Park from 8.30am-1pm Wednesday-Friday and from 7am-5pm on weekends. A single kayak will set you back $25/hour, while doubles are $40. If you're a novice paddler, then stick to the coast, heading northeast towards Vaucluse or west towards Point Piper. If you're feeling confident, then set out across the Harbour for Shark Island. To land, you'll need a National Park entry ticket, which is doable for seven bucks by calling (02) 9253 0888. There are another nine tip-top kayaking spots near Sydney in this dedicated feature. SCUBA DIVE WITH SHARKS IN MANLY There's no cage involved here, folks. It's just you and the sharks, up close. To try out this underwater adventure, make tracks to Manly's Sea Life Sanctuary. You don't need any diving experience — you'll get a quick lesson on the day before plunging into the aquarium. The sharks are of the grey nurse type, which means they eat only fish — not people — and they're highly endangered along Australia's East Coast. You'll also get to meet Port Jackson sharks, wobbegong sharks, sea turtles and enormous sting rays. Book online in advance to save a few bucks. So you have time to actually get out of the city? Try one of these 200 outdoor activities we've rounded up for you.
Last Wednesday, the lower north shore's Mosman Rowers club was forced to close after a fire partially destroyed the century-old building. But, in good news, the venue has opened its cafe back up for business as of today, Monday, April 8. In just a number of days, the club has made emergency repairs, and the second-level 100-seat cafe Archie Bear — where the fire started — has resumed service. It's currently serving classic bacon and egg roll and green breakfast bowls, and will switch to plates of Sydney rock oysters, baby squid and antipasto plates as the lunch menu kicks in. View this post on Instagram We're excited to let everyone know we are open again 🍾 A huge thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point since Wednesday, we honestly can't thank you enough. For more info on our updated hours, please visit our website 🍽 #MosmanRowers A post shared by Mosman Rowers (@mosmanrowers) on Apr 7, 2019 at 3:02pm PDT The Rowers Bar, which is located one level up, won't reopen until 4pm this Friday, April 12. To make up for it, Archie Bear will remain open for dinner service all this week. Come Saturday, both levels will resume normal operating hours, with Archie Bear open from 7.30am–3.30pm Monday to Wednesday, and for dinner as well Thursday to Sunday. The Rowers Bar opens from 4pm Monday to Friday, with the addition of lunch from midday on weekends. The fire started in the fireplace in Archie Bear early on Wednesday, March 3, and, while it was quickly contained by several crews and trucks, it forced the closure of the historic venue. All this after it had reopened under the Bird & Bear Group just last month. Locals will be pleased to see the venue reopen so quickly. Mosman Rowers is located at 3 Centenary Drive, Mosman. Archie Bear will be open from 7.30am–late all this week, while The Rowers Bar will open from 4pm on Friday. Normal operating hours are scheduled to resume on Saturday, April 13.
Is your wardrobe overflowing with clothes that you don't wear? We've all been there, and we've all been too busy to do anything about it. Through its op shops, Australian Red Cross finds a new home for your pre-loved outfits, shoes and accessories, with proceeds going towards its charity efforts — but we all know that wanting to donate your old threads is one thing and finding the time to do it is another. That's why Australian Red Cross has once again partnered with Uber for its annual Uber x Red Cross Clothing Drive. When it launched in 2018, it collected over 43,500 kilograms of clothing in that first year alone, which saw clothing items worth an estimated $800,000 donated. And you'd best take the drive part literally, as the ride-sharing service will actually drive to your house, pick up your unwanted clothes and accessories, and deliver them to Red Cross Shops. Even better: it's not only super easy to take part, but it's free as well. Sydneysiders just make sure you're ready between 9am–4pm on Saturday, October 21. Once you've bagged up all of your old bits and pieces (items you'd happily give your best friend, and no toys, books, furniture or electrical objects) into a bundle that weighs no more than 20 kilograms, it's all incredibly simple. Open the Uber app during that seven-hour window, then find the 'package' option. After that, you need to click 'send a package', enter "Red Cross Shop" as the destination, and select one of the Red Cross Clothing Drive locations displayed An Uber driver will then stop outside your house, meaning that you just need to take your preloved goods out to their car. Voila, you've cleared out your closet and you've helped folks in need, all with the tap of a button.
Animal Collective released their ninth full-length album Centipede Hz on September 4th, prompting Rolling Stone to note "Something this inventive should be heard by everyone." Apparently it is if Rdio's 'Heavy Rotation' tab is accurate, with any account worth following spinning its already-turbulent buzz into an addictive loop of multifarious textures and unexpectedly cohesive rhythms. And with all that jumbled up with the respectively gnarly and buoyant vocals of Avey Tare and Panda Bear, it's still something you can hum along to with a fair degree of confidence. Visuals are another important part of the Animal Collective experience, whether it's a trippy album cover or one of their sensory overload live performances. They'll be staging one such show at this year's Big Day Out, and another at the Enmore in January. Expect the unexpected, and probably lots of graphic neon t-shirts. Update: Due to a delay in the arrival of their equipment, the Sydney show has been postponed to Thursday, 17 January. https://youtube.com/watch?v=GxhaRgJUMl8
At the box office, a film adaptation of Wicked was always set to defy gravity, as the world discovered in 2024. On the stage, the hit musical had proven a blockbuster for two decades. The realm of The Wizard of Oz has been beloved on the page for over a century and on the screen for over 85 years, too. So when heading back to Oz sparked the fifth highest-grossing movie globally of last year, it wasn't at all a surprise. Can Wicked: For Good top it? Bringing Wicked to cinemas is a two-part affair. The first picture arrived in November 2024, painted theatres pink and green, then won Oscars. The second has a date with the silver screen in November 2025. And if you're wondering how the stage musical's second act will soar at the movies, here's your first glimpse: the debut trailer for Wicked: For Good. When sneak peeks for the initial film started dropping last year, questions such as "are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" were peppered within them. Now, sentiments like "there's no going back", "think of what we could do together" and "it's time for both of us to fly" echo instead, hailing from Glinda and Elphaba. Ariana Grande (Don't Look Up) and Cynthia Erivo (Poker Face) return to their Academy Award-nominated parts to bring Wicked's tale to its conclusion, and to keep chronicling their characters' paths to becoming Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West, respectively. As the first instalment did, Wicked: For Good boasts director Jon M Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) behind the lens, again taking inspiration from composer Stephen Schwartz and playwright Winnie Holzman. Alongside Grande and Erivo, Jeff Goldblum (Kaos) portrays the Wizard of Oz, while Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek: Section 31), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Ethan Slater (Elsbeth) and Marissa Bode (who made her feature debut in Wicked) also co-star. From the first Wicked: For Good trailer, audiences can get excited about more time in Emerald City, flying monkeys, transformations, yellow bricks, grand ceremonies, warnings in the sky and heartfelt messages — and also Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. For those new to Wicked, it focuses on the Land of Oz's witches, with telling their untold tale the musical's whole angle. On the stage, the show has notched up more awards than you can fit in a hefty cauldron over the years. That includes three Tonys from ten nominations, a Grammy, an Olivier Award and six Drama Desk Awards. Check out the trailer for Wicked: For Good below: Wicked: For Good releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, November 20, 2025.
Feeling flush? For the first time ever, cashed-up travellers can now book out an entire hotel through Airbnb, for the tidy sum of $15,000. That hotel being the newly opened Little Albion Guest House — a luxurious 35-room operation in the heart of Surry Hills. Launching officially this week, the one-of-a-kind guest house is out to shake-up the luxury travel game, pitched as a fusion of hotel and home. The idea here is to team the comfort of a hotel, with the familiarity and laidback nature of an Airbnb stay. It's the first hotel in the world that can be booked out in its entirety via the app. If you don't have the expendable cash to book out the whole thing, you can also rent out individual rooms in the hotel, which start at around $150 per night. The Little Albion Guest House is the work of boutique accommodation group 8Hotels and talented designer Connie Alessi, and it has designer interiors, a covetable art collection, a rooftop garden complete with an outdoor shower and panoramic city views, and an honour-system bar, where guests can help themselves to high-end nibbles and drinks. There'll also be a team of hosts — headed by Surry Hills local Wendy Morris — on hand at all hours to help out with everything from charging cables to local gym recommendations. It's the latest boutique hotel to join Surry Hills' ever-growing collection, which also includes the newly open Paramount House Hotel. Find Little Albion Guest House at 21 Little Albion Street, Surry Hills
Perth, our most westerly neighbour, has long been celebrated for its natural beauty — the sea, sand and endless sunshine. But, hey, there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. Over the past few years, Perth has switched gears and turned into a vibrant, cultural hub with the personality to back up its good looks. Now it's an ideal destination for a long weekend getaway. So you don't miss out on all that Perth has to offer, we've teamed up with the folks at QT Perth to bring you ten top-notch things to eat, see and do while visiting this magical city. The urban-chic boutique hotel is situated within the heart of Perth and boasts luxe amenities — like something called a 'signature QT Dream Bed', retro-glam black and gold furnishings, a minibar full of surprises and even complimentary pilates classes — all perfect for those explorers who relish the finer things. And what's more, this summer, you can stay at the swish hotel for free. QT Perth is giving away an epic trip to WA, which includes three nights' accommodation for two, plus flights, VIP passes to the Ice Cream Factory Summer Festival and $200 to spend at the festival bar. So, pack your bags; it's time to get acquainted with the new Perth. TUCK INTO PASTRIES AT MARY STREET BAKERY, HIGHGATE Baked goods mecca Mary Street Bakery sits just a 20-minute stroll from QT Perth. With four outposts around the city, the bakery has become a firm favourite among locals and visitors alike. Those with a proclivity for savoury can tuck into slow-cooked eggs with buttery toast ($13) or kimchi pancakes with beef brisket ($22), while the sweet tooths can enjoy some next-level treats, like pandan pannacotta with puffed rice, lime gel, almonds and mango ($16) or perfectly baked escargot ($5) — the pastries, not the snails. Wash it all down with a single origin cold brew or an organic cold-pressed green juice if you want to pretend you're healthy after that hefty dose of sugar. PERUSE THE GOODS AT FREMANTLE MARKETS, FREMANTLE Just 30 minutes from Perth's CBD, you'll find the uber trendy suburb of Fremantle. Renowned for its burgeoning art and music scene, Freo's streets are abuzz with creativity. Arguably the best way to get a glimpse of this vibrant culture is to hit up the Fremantle Markets. Running for over than 100 years, the markets have everything from Aboriginal art and Aussie opals to fresh fruit and coffee beans. There's even a shop which solely sells Barnesy t-shirts, because everybody loves Barnesy. The markets also have a regular busker schedule, so you can shop to the sweet sounds of Perth's up-and-coming musicians. GO GAMING AT PALACE ARCADE, CBD Arcade bars have been popping up all over the Eastern Seaboard — and now the neon-lit trend has spread to the west. Last September, Perth's first arcade bar opened its doors to the delight of all the kidults in WA. Boasting more than 100 machines from the 70s, 80s and 90s, Palace Arcade is a great place to go if you want to play like a kid for the day. There's nothing quite like getting a good dose of nostalgia along with your beer (or Cheat Mode cocktail). Should hunger strike, Mack Daddy's New York Pizza is available whole and by the slice. The best part? It's only a short, seven-minute stroll — or waddle depending on the pizza slices consumed — back to the hotel. CATCH A FLICK IN THE CLOUDS, NORTHBRIDGE As if openair cinemas weren't cool enough — this one's on a rooftop, six levels above the city and with panoramic views of Perth. Rooftop Movies is open now until March 30, 2019, with a program that places new films, like Bohemian Rhapsody, alongside old gems à la The Parent Trap and Romeo + Juliet. They've even dusted off 90s classic Home Alone just in time for Christmas. Grab yourself a Pimm's cup from the bar, settle into your comfy beanbag and watch as a babyfaced Macaulay Culkin physically and emotionally destroys two grown men. Oh, and even if the movie blows, you've got that skyline. [caption id="attachment_701027" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Adam Selwood.[/caption] TOUR THE LITTLE CREATURES BREWERY, FREMANTLE It'd be remiss to visit the West Coast and not have a pint of Little Creatures. The beer was born when a group of mates started brewing in a huge shed (and former crocodile farm) on the water's edge in Freo. Doesn't get more Aussie than that. Touted as the 'Grandfather of Perth's craft breweries', Little Creatures has been slinging beers since 2000 and operates like a well-oiled machine. To gain insight into the inner workings, jump on a brewery tour with a resident 'hop head' and learn about the brewing process, as well as the Little Creatures story. Tours run daily at 12, 1, 2 and 3pm, and cost $20 per person — that includes a guided tasting of the full range of beers. SNEAK INTO SNEAKY TONY'S, NORTHBRIDGE This elusive little speakeasy can only be accessed with a secret password, 'open sesame' style, which immediately makes you feel as though you're in some kind of prohibition-era gang. The bar's dim lights and moody aesthetic further adds to this 1920s underworld vibe; it's at once thrilling and mysterious. Ready yourself for a throng of punchy cocktails that make use of the bar's colossal rum collection. We suggest ordering the Sour Power, a refreshing blend of Cuban rum and watermelon, or the apple pie mojito. Just make sure to check Sneaky Tony's Facebook page to find out the magic word each Friday and Saturday night. Bottoms up, bootleggers. CATCH A FERRY AND HANG WITH THE QUOKKAS, ROTTNEST ISLAND Just look at that little guy, do we really need to convince you? Jump on a ferry to Rottnest Island and see the world's largest population of quokkas. There are thousands of them and, best of all, they're not camera shy. (Get ready for some seriously cute quokka selfies — these guys even smile for you.) Beyond the little brown floofs, 'Rotto' is a pristine, natural wonderland that's ripe for exploration. Go for a surf at one of the stunning white-sand beaches or explore the island by foot via one of the scenic hikes. Once you're tuckered out, catch the ferry back to the QT, enjoy a relaxing rain shower and spend the night curled up watching complimentary in-room movies. GET YOUR AUSSIE MODERN ART FIX AT PICA, CBD WA has a spate of great galleries — big and small — but to see some truly progressive work, head to the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. Housed in a picturesque heritage building, smack bang in the middle of town, PICA has become a focal point for those keen to experience the very best Australian contemporary art. The program extends beyond visual arts to also incorporate performing and hybrid arts. Since it's free entry and only an eight-minute walk from QT Perth, it's a prime no-fuss activity to tackle when you need some downtime. ROTISSERIE CHICKEN AT TINY'S, CBD Perth's food and wine scene has gone into overdrive, with a spate of new venues bursting onto the city streets. And one of the best newcomers has to be Tiny's. Headed up by hospo heavyweights Paul Aron and Michael Forde — the brains behind Mary Street Bakery, Greenhouse, El Publico and Ace Pizza — the multifaceted venue features a restaurant, specialty bottle shop and bar. So, Tiny's is actually rather big. Head along for dinner and opt for the banquet ($54 per person) to sample some top-notch rotisserie meats. The chook, which takes two days to prepare and cook, is served with nduja bread sauce and potatoes roasted in chicken drippings — and it's by far the standout. Oh, and if you enter and win the QT Perth competition, you'll also get a free dinner at Tiny's. GO FOR A LATE-NIGHT BOOGIE AT LUCY'S LOVE SHACK, CBD The folks behind Jack Rabbit Slims opened this venue last September, and it's already won the hearts of Perth's late-night revellers. Lucy's is a bona fide party spot, with a generous daily happy hour, late-night pizza, live music and karaoke. The drinks menu is packed with a whole heap of beer, a few decent wines and a collection of reasonably priced cocktails (from $13). There's even Lucy's take on a Long Island iced tea available on tap. Did we mention it's only a one-minute walk from your home base? Partying has never been so easy. Spend your weekend exploring some of the very best things around Perth, and when you need a place to recoup, find your home away from home at QT Perth. Even better, enter the competition and win a trip to the city and a stay at the hotel for zero dollars. Plus, you'll get access to the most summery of events — the Ice Cream Factory Summer Festival.
You know those little steamed buns that you get at yum cha? You'll get to know them a whole lot better at Bao Town, a pop-up collaboration between two bao-obsessed ladies who want to share their love for this soft outside and tasty inside street food. Traditionally an Asian street food, baozi, or simply bao (pronounced 'bow'), are growing increasingly popular here in Sydney and so what better way to explore the fun even more than with Bao Town? Once a month, for three months, Bao Town will serve two savoury and one sweet bao with new flavours being introduced at each pop up, along with Vietnamese coffee. Scrumptious fillings that you can expect to try include beef bo kho, yellow chicken curry, miso eggplant and coconutty pork belly (a definite favourite so far). Sweet tooths will drop their jaws at lemon polenta and gooey molten chocolate — the latter certainly requiring napkins. The collaboration comes from Theresa Nguyen and Vella Nero, who are joining forces to bring us this beloved street food, with plans to eventually operate as a stand-alone space and catering company. A graphic designer by profession, Australian-Vietnamese Theresa is a freelance food stylist and the words behind food blog The Gook. Since she was old enough to pronounce 'bao', Theresa has had a love of good food. When she noticed a shift in the Sydney eating scene — a move to simple cuisine, with one dish done well — she saw the opportunity to operate her own Bao joint, and we're chuffed she followed through with her idea. So pop on down to Bao Town for the launch on Sunday October 12 and grab some tasty bao. And at only $3.50 a pop or 3 for $10, why wouldn't you be keen to celebrate the love of the hot fluffy goodness and warming happiness that is bao? Bao Town is on Saturday, October 12, November 2 and December 7 from 10am to 5pm at Vella Nero, 259 Clarence Street, Sydney. You can follow Bao Town on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Anna Polyviou, Adriano Zumbo, Gelato Messina, LuxBite, Black Star, N2, Andy Bowdy, Savour School and Cacao. You've seen their sweets all over Instagram. You've probably gone looking for those sweets. Now you need look no further than Sweet Street. In its second year, Sweet Street is a dessert festival designed to showcase some of Australia's leading pastry chefs and give you a serious sugar high. Three rooms of the Shangri-La Sydney will be converted into a Willy Wonka's factory-level wonderland. There will be awesome giveaways, and in the spirit of street: graffiti artists, DJs and break dancers. If you need a backbeat to your food daze, DJ Mafia will be on hand to provide some tunes. Entry includes eight tokens to start your #SweetStreet adventures. For one night only, you'll get to enter your the Candy Land of your childhood dreams, and you'll be the one to decide when you've had too much sugar. (Hint: never) Photo by Eddie Hart.
After viral leaks of award-winning author Adam Mansbach's new children's book for parents, Go the Fuck to Sleep, created huge hype in recent weeks, the book was finally released today. The book comes with an audiobook version that is narrated by none other than Samuel L. Jackson, and is illustrated with sweet and innocent images by artist Ricardo Cortes. A New Zealand Christian lobby group Family First is already calling for the book to be banned, writing letters to New Zealand's Booksellers Association asking that it not be distributed to retailers. The group is concerned about the effect that the offensive language and negative message could have on aggressive and dysfunctional parents. One verse from the book reads "All the kids from daycare are in dreamland. The froggie has made its last leap. Hell no you can't go to the bathroom, you know where you can go? The fuck to sleep." Most people however, have found the book hilarious, including legendary film director Werner Herzog who also plans to release a recording of the book. Film rights have now also been optioned by Fox and Canongate has already bought the UK title. The book is currently at the top of the Amazon best seller list. You can listen to a sample of the Samuel L. Jackson recording here.
The global pandemic has turned things upside down, but one thing that hasn't changed much is Aussies' love for local, small-batch gin. And, now that the warm weather has arrived, it's well and truly G&T time. For those wanting to become true gin aficionados, though, you'll have to look beyond mixing the stuff with Schweppes. Enter Archie Rose's Virtual Experiences, which is bringing the distillery to your living room. The Sydney-based distillery makes some of the best gin in the country, so expect these online, booze-fuelled adventures to level up your next at-home happy hour. First up, you can partake in a virtual gin and whisky tasting ($80), with a flight of five Archie Rose spirits, as well as some tonic and a tasting mat, all delivered to your door. Or, you can go for its cocktail sessions, where you'll be shaking up two tasty gin-based cocktails. The at-home pack that comes with recipe cards and a prep sheet for $85 and you can tune into a live-stream class, too. There's also the blend-your-own gin workshop for $119, which includes everything you'll need to make your own signature gin, plus delivery and a 45-minute live-stream masterclass with an Archie Rose expert. You can select the infusions that match your gin style and choose from flavours like native river mint or juniper, cassia bark and coriander seed. Archie Rose You can also book in private classes for large groups and parties, just send them an email. If you'd rather skip the work and get straight to sipping, the Aussie spirits label is delivering its four bottled cocktails, too, from its twist on the negroni and espresso martini to its specialty concoctions the Tall Poppy and the Golden Gimlet. Check out Archie Rose's Virtual Experiences program and order yourself some top-notch gin over here.
Much of 2020 so far has been all about staying indoors — and you want those interiors to look as great as possible. Art and design lovers, that's where the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art's regular design market comes in. And, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, this one is going virtual. Browse, buy and then prepare to get cosy — or stay that way. You'll be buying things for your home as you sit inside your home. Find jewellery, ceramics, textiles, homewares and more at the 17-day-long maker market, which will feature plenty of creative folks selling their wares online when it runs Friday, May 15–Sunday, May 31. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_i5LbDAJYz/ The QAGOMA Store website will be hosting the virtual design market, and all purchases will be shipped to your door. And while GOMA will likely host another design market once the silly season rolls around — as previously has every year — if you feel like getting your gift shopping out of the way now, it'll make you feel like Christmas has come early.
UPDATE, November 25, 2022: The Northman is available to stream via Binge, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Satanic goats don't talk in The Northman. Heartthrobs don't masturbate while fondling mermaid figurines, either. Still, within ten minutes, pre-teen Viking prince Amleth (Oscar Novak, The Batman), his glory-seeking warrior father King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke, Moon Knight) and jester-meets-shaman Heimir (Willem Dafoe, Nightmare Alley) descend into a fire-lit cave to take hallucinogens, growl, grunt, bark like wolves and fart like it's a god-given superpower. If viewers didn't know who's behind this bold, brutal, brilliant, and blood- and guts-strewn Scandinavian opus before then, there's no doubt from this trippy scene onwards: after The Witch and The Lighthouse, writer/director Robert Eggers' touch, approach and style have become that distinctive just three remarkable features into his helming career. As he first demonstrated with his potent pilgrim horror movie, then doubled down on with his mesmerising oceanside nightmare, Eggers crafts chaotic celluloid dreams about faith- and sanity-stretching dances with madness and mania. He makes features so striking that they're haunting, rippling with the devotedly realistic and the hypnotically occult in tandem. Eggers' work isn't merely meticulously tense and atmospheric; it proves blisteringly visceral to the point of feeling inescapably tangible. Indeed, his steadfast commitment to authenticity spirits the whole concept of immersive filmmaking high into movie Valhalla. See: the vivid period-appropriate detail in The Northman's Nordic villages, which'd only be more evocative if they'd time-travelled in from the ninth and tenth centuries. Sense: the entrancing swirl that springs from all of the above, complete with Eggers' unfailing idiosyncrasies. Experience: the sublime tussle with myth, fantasy and folklore that results, as it has in each of his features, to both plunge into and interrogate his history-set reveries. In this untamed and laid-bare portrait of the past, something is rotten in the state of Iceland — as it was in Denmark via William Shakespeare, and in the Pride Lands of Africa in both versions of The Lion King. Writing The Northman's screenplay with poet, novelist and Björk collaborator Sjón (Lamb), Eggers takes his cues not from Hamlet, however, but from the Old Norse legend of Amleth that inspired the iconic tragedy. The narrative still involves a son anointed to be the future king, a tragedy that shatters his regal family, and a dastardly uncle who gets murderous to seize the throne and his brother's wife, of course. And, it keeps following its protagonist as he wages a determined odyssey of feral revenge against the man who reshaped his fate so ruthlessly. "I will avenge you, father. I will save you, mother. I will kill you, Fjölnir." That's Amleth's vow as a boy on a north Atlantic island in 895 when he witnesses the latter's (Claes Bang, Locked Down) treachery. He flees after hearing his uncle bay for his head, too, and seeing him carry off Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos) as a spoil of his victory. Two decades later, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård, Succession) is a hulking, wolfskin-clad Viking berserker, living life flinging whatever weaponry he can find while viciously pillaging through the lands of the Rus. But amid the bloodlust, gore and piling-up body count, the intense marauder is thrust back onto his vengeance-seeking path. A Slavic seeress (Björk, in her first film role since 2005) whispers stark truths about his current savagery and lapsed mission against Fjölnir, reigniting his yearning for that promised slaughter — and the single-minded behemoth learns that his uncle is now sheep-farming in Iceland, having lost the kingdom in another coup. A line from Hamlet comes to mind: "now could I drink hot blood". By the time Amleth brands himself to pass as a prisoner of war, slips onto a slave ship and ensures he's among the new captives at Fjölnir's ranch, he's already literally done just that. But his thirst for honouring his father, rescuing his mother and slaying his uncle remains unquenched, and he soon has help from and the heart of fellow servant Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy, who scored her big break with The Witch alongside Eggers). How that quest eventuates won't surprise anyone familiar with the Bard, but The Northman still astonishes again and again. As only visionary filmmakers can, Eggers refuses to take any expected turn or make a single predictable move even while playing with a plot that's long spilled its thrills across popular culture, and while slashing into a genre — Viking epics — that's rarely far from screens. High among The Northman's joys and wonders, both large and small, sits its cast — with Skarsgård fulfilling a decade-plus journey from playing True Blood vampire Eric Northman to both starring in and producing this, which he's been trying to bring to fruition for just as long. His muscular power and presence as the epitome of rage and revenge is pulsating, not to mention physically commanding, and buying Amleth as the lacerating spirit of both a wolf and a bear is one of the easiest things about the film. His Big Little Lies co-star Kidman also turns in a ferocious performance, and the pair's evolution from that TV hit's husband-and-wife dynamic to this flick's unhinged mother-and-son duo drips with the requisite Oedipal creepiness. Elsewhere, Bang does brooding villainy like he's born to it, as he showed in Dracula; 22 years after playing Hamlet himself, Hawke delivers a 20-minute supporting-player masterclass; and the inimitable Taylor-Joy ensures that no one else could ever be pictured in her pivotal part. Plus, that Eggers finds small roles for The Witch's Kate Dickie and Ralph Ineson doesn't go unnoticed. A ravaging rampage of a film — a movie beating with unshakeable fury, as metal a Viking saga that's ever likely to be made, and equally thunderous and off-kilter — Eggers' best feature yet wouldn't be what it is without its weight and spectacle, though. It's a picture of brusque poetry in its dialogue, its curt lines laden with importance but never trite (Amleth's stated juggling act to find "kindness for my kin and hate for my enemies" included). It's a work of elemental potency in its sweepingly shot imagery, with cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (a veteran of all three of the director's films) painting with light, the stunning landscapes, and the wind, rain, snow, mud, fire and ash that lurks upon it. That's true in the head-splitting game of Knattleikr that makes just one primal centrepiece, the climactic naked volcano sword fight and the many supernatural-laced sights in-between. And, it all contributes to a breathtaking cinematic onslaught that savvily turns hellishness into movie heaven — all without shying away from the costs and sacrifices of Amleth's crusade; serving up a simplistic revenge fantasy; or excusing, glorifying or downplaying the relentless violence that informs every moment.
