Melbourne is about to boast not one but two international airports, with Avalon welcoming Air Asia flights from the end of 2018. In good news for travellers, a new curfew-free terminal will be built — and is expected to service 220,000 international passengers each year. Minister for Industry and Employment Ben Carroll and Minister for Tourism John Eren announced that twice-daily flights will begin between Avalon and Kuala Lumpur, in the latest expansion of Avalon's capabilities. The Victorian Government has invested $1.5 million in infrastructure works at the airport, including ensuring that Jetstar will continue to operate at the site 55 kilometres outside of the city. The move, which comes after the Federal Government amended Avalon's lease to allow a new terminal back in 2015, is expected to open up Geelong and the Great Ocean Road to a greater number of international tourists. "We're so proud to have secured the first ever international service for Avalon — attracting thousands more visitors and bringing more business to our region," said Eren.
In his second solo exhibition at Galerie pompom, multidisciplinary artist Todd Robinson continues his penchant for exploring audience reception and how we as viewers encounter art. Featuring photographic, sculptural and video works, The Wringing Core is comprised of two seemingly separate, but in fact, connected, collections. Firstly, a series of sartorial studies exploring the interaction between garments Robinson has created and tactile materials (think water and sand), and the second, a series of sculptures — strikingly simple vertical wooden forms that are crumpling and bending in places, as if being bent by an invisible force. They make gentle reference to bodily articulations, subtly recalling flexed elbows, bending knee joints and responsive spines. The exhibition also references figurative sculpture, along with therapeutic practices like meditation and relaxation exercises. If this all sounds a little vague, that's probably because Robinson's work avoids absolutes and defies closed construction — typically embracing a sense of flow, openness and what the exhibition describes as "the multiple intelligences of bodily knowledge." Bring an open mind, and while you're there, why not check out James Lieutenant's Supergods exhibition. Image: Todd Robinson, from the series The Wringing Core (detail), 2017.
The MCA's Anna Davis has curated this survey exhibition of leading Australian artist Jenny Watson, which features works from the 1970s up to the present day ranging from her early realist drawings and paintings to several series of works on fabric. Evidencing Watson's naive, unaffected style, The Fabric of Fantasy showcases her special ability to blend autobiography and psychology with imagination, wit and deadpan delivery to explore her dreams and desires. Based in Brisbane but an avid traveller, Watson often incorporates textiles purloined during her adventures into the surface for several of her paintings — which could be anything from sequins to horsehair to magazines. Influenced by punk and the feminist movement, a significant part of Watson's work involves self-portraits or alter egos — think longhaired Alice in Wonderland-like figures in dresses, ballerinas, rock guitarists, plus the odd horse or cat — and often uses hand painted text alongside distilled imagery to bring to life an unusual interior world. Whether you're a fan or not, don't miss this chance to see over four decades of work from a truly fascinating conceptual painter. Image: Jenny Watson, 'The Pretty Face of Domesticity' (2014).
The 2016-17 Sydney International Art Series might've just kicked off with Tatsuo Miyajima: Connect with Everything and Nude: Art from the Tate collection, but that doesn't mean that we can't start looking forward to next year's art extravaganza. 2017-18's event is shaping up to be just as big. Think the Dutch Golden Age and acclaimed multimedia art. Sydney is getting its first ever art show dedicated to the former, to be held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The exhibition will bring you stacks of Rembrandt's masterpieces — and splashes of Vermeer, Ruisdael, Hals, Steen, Dou, Lievens and Leyster as well. Expect works interpreting all aspects of Dutch life in the 17th century, from country characters and landscapes to city scenes and sailing ships. That's just the half of the 2017-18 International Art Series. Also coming your way is a mega new Pipilotti Rist retrospective, to be hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Rist, who hails from Switzerland, has been challenging the boundaries of multimedia art for 30 years. Her massive installations immerse you in worlds filled with light and music, where video, sculpture and live performance blend. In 2009, she drew a record crowd to New York's Museum of Modern Art. "Pipilotti Rist is one of the world's most celebrated contemporary artists," said Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, director of the MCA. "Her lush and playful multi-screen video installations are audience favourites wherever they are shown and will no doubt captivate visitors here in Australia." The retrospective, which is being put together by Natasha Bullock, senior curator at the MCA, will include important early works and major video objects. Since being founded in 2010, the Sydney International Art Series has attracted more than 1.7 million people and inspired $122 million worth of spending from overnight visitors. Rembrandt and the Dutch golden age will show at the AGNSW from 10 November 2017 to 25 February 2018. The Pipilotti Rist retrospective will show at the MCA from 26 October 2017 to 18 February 2018.
In 2015, Artbank partnered with Create NSW on a two-year project that aimed to both acquire new artworks for the collection and increase visibility for NSW artists who identify as living with a disability. Both those goals were met, and something else wonderful happened too. Over the course of the project supported by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services, Artbank encountered the rich creative relationships forming between the artists and their peers living with and without disabilities. Thus Good Neighbours was born, delivering an exhibition that celebrates the original project and the doors it opened, weaving a narrative through the artworks selected. [caption id="attachment_626822" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Good Neighbours artists and curators left to right: Digby Webster, Miriam Kelly, Wart, Nadia Lolas, Meagan Pelham, Emily Crockford, Matthew Calandra, Greg Sindel, Thom Roberts, Harriet Body, Daniel Mudie Cunningham.[/caption] Show curators Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Miriam Kelly are understandably excited to introduce audiences to this undeniably inspiring show that draws from both Artbank's collection and private loans. The works selected directly reflect the relationships formed between artists over the past two years, or simply honour the sense of community among colleagues, mentors and mates. Neither curator could pick five favourite works, so instead they've given us a little taster of what's in store. "Some of our favourite things are in the mix — including colour, dance, pop culture and homages to trashy TV," they say. Continue on to discover what's to come at Good Neighbours, opening June 29. [caption id="attachment_626828" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nadia Lolas with Ramsay Street.[/caption] NADIA LOLAS: RAMSAY STREET Artist Nadia Lolas can proudly take credit for inspiring the show title with her drawings of Ramsay Street and its various characters (that's your cue to start singing the Neighbours theme song). Though Ramsay Street shows Lolas predilection to charcoal pen and marker, the artist has recently been drawn towards paint, having picked up painting techniques from fellow artist Laura Jones — a relationship that has also led to a series of collaborative paintings between the pair. Whilst their art explores very different themes (Jones' works in the exhibit explore Australian coral reef degradation), Cunningham and Kelly say the two artists have commonalities, "Both artists have an incredible attention to detail and wonderful eye for colour." [caption id="attachment_626925" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Greg Sindel.[/caption] GREG SINDEL: PAYBACK ON HER KILLERS While working at Studio A in Hornsby, Greg Sindel was commissioned to make a graphic novella for Artbank's publication Sturgeon, a work Cunningham and Kelly describe as "wickedly funny." This work then led to the acquisition of two standalone prints from a recent series, which have been included in Good Neighbours. The animator, filmmaker and prolific graphic novelist creates art inspired by a love of gothic and horror schlock films. Also a passionate storyteller since childhood, Sindel is mentored by comic artist Leigh Rigozzi, and works across a variety of mediums. The last few years have seen him create a ten-minute animation based on his horror comics, publish his first graphic novel and collaborate with Erth art gallery in Marrickville on a puppet incarnation of one of his characters. Cheeky, funny and a little bit gory, Sindel's work appeals to those who like their animation with a sense of humour. [caption id="attachment_626966" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anthony Mannix: Ero to Mania, 2015. Artbank collection, purchased 2017 as part of the NSW Arts and Disability Partnership, generously supported by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services and Create NSW.[/caption] ANTHONY MANNIX: ERO TO MANIA Produced largely on paper using inks, oils, watercolour, tea and ballpoint pen, Anthony Mannix darkly humorous art often explores his experiences with mental illness. In Good Neighbours, his art directly responds to his personal experience with schizoaffective disorder and its impact on the way he perceives the world around him. "Works like the Spidercity series and Ero to Mania [included in Good Neighbours], while on the surface appear lyrical, are underpinned by a darker sensibility," say Cunningham and Kelly. Now based in his home studio in the Blue Mountains, Mannix first began making work as part of a program in the former Callan Park mental health premises. And despite no formal training, the artist has seen his work both on exhibit in Australia and on tour globally as part of the The Museum of Everything — currently on display at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart — plus a 2013 retrospective of his work at the Sydney College of the Arts heralded him as "Australia's most celebrated Outsider Artist." [caption id="attachment_626972" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rosie Deacon: Bit Fat in Da Back, 2016. Artbank collection, purchased 2017.[/caption] ROSIE DEACON: BIT FAT IN DA BACK Both curators describe themselves as "pretty pumped" for this "zingy" piece by artist Rosie Deacon. The video, Bit Fat in Da Back, will be presented as part of an installation inspired by the overstocked stalls of Paddy's Market — it's also packed with a large amount of kangaroo paraphernalia. Intrigued? Us too. Working in sculpture, video and installation, Deacon's practice draws on aspects of kitsch, folk-art and craft to explore belonging, the absurd and the interaction between humankind and animals. You may have been introduced to Deacon's material sensibility at the 2015 Sydney Contemporary or with Tutti Fruity Dream Factory at Underbelly Arts that same year — the latter a collaborative project between Deacon, Studio A principle artist Emma Johnston and artist Emily Crockford who also exhibits in Good Neighbours, among others. Deacon has continued to work alongside and collaboratively with Crockford, and both are magnetically drawn to working with texture, bling and "a colour palette that might be described as pure sparkle," describe Cunningham and Kelly. Deacon's colourful, fun-filled contribution to the exhibit seems like the art equivalent of a really great sugar high. [caption id="attachment_626351" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Kotja: Walking All Over My Friends, 2017. Artbank collection, commissioned 2016 as part of the NSW Arts and Disability Partnership, generously supported by the NSW Department of Family and Community Services and Create NSW.[/caption] DANIEL KOTJA: WALKING ALL OVER MY FRIENDS Good Neighbours will see the premiere of artist Daniel Kojta's commissioned digital video, Walking All Over My Friends 2017. Kotja spent a year inviting friends and fellow artists over to his Blue Mountains studio, where he filmed them walking around. Next, he edited his own upper body over their legs — in the process reflecting on the limitations of his physical abilities as a paraplegic. Cunningham and Kelly say the video embodies Kotja's desire to transform public perceptions of disability, adding that the piece "speaks about collaboration and the value of community relationships and support for one another in a different and pretty profound way." 'Good Neighbours' at Artbank runs from June 29 to October 6, featuring work by Liam Benson, Harriet Body, Matthew Calandra, David Capra, Emily Crockford, Rosie Deacon, John A Douglas, Peter Dudding, Laura Jones, Stefan Kater, Daniel Kojta, Nadia Lolas, Anthony Mannix, Meagan Pelham, Thom Roberts, Thom and Angelmouse, Greg Sindel, Wart, Digby Webster and Paul Williams. Images: Jesse Jaco and supplied.
Police have recovered the body of a man who fell into Darling Harbour last night. It is believed the unidentified man in his 30s fell into the water at 11pm while watching the lights at the first night of Vivid Sydney. After the man fell off the pier, two acquaintances jumped in the water but could not locate him. A search was launched by the Marine Area Command, Police Rescue and NSW Ambulance helicopter service, and his body was found at 1.30am. Acting Inspector Christopher Breed says police have ruled out foul play. "It was known ... that he wasn't a proficient swimmer," Breed told the ABC this morning. While many onlookers became aware of the events unfolding in the water, the main music and light shows from Vivid continued around the scene. The man's death undoubtedly marks a tragic opening night for the festival. Image by James Horan.
With Victoria now on day one of a snap five-day lockdown in a bid to contain its latest COVID-19 outbreak, many states are introducing border closures and restrictions of their own. In NSW, a public health order has been issued that requires anyone arriving in NSW from Victoria after 11.59pm on Friday, February 12 to follow the same stay-at-home restrictions that are now in force down south. That means that any returned travellers now need to follow Victoria's stage four rules until 11.59pm on Wednesday, February 17, which is when the southern state's snap lockdown is set to end. Those returned travellers can only leave their homes for those familiar four reasons: shopping for essentials; medical and other care and caregiving; exercise; and essential work. https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1360145530114899972 The public health order was originally set to cover all returned travellers from Victoria since Friday, January 29, as NSW Health announced throughout the day on Friday, February 12. That plan was changed, however, with the government body's most recent update noting that "the date previously advised has been updated following advice from the NSW Chief Health Officer". Travellers arriving from Victoria by road, air or rail must also complete a traveller self-declaration form before entry into NSW. For NSW residents living in border communities, the five-day stay-at-home requirement only applies to folks who've been to Greater Melbourne after 11.59pm on Friday, February 12 — and not to those who've travelled into regional Victoria. The NSW Government is also strongly advising against all non-essential travel to Victoria at this time, saying "people who do choose to travel will be required to follow the stay-at-home requirement on their return". For more information about COVID-19 restrictions in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. To learn more about the Victorian stay-at-home orders, head to the Victoria Department of Health website.
Walk any street of Sydney and you're sure to be met by adorable puppies, always pamper-fresh and ready for a pat. As dogs are somewhat of a inner city-lifestyle must-have, so too is a trusted groomer. Head to Defries Avenue in Zetland to find Dogue — a distinctly luxe puppy pampering palace. It offers standard grooming services (washing, drying and clipping) plus spa treatments like a deep seawater aromatherapy bath, so it knows how to treat pets like royalty. The store also offers puppy training and daycare facilities, plus an array of pet-related accessories — think collars, bedding and more toys than your puppy pal could ever need.
Thrilling crime sagas starring spectacular actors: on screens big and small, they've been one of the Australian film and TV industry's biggest successes over the past decade. The Guy Pearce-led Jack Irish franchise did it, starting with three telemovies, then releasing three seasons of television afterwards. Mystery Road managed hit the spot as well, beginning with that eponymous film, followed by big-screen sequel Goldstone, then spanning two seasons of TV so far — and an about-to-drop small-screen prequel series, too. And now The Dry is set to join them. When it reached Aussie cinemas at the beginning of 2021 — making the leap from bookshelves to theatres, adapting the debut novel from author Jane Harper — The Dry became an enormous hit. If you went to the movies at the start of last year, you likely saw it. It currently sits sixth at the box office among local titles over the past ten years, notching up more than $20 million in ticket sales. It also came in sixth in 2021 overall, after Spider-Man: No Way Home, No Time to Die, Godzilla vs Kong, Peter Rabbit 2 and Fast and Furious 9. That kind of response was always likely to spark a sequel (and it shouldn't escape attention that the five movies that made more cash in Australia last year were all either sequels themselves, or part of long-running franchises). So, adapting Harper's second novel Force of Nature, The Dry is now getting a big-screen follow-up. Yes, Eric Bana is back as Detective Aaron Falk. Now shooting in Victoria — with a release date yet to be revealed — Force of Nature focuses on a corporate hiking retreat attended by five women. Afterwards, only four return. So, alongside fellow federal agent Carmen Cooper, Falk heads deep Victoria's mountain ranges to try to find the missing hiker — who also happens to be a whistle-blowing informant — alive. As The Dry was, Force of Nature is being written and directed by Robert Connolly (Paper Planes). Again, it'll boast quite the pair when it comes to Aussie crime cinema — with Connolly the producer of one of the best local crime movies ever made, aka 1998's unnerving The Boys, and Bana was famously the star of the similarly excellent Chopper. Also featuring in Force of Nature, which'll have a powerhouse Aussie cast like its predecessor: Jacqueline McKenzie (Ruby's Choice) as Cooper, Anna Torv (Mindhunter) as missing hiker Alice Russell, plus Deborra-Lee Furness (Jindabyne), Robin McLeavy (Homeland), Sisi Stringer (Mortal Kombat) and Lucy Ansell (Utopia). Richard Roxburgh (Elvis), Tony Briggs (Preppers) and Kenneth Radley (The Power of the Dog) co-star, too, while Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor (Sequin in a Blue Room) is back in the role of Erik Falk. Check out the trailer for The Dry below: Force of Nature doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when one is announced. Read our full review of The Dry.
If you think Sydney Contemporary — an international art fair held at Carriageworks — is only for art lovers with Chanel suits and investors with hedge funds, think again. Sure, more than 90 respected galleries from all over the world will be exhibiting (and selling) some of the best contemporary art money can buy, but you will also find an entire program of more affordable (and just as impressive) art on offer. It's made even more accessible by the presence of Art Money, an art loans program for works priced between $750 and $20,000. Not that commerce has to dictate your experience — wander through the installations, enjoy four days of free panel discussions and conversations, catch an array of works by video artists, and watch performances within Carriageworks and the Redfern Precinct. When Sydney Contemporary takes place between September 7 and 10, it'll do so in a big way, and not just because of its program. Usually a biennial event, 2017 marks the start of its switch to annual runs. Yes, that means more art more often from this year onwards. To give you an idea of the size and scope, more than 60,000 visitors in total attended in 2013 and 2015.
The sky-high likeness of a child is set to land atop Melbourne's Hamer Hall, although you won't be able to spot it unless you know it's there. Soaring at a huge 100 metres tall, large-scale public art commission Child of Now is the work of multidisciplinary artist Robert Walton and First Nations author and activist Claire G Coleman — and, because it's an augmented reality piece, it will only be visible on digital screens and mobile devices. Fusing art and computer science, it's set to take to its rooftop perch in 2024. Across a cleverly executed ten-day performance — with dates yet to be revealed — the virtual being will appear to age from zero to 100 years, all while undertaking normal human activities like playing, walking, communicating and dreaming each day. As the installation wraps up on the tenth day, visitors viewers will watch the then 100-year-old character fall asleep for the final time, with the vision played out alongside an onsite candlelit vigil. Child of Now will also be available to watch online, so it can be experienced by people all over the world. The ambitious work is designed to glimpse into the future of an imagined child born in 2021; however, this isn't just any random kid. Child of Now is being created and shaped over the space of a few years, using input from a diverse group of 14,400 Melburnians. The artists, along with a crew of University of Melbourne tech specialists, will use volumetric body scanning and interactive technology to gather these public contributions, fusing all of the captured visions, thoughts and experiences together to generate the final product. And if you're wondering where they plucked that number from, 14,400 is the number of minutes that tick by in ten days. [caption id="attachment_807506" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Child of Now by Robert Walton. Concept image by Xavier Irvin.[/caption] If it sounds like a hefty project, that's because it is. That's why Child of Now isn't expected to be completed and ready for its Hamer Hall performance until 2024. In the meantime, the artists have been busy making a series of giant virtual holograms, which'll then be animated, and working on the artificial intelligence technology needed to do just that. Then, later this year, a Child of Now prototype will appear at Arts Centre Melbourne. That's when the team will call for assistance, too, giving the public the chance to participate. Child of Now is currently in production. The ten-day installation is slated to appear atop Hamer Hall in 2024 — we'll update you with an exact date when one is announced. Top image: Child of Now concept image by Xavier Irvine
Want to get up close and personal with Taronga Zoo's finest furry friends? Now you can — and you'll be able to sip on excellent wine while you're adventuring through its exhibits after dark. The brand-new after-dark adventure is an exclusively 18-plus edition of the zoo's existing Roar and Snore experience, which takes visitors on a tour of the zoo led by its experts and includes a harbourside dinner with an overnight stay in the zoo's accommodation. Running for only two nights, with one session on Wednesday, November 29, and one on Wednesday, December 13, Taronga Zoo's new Wine Safari experience offers up a roving journey through Taronga Zoo's exhibits accompanied by sips of wine curated by the award-winning sommelier from the zoo's own fine diner Me-Gal. You'll then get to enjoy all of the exciting perks that the original Roar and Snore deal has to offer including a buffet dinner, a night safari, a stay in safari-style tents with views of Sydney harbour and a behind-the-scenes look at animal enclosures the following morning. Each of these exclusive nights will begin at 6pm, with the activities lasting until about 10pm before allowing guests to get some much-needed shut-eye ahead of the following morning's itinerary. Plus, you'll also get complimentary parking and zoo entry. What more could you want?
If there’s one thing that Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan taught us, apart from that Kazakhstan has superior potassium exports, it’s that dinner parties are a minefield of awkwardness. This perfect storm of wine, mixed company and not having anywhere to escape will usually cause end in cross-generational arguments about politics. However the smart folk at The Ethics Centre are using this dynamic to foster conversations about important, albeit potentially awkward, topics. Bias – Against the Grain is a dinner party where the uncomfortable topic of our biases, how we form them and if we can break free of them will be laid bare during a meal put together by award-winning chef O Tama Carey at Cafe Paci. It's the first of the Hard Things to Talk About dinner series, where big issues and delicious, delicious food are brought to the table. Carey will provide the five-course meal with paired wines (to lubricate the conversation) and the team at Hard Things to Talk About will stir up conversation in a way that you’ll only be familiar with if you have a large family who love a good yuletide yelling match at Christmas. But in all seriousness, it’s an excellent idea. There’s no better way to get to the root of social problems than with a tummy full of wine, excellent food and a special team on-hand to step in when things get ugly . Bias - Against the Grain hosted by Hard Things To Talk About at Café Paci, 95 Riley Street Darlinghurst. Running on Sunday 30 August & Monday 31 August, from 7 – 11pm. Tickets are $135, including five courses with matched wine. Book here.
As we're technically adults and can't spend all day in bed watching Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys, sometimes we have to find other ways to live vicariously alongside the natural world. And the new exhibition opening at Black Eye Gallery is just the ticket. Amelia and the Animals is open from May 2-14 and features photos taken by Robin Schwartz of her daughter (pretty much the IRL version of The Wild Thornberrys) as they travel around the world. And 13 years of adventures yielded a certifiable truckload of amazing imagery. The exhibition covers the life of Amelia, Schwartz's daughter and muse, and her adventures with animals. But not garden variety pets — she's run with monkeys, tigers, llamas, and elephants. Schwartz is a US-based photographer and the 2016 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography. Her work is displayed in galleries around the world.
To celebrate Ramadan, the good folk at the Commune are hosting a series of Iftar feasts. The series of feasts is being called Middle Eats (hat tip to the delicious pun) and indeed traverses the Middle East, with feasts from Syria, Iraq, Iran (Persia) and Egypt all featured in the lineup. The events are open to all, whether you observe Ramadan or not, and are a great way to show support by feasting heartily. The menu is shaping up to be decadent. For the Syrian feast, think Mukloubi with lamb, fried cauliflower, and pistachio ice cream, thanks to Almond Bar. The Iraqi feast by Parliament on King will feature eggplant and pomegranate molasses salad, Iraqi yellow spice-rubbed chicken and a sweet cheese roll. The Persian feast (also by Parliament on King) consists of lamb stew with vegetables, chicken in pomegranate and walnut sauce, and Sholeh zard (a Saffron rice pudding). On Friday, Koshariisrner is cooking up an Egyptian feast of okra stew with lamb, fava bean dip, and semolina cake. And if that doesn't make your stomach grumble, we don't know what will. MIDDLE EATS DATES: June 19 — Syrian Feast with Almond Bar June 20 — Iraqi Feast with Parliament on King June 21 — Persian Feast with Parliament on King June 22 — Egyptian Feast with Koshari Korner
Annette Larkin Fine Art hosts their first-ever Carl Plate exhibition this month, with a show focusing specifically on his Paris Works 1970–1971. So who is Carl Plate, you ask? He was an influential modernist painter and collage artist in post-war Sydney, and arguably the first Australian non-figurative artist to secure solo shows in NYC and London — a big deal at the time. He traveled extensively through Europe and was excited by what he saw of the modernist movement. Drawn to abstract, non-representational language, he was a life-long fan of collage throughout his career, using materials sourced from papers and magazines to create poetic, lyrical worlds of shapes, lines and forms. This show captures a time in his work where he broadened his colour palette dramatically, pared back the details and returned to a purer form of collage (solely cutting and pasting), creating a series hailed as 'luxurious' and 'sumptuous' by the critics of the day. You've got from October 11 till November 11 to have a squiz. Image: Carl Plate, Untitled No. 85 (1970), PVA on vinyl bonded French cotton.
Sculpture and installation artist Min Wong has a new show opening at Firstdraft on October 4. Titled If You Are Struggling Then You Must Be Happy :), the exhibition explores spirituality, thirst for collectivism and human failure through the spectacle of US counterculture from the '60s and '70s. An artist deeply interested in utopian concerns — in this case the utopian aspirations of West Coast counterculture and how they relate to present-day spirituality — Wong's art investigates how the once genuinely revolutionary ideas put forward during the '60s and '70s were commodified and eventually repackaged into today's self-help/self-care culture. Playfully uniting contemporary sculpture and repurposed material from the hippie era with deliberate references to her practice of Bikram yoga, Wong desires to, in her words, "present a physical space for the viewer to experience the '60s and '70s new wave counterculture as a simulacrum of lost hope, illusory dreams and shattered utopias". Promises to be an insightful show. Don't leave Firstdraft without taking in the coinciding exhibitions from artists Cybele Cox, Aaron Christopher Rees and Masaharu Sato. Image: Min Wong, 60-minutes (2016), shot by Grant Hancock.
In the latest instalment of The Voices Project, ATYP presents BITE ME, a collection of ten monologues written by some of the country's finest young playwriting talents and published by Currency Press. Covering every theme from vegetarianism to disastrous blind dates to slow eaters, young actors from around the country will be bringing these original pieces to life. Promising to take a warm, irreverent and cheeky approach in its exploration of how what we eat affects who we are, the show is directed by Anthony Skuse (Punk Rock, 4000 Miles), who has worked with the company for over 15 years. Skuse says, "I think some people will find some of the stories challenging. People may recognise themselves in characters and situations. They will be moved, made to laugh and perhaps reflect on the complex ways food figures in our lives." At just 100 minutes, BITE ME should be a short but action-packed night out for any one keen to grab a glimpse of the future of Aussie theatre.
This summer the Art Gallery of NSW will play host to an exhibition of 81 Yirrkala drawings on loan from the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, marking the first time that such a significant selection has ever been displayed. Dating back to 1947, the drawings emerged when senior ceremonial leaders at northeast Arnhem Land’s Yirrkala produced hundreds of brilliantly coloured crayon drawings for anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt. Created by men from a variety of clan groups, the drawings feature a palette of strikingly vibrant reds, blues, greens, yellows and black. Along with offering a valuable insight into Yolngu life, knowledge and law, the exhibition also displays the mastery of these artists, who seamlessly shifted from painting in natural pigments on bark to the new medium of drawing with crayons on paper. Many of the featured artists are now considered among the most important bark painters of the 20th century, including Mawalan and Wandjuk Marika, Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, Narritjin Maymuru and Wonggu Mununggurr. The exhibition will also include work by descendants of those who worked with the Berndts in 1947, now themselves nationally and internationally renowned artists. The exhibition will also be on display in Brisbane at Queensland Art Gallery from 2 April to 19 July, 2014.
If you're a fan of old-school comedic styling, you might want to check out La Cucina dell’Arte. Presented as part of this year’s Sydney Festival, Circus Ronaldo will be treating Sydney audiences to their special brand of what the Age describes as “disarming and hilarious comedy”. Danny and David Ronaldo represent the sixth generation of a renowned Belgian circus family (you can’t make this stuff up). In this show, they turn a big top tent into a pizzeria, with a kitchen in total chaos. Think lots of flipping pizzas, flying chefs' hats, plate-juggling and fancy tricks involving table settings. (You may even get to actually eat some pizza at the end of it.) Blending together genres of commedia, vaudeville and slapstick, La Cucina dell'Arte sounds like an entertaining night out for anyone who's tickled by a bit of old-fashioned buffoonery. Image by by Benny Degrove.
Hot on the heels of opening a 'DIY' restaurant in London, IKEA has Sydney pegged for its next activation. Presumably trying to make shopping for flatpack furniture a little less relationship-ruining, the Swedish company is setting up their next showroom inside one of Sydney Harbour's iconic ferries — and giving two people the chance to spend the night there. The IKEA Harbour Home (as it's so called) will be transformed into a "home away from home" and will undoubtedly be fully decked out with all things IKEA. Depending on how much you frequent the store, some things might look familiar. But the main drawcard here is obviously the harbour — the ferry will give you the chance to go nigh nighs and wake up on the water. Here's hoping for calm seas. Only one lucky person and a mate will get to spend the night on the ferry in October — you can enter here. The prize includes flights as well as a night on the ferry and all meals and experiences as per the final itinerary. If you're in the market for some new Swedish furnishings, it's a pretty sweet way to shop. And for anyone who's made the trek out to one of IKEA's behemoth locations, we can probably all agree that Sydney Harbour is by far the most aesthetically pleasing of the lot.
Commencement speeches are admittedly a very American tradition. Sure, we have them in Australia, but they're usually given by some fusty old professor who you've never actually seen before. It takes a truly inspirational guy like Tim Minchin to break through the literal and figurative mould of the Australian graduation address, while Americans are spoiled for choice. Fittingly, NPR has recently compiled all the nation's best offerings into a commencement speech database — a sprawling intellectual oasis which is guaranteed to make your day. Describing the medium as "a hilarious, inspiring form of popular art", NPR has catalogued over 300 graduation speeches given by luminaries in the fields of science, politics, art and comedy. Speakers vary from Barack Obama at the University of Michigan, to Yoko Ono at Maine College of Art, to Andy Samberg at Harvard University (for some unknown and hilarious reason). Most speeches come in the form of transcripts, although many have accompanying Youtube clips. Jon Lovett's recent address to Pitzer College even comes with this adorable and uplifting animation. As outlined in the NPR blog, the main points of these speeches are usually a variation on a theme. Quite rightly, speakers often urge students to work hard, be kind, and embrace failure. The commencement speech is more than a guide to graduation after all; it's an uplifting look at adulthood. It examines the nature of success, but it also takes a larger look at humanity. You might have finished university, you might have a full-time job and a partner and a family, you might even have It All Figured Out. But from time to time, don't we all need a little inspiration? See the full database here.
You know that feeling of walking into your hotel room after a long day to find everything spick and span — without any effort on your part whatsoever. Now, you can have that exact feeling at home, thanks to Urban Company. The cleaning app recently launched in Sydney and boasts direct access to heaps of Sydney's top cleaning professionals, making it easier than ever to keep on top of household chores, without actually having to do them yourself. Change the bed linens? Sure. Fold your clothes? Of course. Assembling your IKEA furniture? Can do. Cleaning up your house at the end of a lease so you don't have to spend days doing it (and procrastinating doing it) with your housemates? Yep, that too. Each cleaner has been qualified through an in-person boot camp and Urban Company keeps each side honest with its rating and review system. To stay on the app, professionals need to maintain a 4.7 or above star rating, similar to most rideshare and food delivery apps. Instead of paying per hour, the app is set up as a pay-per-room system, with bedrooms starting from $15, and kitchens and bathrooms from $19. Carpet cleans will set you back around $30 a room and end-of-lease cleans from $249 for a studio apartment. You can also easily view availability through in-app calendars and re-book with preferred professionals. Apart from hotel-level cleaning, Urban Company also offers services like gardening, carpet and sofa steam cleaning, window cleaning and help with plenty of other domestic chores. The app can also connect you with trade professionals for additional odd-jobs, such as furniture building and TV mounting. Urban Company is already operating across 22 cities in India, Singapore and the UAE, with over 30,000 individual professionals available on the platform at any given time. You can sign up to Urban Company and download the app. 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.
If you're looking to lock in your next wine afternoon, join Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel in celebrating all things rosé this spring. The venue's Rosé Street Fest will return for a second year of wine beachside tastings on Sunday, October 27. The all-day outdoor affair will spill out onto Military Road, just next to the pub. The main event, of course, is the rosé, with over 20 wineries and suppliers — including Gilbert, AIX and Riot Wine — pouring their best drops at pop-up bars throughout the day. The festival will feature live music, a frosé bar and snacks from the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel food cart (including lots of overly pink desserts). Plus, fruit pops will be available from Proud & Punch. Rose Street Fest will run for an additional two hours this year, from 11am–7pm, so you have even more time to enjoy some rosé in the sun. If you want take things seriously, buying a ticket beforehand definitely won't hurt — it'll set you back $32, and includes nine wine tokens and your very own tasting glass. If you don't get around to it, tickets will be available on the day, too. You can grab a glass for $7 and then all tastings will be $3.50.
Ah, the annual festival of all things Italian — just when I thought I was out, they dragged me back in. Sunday, October 29 marks the day of celebration for the nation that brought us Julius Caesar, Nebbiolo and Dario Argento. This year's incarnation of the street fair is a special one though, as it's celebrating 31 years of the iconic exultation of Mediterranean multiculturalism. As per usual though, Norton Street will be lined with food vendors ranging from nonnas to professional culinary wizards. The big communal table will be back, and The Royal Hotel's verandah will be in full swing throughout the afternoon. There'll be entertainment, beverages, fashion and the Auto Festa, with as many Ferraris and Lambos as you can shake a cannoli at.
Since 2011, DJ Tom Loud's travelling dance party Hot Dub Time Machine has ripped up stages the world over, offering a rolling crossfade of the last six decades of pop-music. And back in 2017, he launched Wine Machine, a series of al fresco get-togethers on some of the country's most-loved wine regions. The Wine Machine events have kept returning — when the pandemic hasn't been interrupting plans — and they're making a comeback in 2022 and 2023. This time around, these single-stage parties in the vines are split into two batches, hitting up Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania from November 2022–January 2023 with one lineup, then heading to New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria from March–April 2023 with another. The western and southern leg of the fest is already on sale, with Flight Facilities, Lime Cordiale, Cut Copy, San Cisco, Client Liaison, Masked Wolf and Art vs Science on the bill — although some acts will only play some locations. Their destinations: Oakover Grounds in the Swan Valley, McLaren Vale's Serafino Wines and Home Hill Winery in Huon Valley. For east coasters, leading the music will be one of Hot Dub's Rave Machine sets. He'll be joined on stage by Lime Cordiale (except in Victoria), Bliss N Esso, Vera Blue (except in NSW), Northeast Party House, KLP and more — at Dalwood Estate in the Hunter Valley, Canberra's Commonwealth Park and Rochford Wines in Victoria. Backing up the tunes, there'll be a tasty lineup of eats, craft beer and, of course, some sensational vino from these Australian wine regions. Safe to say, it's probably the rowdiest event these wineries will host all year. WINE MACHINE 2023 DATES: Saturday, November 26, 2022 — Oakover Grounds, Swan Valley, Whadjuk Country, Western Australia Saturday, December 17, 2022 — Serafino Wines, McLaren Vale, Kaurna Country, South Australia Saturday, January 14, 2023 — Home Hill Winery, Huon Valley, Nuenonne Country, Tasmania Saturday, March 18, 2023 — Dalwood Estate, Hunter Valley, Wonnarua Country, New South Wales Saturday, March 25, 2023 — Commonwealth Park, Canberra, Ngunnawal Country, Australian Capital Territory Saturday, April 1, 2023 — Rochford Wines, Wurundjeri Country, Victoria WINE MACHINE 2022–23 LINEUP — WA, SA AND TASMANIA: Flight Facilities (DJ set only in Tasmania) Lime Cordiale Cut Copy San Cisco Client Liaison (excluding SA) Masked Wolf (SA only) Art vs Science (SA only) Stace Cadet (DJ set, Tasmania only) Sumner (SA only) Mell Hall Happiness Is Wealth Jimi the Kween The Poof Doof Jamboree WINE MACHINE 2023 LINEUP — NSW, ACT AND VICTORIA: Hot Dub Time Machine Lime Cordiale (excluding Victoria) Bliss N Esso Vera Blue (excluding NSW) Northeast Party House KLP Grantperez The Poof Doof Jamboree Wine Machine tours Australia from November 2022–April 2023. Tickets for Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania are on sale now. Ticket pre-sales for NSW, ACT and Victoria start from 6pm AEDT on Wednesday, November 2, with general sales from 12pm AEDY on Thursday, November 3. Head to the festival website for further details.
For 45 years, Houston's beer can house has been causing near traffic accidents. "It tickles me to watch people screech to a halt," the building's creator, John Milkovisch, once explained. "They get embarrassed. Sometimes they drive around the block a couple of times. Later they come back with a car-load of friends." A child of the Great Depression, Milkovisch was raised when 'Waste not, want not' was a religion, rather than an option for the environmentally conscious. Employed as an upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, he spent much of his spare time transforming fragments of marble, metal and rock into one-of-a-kind landscaping features. It was in 1968 that his thoughts turned to the architectural potential of beer cans. At the time, aluminium siding was a must-have, so Milkovisch started opening out and flattening each of the cans he had stored in his attic. 50,000 units and 17 months later, his home had become one of the recycled wonders of the world. However, Milkovisch didn't see his idea — or himself — as particularly out-of-the-ordinary at the time. "Some people say this is sculpture but I didn't go to no expensive school to get these crazy notions," he said. "I guess I just thought it was a good idea, and it's easier than painting." Milkovisch passed away in the 1980s, and his wife continued to live in her husband's masterpiece for another ten or so years. In 2003, the property was taken over by the Orange Show Centre for Visionary Art. Through sensitive restoration and re-creation projects, they have made every effort to maintain the beer can house's artistic and historical integrity. It's now open to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays between midday and 5pm and has at last been recognised as one of Houston's official landmarks. [via Inhabitat]
Knowing what gifts to get everyone for Christmas is always a challenge — especially with every family member and friend having different tastes. For the creative king or queen on your list, we've curated a bunch of stellar gifts that'll make for excellent unwrapping on Christmas morning. To celebrate the impending launch of Hamilton at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in 2021, we've put together this list of six gifts suited to the culture vulture in your life, which are sure to satisfy them and make you less helpless (Hamilton references intended). [caption id="attachment_789707" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hamilton Broadway Cast[/caption] 'HAMILTON' GIFT VOUCHER, TICKETMASTER (FROM $10) Don't throw away your shot to get the perfect gift for the culture-loving one in your life with a gift voucher to see Hamilton at the Sydney Lyric Theatre. It's an original gift that caters to all age groups and history, theatre, music and culture buffs alike. The vouchers are super flexible, as they allow you to choose an amount to be redeemed against tickets rather than having to purchase tickets for a certain day. Plus, they're valid through till September 2021, so it's good for interstate friends who don't have their travel plans yet sorted. Vouchers start at just $10 and can be bought in multiples of $10 up to $450. And they can be bought right up until Christmas morning. HEY LADY PUZZLE, JOURNEY OF SOMETHING ($59) Give the gift of craft with the 1000-piece Hey Lady jigsaw puzzle by Aussie brand Journey of Something. The design is by artist Monique Aimee, who features themes of women and travel in her work. This particular piece stars the wonderful, history-making women that are Malala Yousafzai, Billie Eilish, Princess Diana, Dolly Parton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Frida Kahlo, Madonna and Michelle Obama. So, it'll also be a gift of inspiration and admiration. Plus, as a bonus, it's made from recycled paper. TOTE BAG, GOLDEN AGE CINEMA ($40) There's no better tote bag for the culture junkie in your group than this limited-edition version from Sydney's Golden Age Cinema. It's made with linen cotton fabric, which is extremely durable so it can be used on the reg without showing signs of wear. There's a front pocket for keys, comfortable handles for their shoulder and it has detailing on the front reading 'The Good Old Days Are Now' in bold lettering. Get this trendy and useful pressie in olive green or natural for a nifty $40 (plus postage and handling). ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES MEMBERSHIP (FROM $95) Get a gift that keeps on giving with a membership to the Art Gallery of NSW. For an individual membership of $95 for one year or $270 for three, your mate will receive a free ticket to the exhibition of their choice — right now, that could be Streeton or the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2020 — plus, a subscription to Look magazine and discounts on over 400 events over a year. They'll also reap discounts at the gallery shop, cafe and restaurant and enjoy some reciprocal benefits from other national and state galleries that have connections with the AGNSW. Not too shabby at all. [caption id="attachment_793357" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Kucera[/caption] TITJIKALA BY DORIS THOMAS SILK SCARF, MCA STORE ($250) The silk scarf, Titjikala by Doris Thomas, at the MCA Store is perfect for a loved one that's into high art or appreciates a good piece of fashion. This piece depicts Thomas' memories of Country, having been born near Alice Springs and raised in the community of Titjikala. It's part of the Town Camp Designs collection by Ewyenper Atwatye Artists, Tangentyere Artists and Yarrenyty Arltere Artists. Town Camp Designs is 100 percent Aboriginal owned and run with all profits going straight back to the artists. The scarf itself is $250 and 100 percent silk, and it comes in a gift box, so you don't need to worry about the wrapping. [caption id="attachment_793358" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] HIP HOP CLASSES, SYDNEY DANCE CO (FROM $24) Know someone who likes to get their groove on? Why not book them into a hip hop class at Sydney Dance Company? The beginner classes feature a street style originating from the Bronx in New York City in the 70s — think soulful and free-flowing movements similar to what Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake and Rihanna sport. Alternatively, step your friend up with an intermediate class featuring more complex choreography for them to master. Single classes are just $24 or you can grab a FlexiPack of five for $100. Alternatively, you could buy tickets to one of the company's shows if that's more their style. Hamilton is opening at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on Wednesday, March 17, booking through to September. Gift vouchers, valued between $10–450, are valid for redemption on performances for Hamilton and can be purchased from Ticketmaster here. Top image: Hamilton US National Tour, Joan Marcus
If your weekends usually include some combination of dogs, barbecues and Bunnings, well, this event is set to sort you out. Pet re-homing organisation Second Chance Animal Rescue is bringing a slew of homeless pups to a Bunnings near you for a national adoption drive. On Sunday, October 6, the not-profit organisation — which rescues and re-homes cats and dogs in need — is getting local shelters to bring their animals to select Bunnings stores across Australia, including Bunnings Castle Hill. Head down to have a cuddle with some adorable cats and pups in need of a new home. If you're particularly taken with one of the little guys, you can chat to one of the volunteers about adopting either now or in the future. To get some puppy pats, rock up to Bunnings Castle Hill between 11am and 2pm. And if you need some Dulux paint, you'll be able to make a donation to Second Chance's new animal hospital. Hopefully there'll be some snags sizzling, too. PARTICIPATING NSW BUNNINGS STORES Bunnings Castle Hill Bunnings Bathurst Bunnings West Hoxton Bunnings South Nowra Bunnings McGraths Hill
Memory plays are often tedious, for the simple reason that nothing much happens. It takes a skilled writer to set plot lines, past and present, on courses that dramatically impact each other. Moving Parts, currently playing at NIDA's Parade Theatre, is ad man David Nobay's first play and he has not avoided the pitfalls of the form. The play is set in a luxury watch store on London's Bond Street. A man (Josh McConville) enters, ostensibly to buy a £20,000 watch from the cranky old salesman (Colin Friels), only to reveal himself as the salesman's estranged son, seeking reconciliation. This, and each dramatic turn thereafter, is so predictable that Nobay seems to be playing double bluff with us. He's not. His use of the watch as a poetic symbol is quaint to start off with and then becomes tedious. The salesman's eloquent descriptions of time and precision are incongruous with his otherwise rough character — a reformed, racist alcoholic. Nobay may not be winning with his text but he has surrounded himself with a great creative team. What the text lacks in structure and originality, the production makes up for with quality. Sound designer Jack Ladder gives us beautiful, melancholy piano music; set designer Steven Jones-Evans has created a sumptuous, carpeted set with sage tiled walls and glowing pink display cabinets; and Russell Boyd's lighting design sheds a dusky warmth over the space. Steve Rogers' direction is clean and simple, using stillness to good effect in a number of scenes. The father and son combo of Friels and McConville is very easy to watch — their pace and connection is upbeat and together they make light work of some grotesquely poetic lines. Friels is returning to familiar, washed up salesman territory here after his portrayal of Willie Loman in Simon Stone's production of Death of a Salesman. In Moving Parts he displays that same wonderful fragility, but here Loman's idealism is replaced with bitterness. Friels' wandering London accent is inoffensive until McConville mimics him for a few lines with a superior accent. McConville matches Friels' performance and the power play over his father as a paying customer is fun to watch, especially when he orders him to "do your fucking job and seduce me". It may be a pertinent imperative for the production in general — a bit more theatrical wooing from these advertising pros could be in order. It's a pleasant show, but no seduction.
Lamenting singledom, or the limitations of your partner, is a favourite past-time for the many — and a full-time job for the few. However, when the planets align and you finally do get a chance to flex your dating muscle with someone you like/know/just met/kidnapped suddenly, a whole new set of problems arise. We may not be there to help pick a new outfit or brainstorm what album to play in the car, but we can relieve some of that venue-related anxiety you have had since they said yes. These are our picks of the best spots for first dates of every variation. The Hot Date: Low302 Okay, lets start on a high; you have gone all La Bouche over some lucky someone and now its time to set the scene. This category was tight, but there's something uniquely seductive about a place that takes a brick-walled, downtown-NYC-feeling space then decks it out with enough velvet to cover A Touch of Class, tucks a baby grand in the corner, borders the whole thing with ample couch space and sets the mood with the complete Black Keys discography. The kind of place you imagine Matthew McConaughey living in (circa bongo days). With table service to boot, you can rule out any of those mood-killing, half-hour fights to the bar for a drink at Low302. The just-friends date: Shady Pines Saloon The just-friends date can be trying terrain for even the most seasoned of daters, but if you are the one who puts the 'date' in that sentence not the 'friend' head over to Shady Pines Saloon. It's relaxed enough to not seem like a bold move away from the friend zone, but the combo of loud music, booze and peanuts seems to be working well for the bartenders, so maybe some of the charm that is Shady Pines will work in your favour. The no-expense-spared date: Gastro Park Here is a life rule: when you have money to burn always, always, always go to Quay. But I mean to burn. Otherwise, try out Gastro Park. Head chef/owner Grant King did just under a decade down at Pier before opening up this culinary gem with a view of the Kings Cross zoo, so it's some of the best cooking you will see in Sydney. Arrive early for a cocktail at the bar, and then, before your date can look at the menu, suggest the degustation with matching wines (no expense spared, remember?). Sommelier Brendan February will step you through some of the finer things in life, and this food is seriously guaranteed to impress. Just remember when leaving: do not feed the wildlife. The second-first date: Ms G's So you are doing that thing you said you would never do — you are dating the ex. But where should you go? Sentimentalists, just go to wherever you went on your first (successful) date, but for the rest of you it is time to think of somewhere anonymous and loud enough to cover any unforeseen abusive tirades. Plus, close proximity to a taxi rank is preferable. This is all pointing to Ms G's on Victoria St, right? The food is good but more importantly comes out fast enough for you to wrap things up on the fly, if need be. Its proximity to the Cross means a plethora of a. transport or b. drinking away your sorrows options. The Sunday Date: The Commons The Sunday date is a tricky customer. You could spend the whole time fixating on who they saw last night and why you are on the Sunday rung, or you could do everything in your power to bring an air of romance to Sunday. Think open fires, sandstone, hearty eats and a full liquor licence. Think, The Commons Local Eating House. Its been tucked away on Liverpool Street for a few years so it will not be buying you any 'ahead of the curve' points, but a lend of its homely charm could be just the ticket for injecting a bit of snuggle into your Sunday. The late-night date: Frankie's All things late night seem to be happening at Frankie's these days, so why should a late-night date be the exception? Step down into the world of Scott and Forte, grab a booth under some plastic grape vines and (if you can hear each other) muse about the faces in all those photographs. Grab a drink, sit down, and scope out the crowd. It is a wonderful spot for people watching and this will be your fail-safe if adult conversation hits a snag. The movie date: El Loco Your plan ended when the credits rolled, and now you have been doing that aimless walking around thing for almost 20 minutes (which is never as cute as it seems). Do yourself a favour and head to Devonshire Street; not only is El Loco a low-key 'let's talk about the plot' kind of venue, it is also one of the places most likely to still be serving food when your 8.30 session comes out. Plus, jalapeno margaritas are a well-known cure for that-was-the-worst-movie-I-ever-saw/I-want-my-two-and-a-half-hours-back-itis. We read that somewhere. The date on a budget: Missy K There are plenty of nightly deals around Sydney that can turn a lot of venues into a budget option (take Hinky Dinks' $1 wing night on a Wednesday for example), but if you want something reliably cheap and cheerful forget Bar Reggio and Bill & Tonis; actually, forget the whole of Stanley Street and look a little further afield. Missy K's is a dumpling and tea house sitting opposite 4Fourteen and next to the long-closed Hopetoun in Surry Hills, so you are in the thick of it. The food is fresh, Asian, speedy, delicious. Grab some dumplings, duck pancakes and rice paper rolls and sneak out of there for under $30. Plus, budget-dater-favourite the Cricketers Arms is just up the road if things go well. The blind date: Hinky Dinks Okay, let's assume someone with half a brain picked you two desperados for each other and you have something in common — go somewhere with a bit of personality, maybe even your personality. Hinky Dinks may be it — there is good food, but it's not a restaurant so no one is getting stuck there for four hours, the drinks are excellent and, where your home will always disappoint you, the decor at Hinky Dinks is simply delightful. In short, Hinky Dinks gives you an air of taste. The dance date: GoodGod Small Club Come Friday make a beeline for the Danceteria at GoodGod Small Club—you might even check out what's on and buy tickets beforehand, if you are into that kind of thing. This Chinatown cellar has that brand of undeniably infectious dance energy from the young indie crowd — ie, 'the pogo' and all other brands of just-for-fun dance moves are more than welcome. As is your date.
Workhorse Theatre Company’s The Motherfucker with the Hat shows human love at its dirtiest, and human savagery at its purest. Set in a lower class New York neighbourhood, where addiction is the only respite from the rough reality of the everyday, Jackie (Troy Harrison) completes his prison sentence and tries desperately to return to the straight-and-narrow. He’s hindered by the coke-using, expletive-slinging love of his life, Veronica (Zoe Trilsbach). Just when he finds employment and life is looking up, Jackie finds another man’s hat in Veronica’s apartment. The play follows the life-churning combo of love, jealousy and betrayal after the discovery of the offending headwear. Writer Stephen Adly Guirgis provides a phenomenally fun script, which the five actors in the Darlinghurst Theatre Company production clearly relish. Trilsbach handles the text best, with a raw, resonant voice that fires words like gunshots. A few Aussie accents peeked through the slack-jawed, working-class Bronx accents, which made me wonder if the foreign accents were entirely necessary. Surely director Adam Cook decided the text was so Yonkers it needed the accents, but with the amount of imported drama on our stages, an exaggerated or faulty accent can create caricature. It’s initially harder to relate this play’s themes to our Australian context. Yet, the themes are there for the applying — starting with the focus on addiction and recovery. I found myself contemplating the Aussie drinking culture, where functional alcoholism is allowed to breed freely. Adly Guirgis turns the AA catchcry “one day at a time” on its head, causing us to ask if adulthood means simply using each other for self-interested gains. Was the time for love and friendship during childhood, and long gone? The biggest flaw in this production is the scenic transitions. There is a blackout and full set change between every scene, which gets tedious and requires five actors and two stagehands to manoeuvre multiple pieces of furniture. The play would be much shorter, more engaging and more efficient with a pared-back set. One begins to wonder if they are simply showing off their resources or assume their audience is a bit silly. Do go to The Motherfucker for an intelligent and morally challenging script. Just have patience (and dinner beforehand) to stay mentally alert during the scene changes.
By now, there's no question that 400 Gradi is Melbourne pizza royalty. Back in 2014, owner and founder Johnny Di Francesco's margherita was famously crowned best in the world at the Campionato Mondiale Della Pizza (Pizza World Championship), beating 600 competitors from across the globe. And now, having added a swag more pizzerias to the family in the years since, 400 Gradi has claimed yet another huge glory, last night taking out the title of Best Pizza in Oceania at the second annual 50 Top Pizza Awards in Naples. The Melbourne pizzeria was secretly judged against almost 1000 others from across Italy and the globe, and secured both a place among the world's 50 best and reigned supreme over all other pizzerias in Oceania. "I am truly honoured, and almost speechless, to be honest," said Di Francesco at the event. "Never did I think that my beginnings in pizza as a twelve year old would lead me here." Other Aussie restaurants named finalists in the Oceania category include Sydney's Verace Pizzeria (Macquarie Park), La Disfida (Ashfield) and The Dolphin Hotel (Surry Hills), along with fellow Melburnian, Guy Grossi's Ombra. Best book a table now — we have a feeling these pizzas will be pretty darn popular in the coming weeks. You can check out the full lineup of award-winning pizzas here.
A couple with a secret invite another couple over for dinner. It’s a familiar premise. But unlike Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Mr Kolpert has considerably more laughs. And although there's plenty of colour in the set design, this play is pitch black on the spectrum of dark comedies. Fledgling company pantsguys have been racking up some success lately. We've had the stress-ridden sixth formers of Punk Rock and even more recently the melancholic family saga, On the Shore of the Wide World; however, Mr Kolpert, by German playwright David Gieselmann, offers an opportunity to loosen things up a bit. Under the charismatic direction of James Dalton, this play is a pretty wild ride. In a no-frills apartment, Sarah (Claire Lovering) and Ralf (Tim Reuben) are expecting guests. As they hurriedly tidy up, their conversation is strung together of half-sentences and unfinished thoughts. Then Ralf blurts out to visitors Edith (Paige Gardiner) and Bastion (Garth Holcombe) that they have murdered a co-worker. Though immediately palmed off as a joke, the question of the possibly deceased accountant, Mr Kolpert, keeps cropping up. It’s a wry party game that doesn’t quite feel like a game. Indeed, the tension of the play is built around the confusion between confession and elaborate practical joke. Lovering and Rueben are a good match as the would-be killers. They oscillate between cool and collected and outrageously over-the-top. Holcombe is wonderful as the prickly architect, Bastion, and Gardiner is simply hilarious as his co-operative wife, Edith. Brimming with faux innocence and gawkiness, she is magnetic even when not delivering lines. Both these characters have a psychotic edge and undergo something of a role reversal as the play unfolds.There’s also a pizza delivery guy (Edan Lacey) that gets sucked into the action, lending a deadpan humour. I wondered why Ralf and Sarah allow their secret to hover so close to the surface. But then, as thrill-seekers, it becomes apparent that each character is yearning to “feel something again”. And murky motives become less of a problem as the play spirals into a taboo-busting Tarantino-esque blood bath. It is fast-paced and truly unpredictable. When it comes to staging, Mr Kolpert feels like an ambitious project, but it's realised through some creative choices. The set is splattered with fluro paint, and there’s UV lights, smoke and bubbles. Taking the dinner party disaster genre to new levels, Mr Kolpert will keep you on your toes. Although the performances of Gardiner and Holcombe really stand out, the physical comedy is a collective effort and given the constraints of the space, it’s probably as fluid as it can be. In any case, this entertaining play is like being stuck inside an absurd practical joke that just won't end.
Huskisson, a quiet coastal town set on picturesque Jervis Bay — the perfect place for a relaxing holiday or, you know, a gruelling triathlon. The Ultimate Husky Triathlon Festival has grown to become one of Australia's most-loved long course events, so if you've been saying to yourself that 2018 is going to be the year you conquer the swim-bike-run, then get yourself to Huskisson. The triathlon involves a two-kilometre swim through the crystal clear waters of Jervis Bay, followed by a breezy 83-kilometre bike ride then a cool 20-kilometre run. If you're a water baby, there's also the one-kilometre ocean swim, or if you're more of a get in, get out kind of person, there's the Super Sprint (Enticer) which involves a 200-metre swim, eight-kilometre bike ride and two-kilometre run. PSA: You can totally wear flippers in this one — but not if you're after a podium finish. And for those keen to unwind after the ultimate workout, we hear the post-event celebrations at the Husky Pub go off.
Deciding what to eat is never easy. Most of the time, we're barely able to work out what we want for dinner, let alone consider how it could affect our health or impact the environment. To help you navigate some of the more complex issues of food production and consumption, this Saturday, July 14, Sydney Opera House is hosting Fixing Food: an afternoon of intellectual nourishment for food lovers everywhere. There are two talks on the menu, starting with What Should I Eat: a discussion on the confusing world of fad diets with New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson, nutritionist Professor Grant Brinkworth and Ularai/Barkandji woman and indigenous ingredient expert Jody Orcher. The session concludes with a specially curated lunchbox packed with delicious native goodies. After lunch, the second course brings GMO: No Way or OK?: an examination into genetically modified foods with renowned British author and activist Mark Lynas. To get you in the mood for thinking about food, we've put together a list of five indigenous ingredients that you should be eating more of. Not only are these homegrown heroes pretty darn tasty, but they're also packed with nutrients, are kinder to the environment and, in many instances, support remote communities. So, when it comes to food, go wild. FINGER LIME This native citrus fruit is bursting with bright lemony flavour, high quantities of potassium and vitamins C and E. Grown in sub-tropical rainforests across Queensland and NSW, the indigenous fruit is recognisable by its long finger shape (hence the name) and vibrant jewel-toned skin, which comes in pink, red, green, yellow and purple. Bust one open to reveal juicy, tangy segments, or caviar, which burst in your mouth. You can pop these pearls onto freshly shucked oysters or squeeze the juice over salmon, scallops or lobster. They also make an elegant inclusion to lemon tarts, parfait and cheesecake. Find finger lime incorporated in the specialty lunchboxes at the What Should I Eat talk. [caption id="attachment_676466" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Flickr.[/caption] LEMON MYRTLE This fragrant native herb, commonly used in food, drinks and remedies, grows in rainforest environments in QLD and NSW, as well as in many backyards. The glossy green leaves reveal a punchy lemon flavour with lingering notes of eucalyptus and camphor. The leaves can be used fresh or dried as a seasoning for whole-baked fish, roasted chicken or vegetables. It can also be whipped into mayonnaise or steeped into a tea. [caption id="attachment_676462" align="alignnone" width="1920"] John Tann.[/caption] WATTLESEED An important food source for Aboriginal people, wattleseed was traditionally ground down and baked over hot coals to make bush bread. Found in only a small number of wattle species, the edible seeds reveal coffee, chocolate and hazelnut notes and have a warm, roasty flavour. Today, chefs across Australia have found new uses for the native ingredient: adding it to breads, biscuits, pastries and ice creams. It can also be used as a spice rub for meats, amplifying the smoky barbecued flavour. [caption id="attachment_676497" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Flickr.[/caption] KAKADU PLUM This small, green, plum-like fruit is only found in the northernmost parts of Australia. The bush tucker ingredient has a sweet and sour taste, often compared to stewed apples and pears. The fruit is known for its high vitamin C content, which measures up to 100 times more than oranges. Kakadu plums don't keep for long, so you're more likely to find them frozen or dried and milled into powder. The fruit can be stewed into jams, tarts, fruit pies and purees; sprinkled into drinks; or folded through desserts. [caption id="attachment_676468" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tor Lindstrand.[/caption] BUSH TOMATO Found in desert environments in central Australia, the bush tomato looks like a cherry tomato with a green tinge. The flavour is commonly described as sweet and caramelised, like a raisin or tamarillo. Bush tomato is often used to make sauces, salsas and chutneys, but it can also be powdered and used as a seasoning for meat, particularly game meats like kangaroo. You can dig into bush tomatoes found in the lunchbox at What Should I Eat. Learn more about Australia's native ingredients at this weekend's Fixing Food event. Tickets can be purchased via the Sydney Opera House website.
Since arriving in 2020, The Great has served up the satirical take on Russian history that no one knew they needed. On-screen, everyone said "huzzah!" a whole lot — and, off-screen, viewers shared that sentiment. But all that cheering at this delightfully dark (and Emmy-nominated) twist on the past has now come to an end, with Hulu, the American streaming platform behind the series, cancelling the Elle Fanning (The Girl From Plainville)- and Nicholas Hoult (The Menu)-starring favourite. The Great made it to three seasons, all fittingly great, with the third dropping in May this year. From now on, however, anyone keen to dive into Catherine the Great's story will need to hit up the history books. Across its run, the nuptials between Catherine (Fanning) and Peter III (Hoult) were in the spotlight, alongside affairs, pregnancies, obsessions over heirs, grappling for power, bloody coups, assassination plots and very little wedded bliss. Attempted murders, mass imprisonments, oh-so-much backstabbing (sometimes literally), hallucinations, couples therapy, plenty of drinking and tumbles in the sheets: that all popped up as well. The show's all killer, no filler concept since season one: following Catherine's rise and reign, with a heavy focus on what that means for her marriage to Peter. The Great stuck to that mission with only the slightest regard for the actual facts and with a big reliance upon hilarious wit, which is one of the reasons that it was such a delicious watch from the get-go. While The Great was supremely confident in its blend of handsome period staging, the loosest of historical realities and a savage sense of humour (it does spring from Oscar-nominated The Favourite screenwriter Tony McNamara, after all), it felt even more comfortable in its skin the longer that it kept going. And smoother, too, yet just as biting, all while seesawing tonally and proving as sharp as a shot of vodka — or several. As well as Fanning and Hoult, Phoebe Fox (The Aeronauts), Adam Godley (Lodge 49), Gwilym Lee (Top End Wedding), Charity Wakefield (Genius), Douglas Hodge (I Hate Suzie Too), Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who), Bayo Gbadamosi (War of the Worlds), Florence Keith-Roach (Juliet, Naked), Freddie Fox (House of the Dragon), Grace Molony (Mary, Queen of Scots) and Belinda Bromilow (Doctor Doctor) are all among the cast. And, in season two, The Great even found room for Gillian Anderson (The Crown) as Catherine's mother. What's the opposite of "huzzah!"? That's all that's left to be said. Check out the trailer for The Great season three below: The Great streams in Australia via Stan and in New Zealand via Neon. Read our reviews of season one, two and three. Via Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
Ice cream-loving vegans have hit the jackpot this summer. Just last month, they scored two vegan Magnums, vegan Cornettos, a vegan Weis Bar and four new dairy-free Ben & Jerry's tubs. Now, Aussie vego fast food chain Lord of the Fries has launched its own range of vegan frozen treats. And it's giving them away for free. On Friday, February 22, at 2pm all of the LOTF stores, nationwide, will be giving away ice cream sangas to the first 100 eager vegans (or just ice cream fans). If you're in NSW, you'll need to grab yours from Central Station, George Street or Parramatta Westfield; Queenslanders will need to head to the single store in Surfers Paradise; and Victorians, well, you have 12 stores to pick from — check out the list here. While the freebies are expected to fly out of the door — we recommend getting there early if you want one — they'll then be available at all stores for the foreseeable future. The new sandwich range features three, completely vegan, ice cream flavours — Cherry Seinfield, Cookies & Cream Dean & Gene Ween and Triple Choc Chip Slick Ric — all sandwiched between thick cookies. And they're just $4 a pop. Lord of the Fries will be giving away 100 free vegan ice cream sandwiches (one per person) at 2pm on Friday, February 22 at all of its Aussie stores. Find your closest one here.
Winter is here, the gloves and beanies are out of storage, and it's time to start loading up on sweets and carbs. That's how every June starts — and, this year, Krispy Kreme wants to help with the latter. How? By giving away an extremely excessive number of doughnuts. You're probably now wondering what constitutes an excessive amount of doughnuts. Polishing off a packet by yourself doesn't count, at least in this instance. Krispy Kreme's giveaway is going big, with the chain slinging 100,000 doughnuts in conjunction with National Doughnut Day. Whether or not you're a big fan of food 'days', we're guessing you are quite fond of free doughnuts. To snag yourself a signature glazed freebie, head to your closest store in Sydney, Brisbane or Perth on Friday, June 4. Sydneysiders have 11 stores — stretching from Penrith to the CBD — to choose from, while Queenslanders can pick from seven different doughnut shops, with the most central in Albert Street in the CBD. And, in Perth, you can head to one of four Krispy Kreme stores. The deal isn't available at BP outlets, 7-Eleven stores, Jesters or Woolworths, or in states other than New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Because of stay-at-home restrictions in Victoria, National Doughnut Day won't be celebrated in the state just yet. Krispy Kreme plans to in the future, though — we'll keep you updated when something eventuates. The 100,000 doughnuts will be spread across the participating stores, so you'll want to get in relatively early if you want to kick off your Friday with a free sweet and doughy treat. Krispy Kreme's free doughnut giveaway is happening in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth on Friday, June 4. To find your closest store and check its opening hours, head to the Krispy Kreme website.
Been a while since you cut some shapes on a dance floor? COVID-19 sure brought some Footloose energy, with dancing off the cards for quite some time. So, if you're looking to get your groove back, be sure to head to Wanna Dance — an art installation and street party in the streets of Haymarket. Taking over Parker Lane from June 8–26, you can expect disco lights and dance-inducing tracks coming from top local DJs, spinning everything from C-Pop, K-Pop and bangers from other corners of the globe. And, come June 11–13 and June 17–19, there'll be dance performances and demos, showcasing styles such as street dance, contemporary and hip hop. It's time to live out your wildest Kevin Bacon dreams. Image: Anna Kucera
If you're in Ashfield on Sunday morning and catch the enchanting scent of jam-filled doughnuts or cheese and potato dumplings, you're probably close by the Polish Club. Not-for-profit Polish cultural organisation PolArt is hosting a Pierogi & Paczki Party at the Ashfield Polish Club on Sunday, March 28. The takeaway food market comes in the lead-up to Wielkanoc, the Polish Easter Sunday. On the menu will be paczki, Polish doughnuts filled with plum jam that are consumed by the millions in Poland in the lead up to Easter, and Polish dumplings called pierogi that will be available with cheese and potato, cabbage and mushroom, pork and sweet cheese fillings. Limited stock will be available on the day, so it's recommended that you preorder if you don't want to miss out. To do so, email your order to info@polartsydney.com.au or head to the Polish Club website for more details. The market is raising funds for the upcoming PolArt Sydney Festival, a ten-day celebration of Polish culture that's scheduled for 2022. The festival the largest and longest-running of its kind outside of Poland. If you stick around after the market, from 3pm you can see the Polish Folkloric Ensemble Syrenka perform for the final time at the Ashfield Polish Club before it closes for renovations. [caption id="attachment_804172" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Renata Brak[/caption] Pierogi & Paczki Party runs from 10am–2pm. Top image: Dana Douglas
Reader: if you are currently looking for a gig in hospitality, you should know that you are hot property. Right now, the industry is struggling to find staff across the board, from front of house talent to head chefs to bartenders to dish pigs (as a former washer of dishes in commercial kitchens, I am allowed to use that term). So the questions here are why and what. Why is there such a shortage of workers? And what can the industry do about it? There's never been a greater consumer demand for the experience of eating and drinking out. Firstly: 'tis the season. The fact that holidays are approaching and now we've got the longer daylight hours of summer mean that extreme socialising is an effortless no-brainer. But also, in places where the lockdown timeframe was particularly extensive — like in Melbourne and Sydney and other parts of Victoria and New South Wales — the human reaction to the re-opening of our cities is akin to letting a house-bound kelpie off the leash in a paddock of dumb sheep. It's focused high-energy mayhem! So the demand and enthusiasm has never been higher. But the restaurants, bars, cafes, clubs and snack bars that have so gratefully returned from the business-threatening challenges of COVID, are under a new kind of pressure. We had the chance to speak to a cross-section of Sydney hospitality greats to get their personal insights on how they're impacted by this issue, why it's happening, and the pros that accompany the cons of this situation. Jeremy Blackmore of Tio's and Cantina Ok!, Kobi Morris who is Head of Operations at the Paramount Coffee Project and Reuben Hills, and Issac Martin — social media/brand consultant and burger enthusiast behind @issac_eatsalot — joined our latest instalment of live-stream series Hot Takes & Takeaways (a super entertaining panel which we highly recommend you watch in full here hosted by the fantastic Gen Fricker). Blackmore explained: "The issue for the industry in the whole is that we're normally buoyed up by heaps of holiday- and working-visa people, international students, and there's just a huge amount of those people who aren't here anymore... Especially the bigger venues are struggling at the moment." Issac Martin, a former pastry chef and line cook who has an ear to a lot of working chefs, described the "wage wars" going on with competition to recruit being at an all-time high for hospitality workers across the spectrum. "It's just ridiculous what some venues are going to the lengths of offering kitchen hands [for example]... They'll literally be offering kitchen hands fifty dollars an hour to work a weekend." How important are wages, ultimately? Like in any industry, the increase of a base salary or hourly rate is always almost a positive for the workers. So, as demand softens and those itinerant members of the hospitality community return to our shores, restaurants and bars, will this impact be long-term? Watch the insightful discussion below (and if you're handy at pouring beers, making coffees, designing elite menus, washing dishes or running a restaurant: call us. We know a few people who would be very interested in getting your details...). You can watch the full first episode of Hot Takes & Takeaways on our Facebook page. If you'd like to learn more about what restaurants are doing to survive — and thrive — during this tough time, check out Uber Eats' Enterprise Hub.
Given the calibre of the venues at Sydney's Tramsheds, we were expecting the growers market to be somewhat spectacular. And, the folks behind the huge Harold Park development did not disappoint. The European-inspired growers market on Artisan Lane, have become the heart of the foodie precinct. Boasting two fully functional kitchens, and room for 76 people, Artisan Lane plays host to a mix of markets, workshops, master classes, and innovative food pop-ups. With a lineup of classes set to cover everything from butchery and fish filleting, to brewing beer. But the growers market is where it's at. The markets are run in collaboration with Bodega 1904 — a restaurant inside the precinct, from the folks behind Porteño and Bodega — so, naturally, the food is delicious. Discerning foodies will be able to get their hot little hands on a grand array of tasty nosh, like Pepe Saya's handmade butter and stunning floral works by Thorny Roses Florists. Among the local vendors holding stalls each week are foodie favourites Brickfields Bakery, Broomsfield Pies, Russolini Seafood and Gj Fine French Foods, to name but a few. Proceeds from vendor stall fees are donated to a different charity each week, nice. During the markets, which run from 8am to 2pm every Sunday, there are wine tastings with Bodega 1904, more wine tastings with Chamber Cellars, and culinary masterclasses that kick off at 11am. You can learn about fresh produce (and eat plenty of it), sip with sommeliers, chat to cheesemakers, chefs and authors. While you're there, check out one of the restaurants inside the precinct — you'll find everything from spicy fried chicken to freshly baked bread and boudin noir.
For cinephiles who like their movies dark, twisted, offbeat and out there, Monster Fest has been a beloved name on Australia's festival circuit for more than a decade. The event started back in 2011 as a Melbourne-only showcase of weird and wild cinema, and has expanded to hit up Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, too — because everyone deserves a strange and surreal (and sometimes chilling and horror-fuelled) night or several at the pictures. In 2022, Monster Fest is back for another whirl, although you're forgiven if that idea sounds familiar: earlier in the year, it hosted weekender mini fests to sate movie buffs' appetites. Now, it's time for the full festival experience, which unfurls over 11 days in Melbourne and four days at its other stops, all highlighting the latest and greatest in genre filmmaking. If it's a horror, sci-fi or thriller movie and it's destined for a cult following, you'll likely see it here first. When it gets things started at Carlton's Cinema Nova from Thursday, November 24–Sunday, December 4, Monster Fest 2022 will kick off with the Yuletide terrors of Christmas Bloody Christmas, which features a robotic Santa malfunctioning, then going on a murderous rampage. 'Tis the season and all that. In fact, the film will launch the fest countrywide, including when it runs at Event Cinemas George Street in Sydney, Event Cinemas Myer Centre in Brisbane, Event Cinemas Marion in Adelaide and Event Cinemas Innaloo in Perth between Thursday, December 8–Sunday, December 11. From there, other standouts include Stephen Dorff- and Emile Hirsch-starring The Price We Pay, which begins with two criminals on the run and gets deadlier from there; The Offering, about a family battling an ancient demon; and Swissploitation flick Mad Heidi, which has its namesake fight fascist rule in a grindhouse frenzy. Or, there's On the Edge, the latest from American Mary filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska; Subject, the sophomore release by Australian Watch the Sunset filmmaker Tristan Barr; and Ribspreader, another Aussie effort, this time about getting rid of smoking — and smokers. Closing night features Kids vs Aliens, a coming-of-age sci-fi/horror effort that sees a house party gatecrashed by visitors from another galaxy as directed by Hobo with a Shotgun's Jason Eisener. Elsewhere on the lineup, even though the idea of people fighting to survive their way through a building isn't new by any means — see: High-Rise, Dredd and The Raid, for starters — French film Lockdown Tower is giving it another go. Different cities have different exclusives, too, with more movies on the bill in Melbourne given the longer season. A must-see for everyone, however, is the special presentation of Friday the 13th Part III to celebrate its 40th anniversary, as screening in 3D and 4K. A word of warning: if you like your movies happy and chirpy, this clearly isn't your kind of festival. For everyone else, settle in. MONSTER FEST 2022: Thursday, November 24–Sunday, December 4 — Cinema Nova, Melbourne Thursday, December 8–Sunday, December 11 — Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney Thursday, December 8–Sunday, December 11 — Event Cinemas Myer Centre, Brisbane Thursday, December 8–Sunday, December 11 — Event Cinemas Marion, Adelaide Thursday, December 8–Sunday, December 11 — Event Cinemas Innaloo, Perth Monster Fest runs across late November and early December around Australia. Head to the festival's website for further details. Top image: Photo courtesy of Shudder and RLJE Films.
Gavin Roach's one-man monologue makes its way back to Sydney after sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012 and the Melbourne Fringe 2011. It's an expedition through the intimate emotional and physical world of Felix, who is about to go on a date for the first time in a year. Accustomed to interacting in cyberspace, Felix grows increasingly uncertain and frightened and starts to wonder why he ever wiped his Grindr app off his smartphone. According to Stage Whispers, Confessions of a Grindr Addict is one of those rare one-man shows that enables you to "forget that's what you're watching". Read the rest of our ten best things to do at Sydney Mardi Gras.
Co-ordinating your outfit for the Blue Light Disco. Feeling so nervous about slow dancing at the formal you could hurl. These are iconic experiences of youth, shared whether you were cool or a dork. School Dance finally brings these experiences to the stage, with emphasis on the dork. "Darwin's theory of evolution at its cruellest," the omniscient narrator reminds us. Windmill Theatre, who produced the show, are actually a children's theatre company, but with School Dance they've expanded their remit to include any adults who like an excuse to get a bit silly. Director of both company and show Rosemary Myers decided to prod the seeds of an idea that had been planted on an earlier collaboration with writer Matthew Whittet, sound designer Luke Smiles, and set and costume designer Jonathon Oxlade, who reminisced on their teenage nerdom while working on the show Fugitive. The men play Matthew, Luke, and Jonathon, three fictionalised versions of themselves at an earlier, unaware age. Best of all, the now mid-30-year-olds grew up in the 1980s, and references to Gremlins, E.T., and acid wash denim abound, wrapped up in a high-energy, Scott Pilgrim-esque package. Was music ever finer than in the '80s? The answer is clearly no, because each track played tonight is better and more rapturously received than the last (although Bonnie Tyler and Spandau Ballet are somewhat climactic points in the mix). The action veers onto course when Matthew literally starts to disappear, shortly after being ignored by the popular girl Hannah Ellis (Amber McMahon, who adroitly handles all the female roles). His legs go first. Then his torso and head. On stage, this is shown through the wearing of a black, slightly sparkling body stocking — one of the many creative, smoothly plausible tricks of staging going on. The set, lighting, and foley provide constant wonder. To rescue Matthew from the 'land of invisible teenagers' (a tentative title), the teens will need to call on Jonathan's knowing older sister, He-Man, a unicorn, and a massive act of bravery. The experience of watching this show is one filled with laughter, cheering, applause, and squeals of recognition. It's ecstatic and triumphant, bonkers yet homey. It's not highfalutin — there's hand farting, an extended, glorious passage of it, causing the kid behind me to lose his head — but School Dance reaches special heights all of its own. It's obvious a lot of love went into it, and the audience can't help but reciprocate. Image: Jonathon Oxlade, Luke Smiles, and Matthew Whittet in School Dance. Photo by Lisa Tomasetti.
Cooking is an act of precision. It's also one of feeling. On the movie that nabbed him the Best Director award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Trần Anh Hùng (Éternité, Norwegian Wood) helms with the same care, spirit and emotion that his characters display in the kitchen. The Taste of Things' audience has a front-row seat to both, as this 1885-set French picture begins with dishes upon dishes being whipped up and the feature's gaze, via cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg (Final Cut), lenses their creation intimately and sumptuously. The film's extraordinary opening 30 minutes-plus, as the camera is trained on the stove and counter with slight detours around the room to collect or wash ingredients, is meticulously crafted and at the same time instinctual. Think: the sensations of observing the finest of fine-dining chefs and being a child watching your grandmother make culinary magic, as nearly every kid has, all rolled into one appetising introductory sequence. In the home of gourmand Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel, The King of Algiers), and in its heart, his personal chef Eugénie (Juliette Binoche, The New Look) is so skilled and fastidious that she'd do small-screen hit The Bear proud; she's clearly a conjurer of the culinary arts, too. Hùng and Ricquebourg — the latter a well-deserving Lumiere Award-winner for his efforts here — are methodical with the choreography of setting the scene, while equally deeply immersed in the flow of the kitchen's tasks. As soundtracked by chirping birds, if this was The Taste of Things for 135 minutes and not just half an hour-ish, it'd remain a mesmerising movie. (A word of warning: eat before viewing, lest hunger pangs not just simmer but boil over.) Adapting 1924 novel The Passionate Epicure: La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffant, Gourmet by epicure Marcel Rouff as he scripts and directs, Hùng does more than fashion among the most-handsomely staged and shot imagery of a meal coming to life, but his approach to this entrée establishes the flavour. For its main course, still never roaming far from the most-important room in the house, The Taste of Things sinks its teeth into a relationship that is first laid bare as the film warms up. Anyone who has ever been employed in a kitchen, or caught a movie or series — fiction and documentary alike — set within one, knows that there's no hiding anything in this always-on-the-go space. How people interact and react can't be seasoned over, either, amid the pots, pans, trays, whisks and spatulas. Accordingly, it's plain to see from the get-go that Dodin and Eugénie are as connected to each other as they are to food, even if Hùng doesn't layer in much in the way of backstory. As well as working together for 20 years, they're occasional lovers, and they'd be married if Dodin had his wish; that they're not isn't due to his lack of asking. Featuring a seafood vol-au-vent, poached chicken, crayfish, a rack of veal, braised lettuce and more — and also a baked alaska that looks as divine as desserts get — that initial meal is a feast for Dodin and his friends at his rural estate. As it is served course by course, praise is showered Eugénie's way, as are pleas for her to join them at the table. She'd rather be behind the scenes; for her, the glory of creation, toiling at something that you're passionate about and dedicating your time to the only work you've ever wanted to do trumps everything. As Eugénie does, much of The Taste of Things shows rather than utters, commencing with the scant amount of dialogue said as lunch is being prepared with assistance from kitchenhand Violette (Galatéa Bellugi, Junkyard Dog), plus Violette's visiting niece Pauline (debutant Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), who shows a flair for cooking beyond her years. That The Taste of Things is a sensual picture is evident from its debut bite. That it is patient — slow-burning in fact — is just as apparent. Its guiding force has form in 1993's The Scent of Green Papaya, the Vietnamese French director's Oscar-nominated debut; however, when you're making a movie about savouring what's truly valuable in life, from food and fervour to the pleasure of the person that you love's company, matching that notion is essential. Nothing about The Taste of Things is in a rush, or afraid to revel and linger. Drama is sprinkled through the storyline, as is grief, but the pacing and mood is contemplative to the point of being almost meditative. And that air of appreciation, of luxuriating, of enjoying exactly what's in the title when you can, is the vibe and ethos of its central couple. Irrespective of the turned-down proposals, Dodin and Eugénie have made relishing their shared affair with cuisine and their years side by side the core of their romance. Binoche and Magimel, both luminous beneath painterly lighting whether they're standing over a chopping board, in the bedroom —including after an attention-grabbing cut from a pear to the naked form — or strolling through the sunny garden, aren't strangers in either a professional or personal capacity. In 1999, they co-starred as lovers in The Children of the Century. That same year, their daughter was born. Their off-screen relationship ended in 2003, but there's a comfort in their parts as Dodin and Eugénie that feels both raw and rich, not to mention rare. Watching characters who are allowed to delight in each other with decades of respect and affection behind them is indeed infrequent on-screen, and helps make The Taste of Things play like a delicacy. This gorgeously filmed, performed and penned picture has become famous for something other than its contents, though: it's one of the reasons that Anatomy of a Fall doesn't have 2024's Best International Feature Oscar to its name. Each nation can only put one title forward each year, with France's submission committee opting for Hùng's film over Justine Triet's Palme d'Or-winner (at the same Cannes where Hùng took home the Best Director accolade). The choice didn't escape notice, even if it'll never now be known if Anatomy of a Fall would've pipped The Zone of Interest for the Academy's global cinema prize to add to its win for Best Original Screenplay, and also scoring four other nominations. The scrutiny over the pick, especially after The Taste of Things was shortlisted but not nominated — for anything — does this nourishing treat an injustice. As remains true in the culinary and cinematic spheres alike, a sublime meal is a sublime meal regardless of other exquisite dishes existing.
Nestled in the back streets of shady Hurstville Grove is a purveyor of fine wines, beers and spirits. While small, this bottle shop is sure to stock everything you need for a cocktail party, a backyard barbecue or a fancy dinner party. Unlike some of the bigger liquor chains, this joint stocks some rarer labels that are notoriously difficult to get a hold of. Even if it doesn't stock some hard-to-find Argentinian wine made from special grapes plucked at the full moon, the friendly staff behind the counter will go above and beyond to try and source it for you. Images: Trent van der Jagt.
Maybe you first heard of Peloton when US President Joe Biden took office, with his use of the company's technology-enabled equipment giving rise to questions about its potential White House security risks. Perhaps you've seen the mocking ad created by Ryan Reynolds' Aviation American Gin, or the Saturday Night Live spoof. Or, you could just really like expensive additions to your home gym setup, or getting guided through your workout routine by an instructor without having to leave the house. Whichever fits, Australians will soon be able to get their hands on the brand's indoor bikes — and, as of this week, you can now take part in its streamed classes as well. Back in March, the company announced plans to launch Down Under this year — and it's currently in the process of doing just that. First up: the Peloton app, which Australians can download now. It's where you'll find the company's popular workout content, including via a free trial for the next 90 days. After that, you can pay $16.99 per month to keep accessing its at-home exercise sessions via a digital subscription. On offer: instructor-led classes, motivational tracks and curated playlists, with the latter featuring the likes of Beyoncé and The Beatles. The sessions cover cycling, running, strength training, high-intensity interval training, yoga, barre, pilates, dance cardio, bootcamp and meditation. Time-wise, they span from five to 60 minutes in length and, in terms of skill, range from beginner to advanced. And if you'd like an all-access membership for your entire household — because your partner and/or housemates are keen, too — that'll cost $59 per month. Next, from Wednesday, July 14, Peloton will be roll out its physical equipment in Australia. Presumably, it won't be doing so by using its controversial 2019 TV commercial, which received considerable backlash and gave rise to the aforementioned parodies. Australians will be able to choose from two Peloton bikes to begin with, and neither comes cheap. The Peloton Bike will cost $2895, while the Bike+ will set you back $3695. If you're wondering what the difference is, the latter comes with a bigger screen that can rotate 360 degrees, and with a better sound system — because connecting to the Peloton app and streaming its workouts while you're hitting the pedals is all part of the process. The Peloton app includes material that doesn't require the brand's equipment, so you can give it a try without breaking your budget. Peloton is also setting up physical showrooms in Sydney and Melbourne, should you want to give its bikes a test run in person. The brand also makes treadmills, although when they'll be available in Australia hasn't yet been announced. Now that Peloton has arrived Down Under, it has set up shop in its fifth country worldwide, after the US, the UK, Canada and Germany. The Peloton app is now available in Australia, and the brand's bikes will be available from Wednesday, July 14. For further details, keep an eye on the company's website.
If you’re looking for the next new thing in craft beer, don’t read on, because sour beer is not it. It’s old hat, by now. Hundreds of years old. Thousands, even. We just never knew about it until now. I met with Joel Connelly, director of Sydney Craft Beer Week, to talk about beers, what makes them turn sour and why we’re likely to see an imminent emergence of this strange brew. “Australians are still really into ‘hoppy beer’," says Connelly, "but the thing in the US that’s been massive is sour.” Given that our fledgling craft beer scene takes hints from everything American, it seems safe to assume we'll be seeing more and more of this 'new' style. “Sour’s coming back now, but it’s old. It’s super old,” he says. So what exactly is this traditional method of brewing that brings to mind a hops-driven IPA mixed with a bagful of sour worms? And, more importantly, why should I want to drink such an odd concoction? After chatting with such a beer guru, and giving the tart elixir a go myself, I think I know. Historically, all beers used to be sour Sour beer, also known as 'wild beer', has been around since time immemorial, and has a longer history than the crisp lagers we’re so used to in our pubs. “Sour’s an old tradition. All beers used to be sour, before people figured out how to cultivate yeast,” Connelly says. They're commonplace in Europe, from Belgian lambics to Berliner Weisse beers. It’s not just a traditional style; it’s the only way you used to be able to get beer. The sour flavour is achieved through the use of wild bacteria during the fermentation process. Instead of cooking up an ale in a sterile steel vat, sour beer is allowed to ferment naturally through the use of bacteria like Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces — bacteria avoided like the plague by regular brewers. These yeasts bring with them a whole new subset of flavours that aren’t present in most beers you can find on tap. The bacteria are brought into production in a variety ways. The traditional Belgian method is to ferment in wooden barrels that will encourage the yeast to enter the brew. Open air fermentation is becoming more popular, too, and uses the wild bacteria present in the environment to alter the beer. Different still is the method of simply adding more fruit to kick a secondary fermentation into action. Each method brings with it a strange new taste that is beginning to change the way beer drinkers in this country are viewing their brews. It’s not an easy process, though. “A beer, from start to finish, you can have packaged and ready to go in two to three weeks, but souring beer takes a long time, it’s months of investment,” says Connelly. There's more to the flavour profile than the name suggests Once you can get it out of your head that your beer tastes so different to any other you’ve had before, it’s incredibly easy to appreciate the fact that it doesn’t. Take, for example, the Doctor’s Orders Electrolyte Forte, a zesty Imperial Gose. It hits your lips and you can taste a slightly more savoury note. As it rolls over your tongue, however, the flavour is all bright fruits paired with a hint of coriander, and it isn’t until you swallow that the tart, sour end of the spectrum is felt. At that time, however, it’s the perfect flavour to have — savoury, then sweet, and then all topped off with a sour sucker punch to the face. It’s intricate and delicate, and unbelievably refreshing. It’s not all about the sour, though. “It doesn’t have to be a full-on sour experience, you can just have a beer that’s slightly tart,” says Connelly. Not all beers are fermented for the same period of time, or with the same fruits, so every single batch is different. A beer might be soured with only a few added extras, and not for as long, so won’t taste like a Warhead. Instead, it might tread that border between crisp and tart, and simply make you think about what you’re drinking. In this way, sour beer is a lot more like wine. Because the process can’t be controlled to the same extent as mass-produced lagers, each batch is like a wine vintage — the same flavour combos, but with different aromas, bodies and intricacies. Like any refreshing beer, it’s meant to be consumed anywhere, anytime. Where to pucker up in Australia Most sour beers you’ll find at the moment are imports from America, given that the sour scene is so new to Australia. However, more and more local sours are popping up all the time. The Royal Albert Hotel in Surry Hills stocks a slew of Australian sours on a regular rotation, while Melbourne’s Slowbeer in Richmond is kicking around some killers. Aussie craft brewers are dipping their toes in sour, too. Western Australia’s Feral Brewing is pumping out the Watermelon Warhead annually, and Bright Brewery in Victoria is leading the sour charge with their Pink Framboise. There are still plenty more to come, with some brewers bringing out beers that tread the fine line between hoppy and sour, like Modus Operandi’s savoury MOFOS (Modus Operandi Funky Orange Saison). Sour is coming for you Although we’re a country that loves clean, crisp lagers and hops-driven ales, there is definitely room for beer’s sour ancestor in the craft beer market. According to Connelly, “People are starting to expect different beer, starting to expect more from it, and the more people’s palates expect from beer, the more open they’ll be to sour.” With events like Sydney Craft Beer Week's Into the Wild, local beer drinkers have more and more opportunity to taste without committing to a six-pack. The open minds of beer nerds, newcomers and everyone in between are being exposed to new varieties of beer every day, and, given this, we’re likely to see an increase of consumption of the oldest variety there is. Sour beer is not something to be feared; it’s something to be revered, like an eccentric grandfather teaching about the good old days. It’s refreshing, it’s delicious, and there’s more coming soon. So pucker up. Top image: Morgan Walker.
