Everybody knows that Macaulay Culkin’s once adorable image has taken a bit of a hit since the good ol’ days of Home Alone and My Girl. But his latest charade is in a whole new league. A tribute band like no other, Culkin’s Pizza Underground was first heard of in December last year, with the band since performing a string of gigs across the New York anti-folk scene. With their only agenda being to spread the good news of pizza to the world, the group finally have a video to accompany their debut hit. And it certainly does not disappoint. Dressed all in black and donning matching, dark shades, Culkin and his musical counterparts (Matt Colbourn, Phoebe Kreutz, Deenah Vollmer, Austin Kilham) have delivered a clip both entertaining and bizarre. A mash up of amended hit Velvet Underground tracks including 'All Tomorrow's Parties' ('All the Pizza Parties') and 'Femme Fatale' ('Pizza Gal', obviously) and featuring killer lines like "Hey babe take a bite of the wild slice", this psychedelic ode to pizza and Lou Reed is a fusion of madness and hilarity. Notable highlights include pizza lining the walls and ceiling, and Culkin playing a kazoo solo through a cheesy slice. A star fallen from grace? Or Culkin’s greatest triumph yet? Either way, this vid can’t help but leave you jiving in your seat. As well as craving a slice. Via Huffington Post. Go behind the scenes on the shoot with Vice.
On the lookout for a dope new denim jacket? Or do you want to be rid of that weird-looking lamp taking up space in the living room? Then, by golly, you're in luck. The Garage Sale Trail works with local council partners Australia wide to get as many trash-and-treasure troves happening on the same day as possible. Last year, over 7000 garages opened their doors to bargain hunters, and they're doing it for the fifth time on October 25. Aside from the retro goodies up for grabs, the Trail is all about sustainability. Instead of ending up in landfill, unwanted clutter becomes a fantastic find. So get that tight pair of sunnies for peanuts and help the environment at the same time. The Garage Sale Trail began humbly in Bondi in 2010 and is growing bigger every year, so register online to make a quick buck from your old junk and hang out with the friendly folks in your hood.
The future. What will it look, feel, sound, smell and taste like? What's the logical progression of everything that's happening today, in our rapidly changing technological and social landscape? Will the future be like now, only more so? Auteur film director Spike Jonze answers this question via the plaintive eyes and breaking voice of Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) as he wanders the Los Angeles of the near-future in Her. This future is a warm and technologically intuitive space, where highly evolved, Siri-like operating systems are capable of falling in love with humans. Watching the film, we found that despite its themes of loneliness and emotional surrogacy, there's a few predictions we hope do come true. Computers are basically therapists In the future, while artificial intelligence-based computers programs like Samantha (dreamily voiced by Scarlett Johansson) definitely listen to what you say, what really matters to them is how you say it. In classic psychoanalyst form, they listen for signs of hesitation, anxiety or affection. When his OS quizzes him about his feelings for his mother, Theodore's ambivalent tone tells the computer all it needs to know. Video games are just as savvy: Theodore spends a lot of time chatting with a funny little virtual creature with a bad case of Tourette's, whose needless rudeness greatly amuses him. So, what happens when an OS can sense and respond to your emotions? You end up getting entertainment, companionship, sympathy and advice from an entity that also has the power to sort through infinite data and provide all kinds of practical services. It becomes the 100 percent efficient bosom friend you never had. The pedestrian is king Today, Nobody Walks in LA, because everyone has a car. It's a proverbial truth well documented by SNL's The Californians. But Spike Jonze's' LA of tomorrow is one big, car-less New York Highline (he even consulted with the Highline's creators to get the feel right). Broad and tranquil sky walkways connect Theodore from work to home, and a metro system takes him from the city to the beach. What's the advantage of travelling through life on foot? Safer, more populated public spaces; a healthier body; and the end of road rage. Despite Her's overarching theme of loneliness, from developments here in Sydney we know that pedestrian spaces tend to attract food trucks, live music and events, making everyone feel happier and more connected to their local community. Something we didn't see in the film that we hope to see in the cities of the future, is a skyline of buildings carpeted with vertical gardens. Clothes, technology and interiors are kind of friendly-looking Do we see any robo-babes or steampunks in future LA? No. We see an affluent middle-class clad in garb that references the 1930s, with high-waisted pants and clean colour-blocking. No one's trying to look cutting-edge; just well-presented. The style is actually shoppable — check out Opening Ceremony's Her capsule collection. As for interior design and gadgets, there's none of the usual super-slick chrome interiors, overly stark minimalism and cold blue lighting that films usually use to represent the world of the future. Nor are there paleo-future aesthetics or dystopian ruins. Instead, we experience lights that gently illuminate when Theodore enters his apartment; a smart pocketbook that looks like an old-timey picture frame; an elevator whose walls display a moving silhouette of trees. It's a wholesome, comfortable environment accessorised with objects and furniture in shades of blush and ochre. In fact, the colour blue is largely filtered out of the movie, to create a feeling of warmth and comfort deliberately at odds with Theodore's personal isolation. While we can't exactly filter out blue IRL, we Spike Jonze's vision of a cosy, inviting built environment that isn't trying too hard to be cool. Communication is hands free and softly spoken In future LA, almost every appliance is a voice-activated Siri. From printers to video games to letter-writing computer programs, machines respond to softly murmured voice commands much like Google Glass today. Riding the metro home, Theodore discreetly instructs his smart pocketbook to show him nudie pictures of a pregnant celebrity. What's the upshot of this subtle way of communicating needs? People become more softly spoken in general. The trend carries into advertising: Theodore first hears about the new artificially intelligent OS from a slo-mo advertisement in which a soothing voice heralds a new era in technology. Machines themselves also speak enticingly, as epitomised by the husky Samantha . Her is in cinemas now. Read our review of the movie here.
Anyone with a standing desk will tell you that staying seated for extended periods of time is quite possibly the worst thing you can do for your health. Why not kick those standing desk owners to the curb and spend an evening climbing the stalactite at Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym? We reckon rock climbing is definitely at least ten times better for you than standing still all day, which means you can impress your work colleagues with your defined guns and increased bone density, while cashing in on the two-for-one meal deal at nearby Botany View Hotel.
Under current COVID-19 restrictions in Australia, there are restrictions on where Melburnians can travel. Check out the latest information on the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services website. You can also check out more figures and graphs on its Victorian coronavirus data page. But, this doesn't mean you can't start dreaming — bookmark this for when you can explore once again. If a winter trip to Tasmania is on your agenda — and plenty of stomach-warming wine, too — then a pitstop at Devil's Corner probably forms part of your plans. Thanks to its towering onsite lookout, the well-known winery is a must-visit east coast destination even if you're not fond of vino. But for those who are partial to a drop or several, you'll find yourself sipping and soaking in the view at the vineyard's new pop-up cellar door over the next few months. Usually, Devil's Corner's cellar door is a hive of activity — and, between now and summer this year, it's undergoing a big revamp. The winery is expanding the facilities, in fact, but it isn't leaving vino lovers hanging in the interim. Instead, you'll hang out outdoors, enjoying your wine while hovering around a roaring fire pit. Called The Little Devil, the pop-up cellar door is doing wine tastings — by the glass, bottle and paddle — seven days a week. It's serving up takeaway wine sales, too. And, to line your stomach, food van Governors Bicheno is also onsite doing snacks and coffee. Like Devil's Corner's vines, visitors to The Little Devil will be exposed to the elements during the expansion. So, consider a coat, hat and even a rug mandatory accessories. When the expansion is complete, the permanent cellar door will sprawl across more space — and include both more shelter fo0r future winters, and revamped food and wine experiences. Find The Little Devil at Devil's Corner, 1 Sherbourne Road, Apslawn, Tasmania — open from 10am–4pm daily.
There's something secretive and special about slipping into an art gallery after hours. Add a few laughs and a glass of wine, and it's pretty difficult to imagine a more seductive reason to get out of your house for the night. Running on Wednesday, July 10, the Art Gallery of New South Wales is hosting a series of late-night events as part of NAIDOC Week — a week-long celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and achievements. The highlight of the night, kicking off at 6.30, is the talk by Zenadth Kes man Thomas Mayor on the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Mayor will be discussing what the Uluru Statement is and why it's important to the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples. There are plenty of other events on throughout the night, too, including a one-hour live performance from husband and wife duo Microwave Jenny at 7:30pm, and guided tours of the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander collection at 6pm and 7:15pm. The late-night events start from 5.30pm on Wednesday July 10, to see the full details of the evenings events visit the Art Gallery NSW website.
Teacher-turned-indie goddess Alexis Krauss and waiter-turned-beats master Derek Miller will return to Australia next month. The duo's stentorian synthesis of driving riffs, shredding guitar and rhapsodic melodic hooks has been on high rotation for many a punk rock devotee since M.I.A. signed them to N.E.E.T. Recordings in October 2009. February 2012 brought the release of Reign of Terror, the follow-up to 2010 debut Treats. The sophomore album sees Sleigh Bells ascend to louder, heavier musical heights, but also carries them through deeper lyrical explorations. Krauss, a curious combination of Joan Jett street tough and Cindy Lauper airiness, croons, moans and belts her way through stories of suicide, brutality and loss. Krauss has described Reign of Terror as "innately much more melodic and guitar-oriented" and "more intimate" than their debut. As deducible from Reign's live opening track, 'True Shred Guitar', Sleigh Bells' shows are raw, feverish, dynamic affairs, powered by Krauss's relentless energy and Miller's rock-fuelled sound explosions. https://youtube.com/watch?v=YiwcUdX7XMw
“The play’s about a group of actors in crisis... so art is imitating life.” Actor Gareth Davies is in the middle of a manic final week of rehearsals for The Government Inspector ahead of its opening at Melbourne’s Malthouse, before a Sydney season at Belvoir. “But manic’s good,” says Davies. “The plays I’ve done that have been bad have been slow, sedate, very careful and cautious things that we were all totally prepared for, and you get up there in front of an audience and it doesn’t have a spark of spontaneity or panic.” In the plot of the original Russian play by Nikolai Gogol, a low-level clerk is confused with an important bureaucrat and worshipped as a god. In this collaboration between director Simon Stone, writer Emily Barclay and the cast, the gormless pen-pusher becomes a bitterly unsuccessful actor (Davies). A cast of frantic actors who are desperately putting together a show mistake him for a famous auteur and worship him accordingly. Stone recently said that this play is “the furthest away I’ve ever gone [from a source text’s foundations]". It’s a big claim from a director who’s built a career on adaptations that self-reportedly “rape and pillage” the classics. But Davies agrees that only the skeleton of the original work remains. “There’s various character archetypes and a basic story structure that’s there, but the setting’s entirely changed," he says. "Thematically it’s pretty similar — it’s fraud, it’s someone accidentally being placed in a position where everyone thinks he’s someone else and then kind of enjoying that. Once he’s realised that he’s essentially being totally dishonest with everyone he starts to really wallow, to enjoy the free booze and the free food and the way that people talk to him.” Like Gogol’s story, Stone’s choice of play was born out of misunderstanding: a sudden seismic shift prompted by the last-minute discovery of existing rights for Belvoir’s scheduled production of The Philadelphia Story. I put it to Davies that the frustration of those events seems to have bled into this work, but he’s more circumspect. “It is a starting point for our play, but it would have been pretty uninteresting to do an attack on that situation. With these actors, at the beginning, just like us, something that they knew and something that they wanted is taken away and then the story begins, but that’s as far as it goes — it’s just a crisis that sets off the story." As open as he is about its beginning, Davies is reluctant to give anything away about the latter parts of the play, especially the musical sections choreographed by Lucy Guerin and composed by longtime Stone collaborator Stefan Gregory. For Davies, this kind of mainstage production seems a little out of character, given his background in independent theatre as one of the founders of The Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm, whose work has terrorised audiences across Australia. Yet Stone’s process has in many ways reflected the same kind of approach. “The way we’re working here is much more similar to those shows. Often with mainstage work as an actor you’re one of the last people to find out about anything — by the time you arrive, the vision for the play is already there.” The world of The Government Inspector might be easy for the Malthouse and Belvoir to market to a theatre-savvy audience, familiar with the utter chaos that goes into creating a show, but Davies firmly believes in its wider appeal. “We’ve been really aware of this, of making it too in-jokey," he says. "It is about a group of people making a show, but in the end that’s not what you’re responding to. More than anything else, it’s a play about characters responding to crisis. In the end, we’re all human, and just as petty, and beautiful, and small-minded as everyone else.”
We don't really think about garbage too much after it has been thrown into a dumpster or plopped out on the sidewalk ready to be picked up by trash collectors. The quicker the smelly bags of banana peels and egg cartons are out of our sight, the better. But what if we had to constantly live with the consequences of consumption? Outside of Cairo lies the small town of Garbage City, inhabited by a working community of the poverty-stricken Zabbaleen people. For the Zabbaleen there is no way of disposing of the never-ending flow of trash, making Cairo and its surrounds one of the most polluted areas in the world. Workers collect, reuse or resell the waste but the accumulated rubbish on every street corner and rooftop of the city remains. Mekano Architects have recently proposed a plan that could help the area use the trash to its advantage. The Seeds of Life project is a proposal to recycle the trash from Garbage City into material to build a multipurpose skyscraper. The building consists of an exoskeleton of "wind stalks" in which living and working units can be inserted, with floor plans including everything from family homes to basketball courts, terraces for agriculture and water collection, and designated areas to bury organic waste and produce electricity. Garbage City gone green seems a nearly impossible feat, but if accomplished could mean a significant improvement in both the standard of living in the outskirts of Cairo and cleanliness of the environment. Maybe the architects could even use TED's Global Village Construction Set to assemble the recycled skyscraper city.
Kim Boekbinder is no stranger to the visual arts. Her new album The Impossible Girl fields a separate, beautiful illustration by a dozen different talented artists. A picture each for every song. Her album is available for free via Bandcamp if you just want to dip a toe in her talent (though you're welcome to pay her too). She's also just finished collaborating on an animated film, I Have Your Heart, which she's raising funds for on kickstarter. On Thursday, she'll be adding to her repertoire by performing at the Red Rattler in Marrickville along with performers Brendan Maclean and Helen Perris, whose visual flair will complement her own. Kim Boekbinder was raised in North America, and although she's been knocking around Australia indulging in the blissful exoticism of our local climes, she's heading back north soon and who knows when you'll get another chance to see her in Sydney. Her music is heartfelt, entertaining and rarely the same in the same place twice. Fans of alternative power couple Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman may regonise her red wig from their visit this Australia Day. But whatever your interest, Kim Boekbinder is cheap at half the price. And far from impossible to see this week. *Kim Boekbinder is playing an all-ages gig. Image from The Impossible Girl by Travis Louie.
Not everyone was a fan of the Opera House's last, occasionally boisterous venture into the world of pop-up bars with El Loco, but this year theatre-goers can probably breathe a sigh of relief; the Opera House's new pop-up bar is so chill they're even offering yoga sessions. This summer, the team behind Bondi institution The Corner House is bringing its brand of laidback Mediterranean cool to the Opera House with their pop-up, Garden Bar by the Corner House, as part of the Opera House's Summer Playground series of events. While there'll certainly be cocktails on offer, this bar's not just about the standard pre-event drinks. According to The Corner House owner Anthony Kaplan, Garden Bar by the Corner House will be "the ultimate summer hangout". There'll be a rotisserie and salad bar, and they're even serving breakfast. As far as entertainment goes, there'll be everything from live music to early-morning yoga. Garden Bar by the Corner House will head to the Opera House in January and stay till January 27. Image: El Loco at the House in 2013.
UPDATE, July 9, 2021: The Farewell is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Ask someone how'd they prefer to shuffle off this mortal coil, and you'll likely receive the most cliched of answers: to pass peacefully in their sleep. That's certainly better than any alternative (other than somehow managing to live forever), although it's rarely realistic. Still, if you could give a loved one that gift, sparing them the pain of knowing that the end was near, would you? If they were diagnosed with terminal cancer, had mere months or weeks left to live, and invasive medical treatment would only cloud their remaining days, is it better to let them carry on blissfully unaware? Whether such choices are tender mercies or rob one's nearest and dearest of the chance to say goodbye sits at the heart of The Farewell, a sensitive and stirring drama set within a culture where keeping impending death from the unwell is commonplace. Drawing deeply on her own experience, writer-director Lulu Wang also uses this complicated issue as fuel to contemplate identity, belonging, tradition and cultural displacement. Born in China and raised in New York, Billi (Awkwafina) is firmly ensconced in the Big Apple. An aspiring writer, she's constantly hoping for grants to fund her work, is perennially behind on her rent and largely relies on credit cards to get by. But when her father Haiyan (Tzi Ma) and mother Jian (Diana Lin) deliver the news that her beloved paternal grandmother, Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), has stage four lung cancer, Billi is determined to journey back to China — even when her parents advise her not to go. She's conflicted, however, about her family's decision not to tell their mentally spritely, physically ailing matriarch about her condition. Instead, they're all making the trip under an elaborate cover story, rushing Billi's cousin Hao Hao (Chen Han) to marry his Japanese girlfriend Aiko (Aoi Mizuhara). Such subterfuge is standard in her homeland ("when people get cancer, they die," the Chinese saying goes, referring to the impact such an illness can have on one's will to live), but it rubs against the western sensibilities that've been instilled in Billi since moving to America. One of Wang's most affecting and astute moves, of which there are many, is to task her cast with conveying this moral and emotional dilemma in their every expression and movement. In an intuitive portrayal that's worlds away from her scene-stealing, over-the-top turn in last year's Crazy Rich Asians, Awkwafina lives, breathes and wears Billi's internal turmoil. When the character is plastering on the happiest face she can to hide the truth from Nai Nai, her hunched shoulders reveal her pain. When she's trying to have a quiet, genuine moment with the woman she knows will soon be gone — a vibrant, irrepressibly bossy old lady who bustles about like a near-unstoppable force of nature — sorrow lingers in her eyes. This isn't just Billi's burden, but one shared even by those who support the decision to keep Nai Nai in the dark, sparking stellar performances across the board. Guilt and regret seeps from recognisable Chinese American star Ma (Wu Assassins), playing the son who travelled across the globe to pursue a better life. Chinese Australian actor Lin (The Family Law) tussles with Jian's own difficulties, caught as she is between a crumbling husband and an angry daughter. And as Hao Hao, Han may barely utter more than a few sentences as he endeavours to contain his sadness, but he's always a tense ball of visible discomfort. Favouring the same approach in all facets of the film, Wang styles The Farewell with naturalism at the fore. Dialogue flows freely, often from Nai Nai as she snaps out wedding plans and comments on Billi's appearance as a grandmother is known to, but a picture truly speaks a thousand words here. Collaborating with cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano, the sophomore filmmaker tells her tale free from any rose-coloured fondness. This is a warm movie, however it steadfastly depicts its central situation, setting and struggle as they are. In practical terms, that means realism and nuance — Billi and her family exist within the film's Changchun locale, and its day-to-day minutiae is baked into every scene, and yet her visiting protagonist doesn't play tourist, for example. The same description applies to the movie's handling of its illness storyline, which is never squeezed for easy sentiment or used as weepie fodder. Wang also finds the right balance between organic humour and earnest emotion, never overstating one or the other — a tactic that particularly resonates when Billi begins to question the existence she was given in America, as well as the links to her broader family and heritage she feels it has robbed her of. All of these choices reinforce The Farewell's takeaway message: that in life and death alike, there is no simple path. There are no clear-cut answers, either, including when you're tossing up whether to tell someone they're dying or keep that knowledge from them. Far from treating these notions as obvious, Wang navigates the many complexities that prove her point with a lived-in maturity. She has literally been there, seen that and emerged to tell the tale, after all. As a result, what could've been a straightforward tearjerker in other hands benefits from her personal and poignant touch, and never heads down the blatant route. This is a subtle, thoughtful and heartfelt film that serves up a continual array of surprises — the kind that can and do get thrown in everyone's way, because that's what grappling with life's ups, downs, comings and goings is like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0yh_ZIqq0c
In the event that, for any reason whatsoever, a winner does not take an element of the prize at the time stipulated by Vibe then that element of the prize will be forfeited by the winner and cash will not be awarded in lieu of that element. Prize is not refundable, non-endorsable or non-transferable. Vibe Hotels Prize is for overnight accommodation for two adults in a guest room at Vibe Hotel Rushcutters (Sydney TropFest) or Vibe Hotel Savoy Melbourne (Melbourne Tropfest) and does not include any extra charges (i.e., mini-bar, in-house movie, telephone usage, etc). All prizes are subject to availability. Additional spending money, meals, insurance, taxes, passports, visas, travel to and from Vibe and all other ancillary costs are the responsibility of the winner. Unless expressly stated, all other expenses become the responsibility of the winner. A valid credit card is required at check-in to cover any incidentals incurred throughout the stay.
After dinner, you're sure to need supper. Billed as "the ultimate nightcap", the Vivid Sydney Supper Club will transform Mary's Underground into a cabaret club on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the festival. Like any cabaret worth its salt, there's a wide range of entertainment disciplines on the roll call: musical theatre, dance, comedy, burlesque, jazz, DJing and more (think Mahalia Barnes with her soulful music and theatrics and singing from First Nations actress and singer Ursula Yovich). Legendary local drag artist Trevor Ashley (pictured above) has the unenviable task of keeping all the plates spinning and, according to the Vivid Sydney website, "he'll leave the stage door ajar in case special guests drop by for an impromptu jam". Quelle intrigue! Image: John McRae
You might not know that noted film banger of the 00s Bring It On has been made into a stage musical — and, having already done the rounds on Broadway in 2012, and hitting Melbourne last year, it's cartwheeling into Sydney in August this year. Responsible for the phrase "cheerocracy" and your unrealistic expectations of high school, it seems the original movie still has some decent cultural capital to give. If you've been wondering, in the last 19 years, what exactly the world of competitive cheerleading might have going on with it these days, this musical is for you. If you had a Kirsten Dunst poster on the back of your childhood bedroom door, this musical is for you. To be honest, if you've watched the film even just a few times, it's probably for you too. With music and lyrics by Tony Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (of Hamilton fame) and the stage adaptation by Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q), the musical is only loosely based on the original film of 2000, which starred your girls Kirsten and Eliza Dushku. Unlike the five sequels that followed the movie — all of which went directly to VHS — the musical looks like it has a refreshing amount of sass, cutthroat rivalry and aerial stunts. Bust out your best spirit fingers and get them tapping on your keyboard if you want tickets — Bring It On: The Musical is making its way to Sydney's State Theatre in August, but it's only going to be step-pivot-split jumping around town for a strictly limited run of two weeks. https://www.facebook.com/StateTheatreAU/photos/a.10151164651379040/10157232212254040/?type=3&theater Bring It On: The Musical will run from Friday, August 27 to Sunday, September 8, 2019 at the State Theatre, 49 Market Street, Sydney. You can sign up for the waitlist via Ticketek.
In honour of the Year of the Sheep, this year's Twilight Parade is going to be particularly woolly and adorable. The parade will be filled with spectacular lanterns, floats and dragons and, as always, will begin with the ancient eye dotting ceremony to awaken the spirit of the lion and end with a display of fireworks in Darling Harbour. This year the parade will feature some particularly home-grown treats, including a giant merino, shearers and knitting grannies, while projections will light up the city's building with the story of Chinese shepherds in Australia and images celebrating the sheep's characteristics of creativity and kindness.
If you've worn that one summer outfit to death, are in need of a new set of sandals for all the beach trips you've got planned or are looking to start prepping your winter wardrobe, it might be time to pick up some new threads. Luckily, you can currently refresh your wardrobe with this huge 40 percent off sale over at The Iconic. There are hundreds of items on sale from a range of sought-after brands including Dazie, M.N.G and Commune as part of the site's Exclusive Edit Sale. Pick up a silky slip dress for your next night out, a tan overshirt that can slip over any autumn outfit or a black leather pair of sandals from Atmos + Here. You can browse the full selection of both women's and men's outfit as well as shoes, jewellery and accessories here. Once you find what you're looking for, the 40 percent discount will be applied on any sale items at the checkout. The sale is running through until 11.59pm on Monday, March 8. Find all the details here. 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.
There are lots of ways to spot a bad film while you're watching it. The audience laughing during the intended scary bits, for example, is a strong indication of a directorial misstep. So, too, is the moment you find yourself checking your watch and discover it's only 15 minutes in. Perhaps the most telling sign is when you realise that you've already picked everything that's going to happen on screen, and you start re-writing the script in your head in an attempt to make it more interesting. When all of these indicators make themselves known to you so early on, however, the only real question becomes: why are you bothering at all? That same question could well be asked of the phenomenal cast assembled for Life – a space-based horror film that only succeeds in being based in space. Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson and Japanese A-lister Hiroyuki Sanada all lend their star power to a film that falls well short of deserving it, especially in light of such a generic screenplay. To be fair, both the premise and opening scenes offer promise. The crew of the International Space Station retrieve a Mars Rover carrying soil samples from the Red Planet that contain a microscopic living organism, the first indisputable proof of life beyond Earth. Rather than explore the inevitable and fascinating religious implications such a discovery would have back on earth, however, Life immediately turns its tiny sentient blob into an ingenious killing...blob. What follows is a by-the-numbers affair that's far closer to Gravity than it is Alien. Moreover, from go to woe, Life suffers from a collection of bizarrely muted performances operating within a remarkably limited emotional range. The differences, for example, between the celebrations over a crew member becoming a father, and the horror of witnessing a different crew member torn apart from the inside out are almost impossible to spot. There are innumerable unpredictabilities in filmmaking, but one surefire rule is that when a cast doesn't seem engaged in its own project, the audience's concomitant apathy is assured. Here the cast looks more bored than terrified. All in all, there's little to like about Life – and even less hope for the sequel it so blatantly attempts to set up in its final stages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeLsJfGmY_Y
The Big Design Market is coming to Sydney at a big location, taking over Barangaroo's The Cutaway from Friday, September 20 to Sunday, September 22. This vibrant event brings creativity and passion for design, from all of Australia and beyond, direct to Sydney. It's the perfect chance to get in some early Christmas gift shopping, so you can avoid the same boring, last-minute presents — and entry is only a fiver. Not only is the market an innovative space for premium designers, but with a range of art activities and show bags on offer, too, it's not a bad way to spend a weekend. With 200 Australian and international stallholders, selling everything from ceramic homewares and jewellery, to handmade games and toys, fashion for every age and style, and a heap of gourmet food and drink producers, it can be hard to know where to start once you get there. Here are our picks for the stuff you can't miss at The Big Design Market this year, including a specially commissioned art installation. AKA BY AMELIA KINGSTON AKA by Amelia Kingston is a small, independent potter based in Stawell in the Grampians, Victoria. Kingston produces hand-thrown and hand-painted ceramic homewares and jewellery using locally and ethically sourced materials. AKA has a focus on original design, and as most pieces are hand-built, each item is as beautiful and unique as the next. We doubt you'll be able to find two plates the same, thanks to the artisanal methodology of the designer. We love them for the quirky aesthetics of each clay pot — from the spotty gold ceramics or even succulent rings. You're sure to find a great gift for a plant-loving friend. BIG BITE ECO Driven by the ethos of "waste not, want not", Seonaidh Murphy set herself the challenge of creating a brand that actively helped people make smarter choices. Luckily enough for Sydney, Big Bite Eco is coming to The Big Design Market to battle single-use plastics — say goodbye to plastic containers, cutlery and relying on cling-wrap. Big Bite Eco mixes beautiful designs with new and innovative technologies to create affordable products that will help you avoid waste both in the kitchen and while you're out and about at all those summertime picnics you have planned. JOURNEY OF SOMETHING Designer puzzles for adults: not something we write about every day, but considering how cute these are and how great puzzles are for training your brain, maybe that should change. Australian company Journey of Something combine form, function and fun when creating 1000-piece puzzles that you would be stoked to find in the cupboard of your Airbnb. Made from recycled paper, each puzzle features art from Aussie illustrators and artists, and comes in a handy drawstring bag for safekeeping. Someone go nab the Kardashian-covered puzzle by Billie Morris, pick up Leah Bartholomew's native flower arrangement, or piece together Matt Woodcox's beauty shelfie. Gift-giving made easy. CHOOSE YOUR ANIMAL This is one brand that could impress even the toughest animal-loving aunty for Secret Santa. Made from recycled plastic, Choose Your Animal is activewear with a difference. Each product — whether it's yoga pants, a swimsuit or shorts — is printed with a beautiful design featuring an endangered animal. With every purchase, founders Richard and Ursula Keane donate 10 percent of the profits to a charity dedicated to the animal on the garment. Plus, everything is made using plastic bottles, fishing nets, carpet, and textiles, so you can hit the beach knowing you are helping the planet. BILLY VAN CREAMY Melbourne-based brothers Alex and Mitch Wells started Billy van Creamy in the kitchen of their local bowls club back in 2014. Now, the pair are still handmaking natural ice cream fresh daily, but it's being served up to a much bigger crowd at their shops in Melbourne and Perth, and to Sydney punters at The Big Design Market. Billy van Creamy ice creams are made from scratch using local, organic ingredients. It's the flavours you loved as a kid but fresher — we're talking mint choc chip with actual mint in it, and salted caramel that's been homemade with raw organic sugar. The kicker? A vegan range with organic house-made cashew milk and coconut milk. MOO BREW Made in Tasmania by MONA's own brewery, Moo Brew are joining the fun at Sydney's biggest design market — and fittingly, too. Each can is not only lovingly prepared in Australia's state of luxury food goods but also bears bespoke and unique label art by John Kelly, thanks to art juggernaut David Walsh and creative director of Dark Mofo Leigh Carmichael. If you are so inclined, you could drink as many of the different styles as necessary to take in all the culture. From Moo's "velvet sledgehammer" of a stout, to its clean, crisp pilsner — which according to Moo Brew drinks well between noon and noon — there's plenty of beer for when you want a little break in between design hunting. [caption id="attachment_738267" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mural installation by Maylin Evanochko.[/caption] ART INSTALLATIONS The final treat for The Big Design Market ticket holders is the epic 45 metre-long mural from artist Maylin Evanochko. If that name rings a bell, it's because it's from the jewellery brand Mazdevallia. We can only begin to imagine how many colours and shapes we'll see in this year's art installation — Evanochko is known for beautiful patterns and dynamic imagery, which is sure to pop so close to the water and greenery near Barangaroo. Take inspiration from the bold colours and run with it for your pre-summer shopping at The Big Design Market. The Big Design Market will be open on Friday, September 20, from 10am–9pm; Saturday, September 21, from 10am–6pm; and Sunday, September 22, from 10am–5pm. Entry is $5 per person. To check out the full lineup, head this way. Top image: Amelia Stanwix.
Now that title's got your attention, let's talk. The year 2015 was a tough 365 days for artist Bryony Kimmings — she broke up with her fiancé, experienced post-natal depression and her son was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy. Most people wouldn't go on to create a musical theatre piece based on those events, but then most people aren't Bryony Kimmings. I'm a Phoenix, Bitch earned rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival earlier in the year and was called "an exhilarating ride" by The Guardian. Guaranteed to inspire as much as entertain, Kimmings shows us all how we can triumph over adversity.
If you're in the midst of a mid-life crisis, you might want to skip over this news: it's been 20 years since Placebo released their debut album. Yep, 'Nancy Boy' has been around since 1996. The album Without You I'm Nothing (which included 'Every Me and Every You') was released in 1998, and even 'Running Up That Hill' is almost 15 years old now. It's been so long since these songs were released that fans band of the UK band probably never expected to hear them live again. But this morning Placebo has announced they will bring their 20 Years of Placebo tour to Australia this September. And yes, they'll be playing old stuff. The worldwide tour kicked off this late last year — the band is currently touring Mexico and will head to Europe before coming to Australia in September. As well as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, they'll make stops in Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle and Canberra too. It will be their first Australian appearance since Soundwave in 2014. 20 years is a long time and the band has a huge discography (seven albums) to pull bangers from — and they've promised to play all those songs you listened to on repeat as a teenager. "Let's just say there will be songs in the set that I've sworn never to play again," said frontman Brian Molko. "I think it's time that we purposefully acknowledged what a lot of Placebo fans really want to hear. They've been very patient with us since we rarely play our most commercially successful material. A 20 year anniversary tour seems like the right time to do so. That's our intention. This tour is very much for the fans and a chance for us to revisit a lot of our early material." Tickets will go on sale at noon on Monday, May 29 through Ticketek. Or, if you're a Telstra customer, they have a pre-sale happening this week. 20 YEARS OF PLACEBO TOUR DATES Monday, September 4 — Perth Arena Wednesday, September 6 — Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre Friday, September 8 — Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Saturday, September 9 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Monday, September 11 — Brisbane Convention Centre Tuesday, September 12 — Newcastle Entertainment Centre Thursday, September 14 — AIS Arena, Canberra
With the Sydney Harbour as its backdrop, Homeground festival will debut at the Opera House April 5-6 as a celebration of our First Peoples' music and dance. It replaces the previous six-day multi-arts festival Message Sticks, aiming to come out swinging with more energy and focus. Held across two stages along the western boardwalk, the free event will showcase a broad range of performers and challenge what you may think of as Indigenous arts. One of the most spectacular shows will get underway 9pm on Sunday with Australian songwriter Shane Howard, Amy Saunders, Emma Donovan and Yirrmal closing the festival at the waterside festival bar, Bar Badu. Musicians Dubmarine, Steve Pigram, Shellie Morris, Casey Donovan, Moana and the Tribe (NZ), Breabach (Scotland), Djakapurra Munywarryun, Janawi dancers, Street Warriors, Still Gins, Ursula Yovich, Pirra, Jesss Beck, Bow & Arrow, Marcus Corowa and Thaylia have also joined the lineup. Dancers Move it Mob Style, NAISDA, Wagana Aboriginal Dance Group, Eric Avery, Thomas E.S Kelly & Dancers and international guests will also entertain audiences over Saturday and Sunday. Homeground will ultimately showcase Indigenous Australia's uniqueness and cultural diversity to audiences. Head to the website for the full program.
Childhood cartoons painted a pretty impressive picture of what the future would hold – flying cars, robots, space travel, a three day work week… sure, we've got smart phones now, but we're still a long way from The Jetsons. So it's good to see that boffins are hard at work bringing those old sci-fi ideas to the real world, and have built a prototype car that you can control with your mind. Seriously. German researchers have used available-now technology to create BrainDriver, a car (VW of course) that can be controlled by thought alone. The electrical impulses of brain waves are picked up by an EEG headset, originally designed for gaming, which allows the 'driver' to order the vehicle to accelerate, brake, turn left or turn right by simply thinking it. Unfortunately, given the complexities of the human brain not everyone is capable of giving clear instructions, and the car is a proof of concept rather than something that will be available to all, so your X-Men fantasies will have to stay off the road for now. To date, they've taken the mind controlled car for a spin at an airport, but also plan a test in Berlin traffic later in the year. Now if only they could make it fold down to the size of a briefcase, we'd really be living in the future. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iDV_62QoHjY [Via Wired]
A new exhibition from acclaimed British artist and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry will open this month – his first major survey in the Southern Hemisphere. A cross-dressing icon and former YBA, the artist is best known for crafting beautiful ceramic pots and his feminine alter-ego, Claire. Perry's foray into pottery might be thought of as injecting an ancient medium with "a perversion to match the curtains", to use his own words. His designs channel a broad range of themes, from trashy twentieth century culture to autobiographical reflections. The exhibition will feature a diverse selection of Perry's work, bringing together sculptures, prints, and drawings. It will also include his large-scale and highly detailed tapestries produced in conjunction with the 2012 TV series In the Best Possible Taste, which was a compelling insight into how taste reflects class in contemporary Britain. Fascinated with identities, Perry creates kitschy and colourful commentaries on power, fame, religion, and sex. His lurid patterns and outright irrelevance ought to make for a pretty exciting summer in Sydney.
The past year hasn't been easy for New South Wales' hospitality and entertainment businesses. Temporary closures, pivoting to takeaway and delivery, stocking sought-after grocery items, enforcing social distancing, operating at limited capacity, using QR codes — these have all been on the cards to help stem the spread of COVID-19, and they've all had a sizeable impact. So, as part of the State Budget for 2020–21, the NSW government announced a new scheme to help both sectors. Originally called 'Out and About' but now named 'Dine and Discover', the program is designed to encourage folks to head out of the house, have a meal, and see a movie or show. And, to do so on multiple occasions. Initially, the state government had set a launch timeframe of January 2021 for the $500 million scheme, following a pilot period. After Sydney's recent coronavirus clusters and the northern beaches lockdown, that timeline has now been updated — with the testing phase happening in February and vouchers starting to be rolled out across the state from March. The Rocks will lead the charge in the trial period, as will Broken Hill in the state's west, with both pilots starting in early February. Customers will be invited to take part, while businesses can register to participate. Then, the testing will be rolled out to the Sydney CBD, northern beaches area and Bega Valley from late February, ahead of the vouchers going statewide the next month. Exact dates haven't yet been given but, when Dine and Discover comes into effect, every NSW resident over the age of 18 will be eligible to receive $100 in vouchers. You'll score four $25 vouchers, in fact, with two available to use at restaurants, cafes, clubs and other food venues, and the other two specifically for cultural institutions, performing arts, cinemas and amusement parks. There are a few caveats, understandably. You won't be able to use your vouchers on tobacco, alcohol or gambling, for starters. And, you can only use each voucher once, including if your transaction totals less than $25. You'll also need to use your vouchers separately, because the idea is to get NSW folks heading out several times to several different places. [caption id="attachment_791611" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Cassandra Hannagan[/caption] To access the vouchers, you'll also need a MyServiceNSW account — and the corresponding app, so you can use the vouchers digitally. You'll only be able to redeem them at participating and COVID-safe registered businesses, however, with the exact details about where you can use them set to be revealed before the scheme goes live. Hospitality company Sydney Collective has already announced that it'll double the value of the vouchers at eight of its NSW venues when they come into effect — so it'll give you an extra $25 on top of each $25 voucher. Obviously, the state's social distancing requirements and other COVID-19 hygiene practises will still apply to anyone venturing out of their house for something to eat, a night at the flicks or some time mashing buttons. And if it all sounds a bit familiar, that's because the UK implemented something similar earlier in 2020, offering up half-price meals to encourage folks to eat out — although it has been suggested that the British scheme might've contributed to a rise in coronavirus cases. The NSW Government's Dine and Discover scheme will start its trial phase in February, before a statewide rollout from March. For more information, visit the government's website. Top image: Cassandra Hannagan
Spotify, the digital music service that allows you to instantly discover, play and share over 16 million music tracks on demand, has arrived on Australian shores. Available locally from today, Spotify allows music-lovers to enjoy music whenever and wherever they like. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon developed the program in Sweden in 2008. Since its launch Spotify has risen to become the largest and fastest growing music service of its kind, now available in over 15 countries. Spotify allows its 10 million users worldwide to simply search for any artist, song or album on their phone, iPad or computer and immediately start playing without any buffering. Spotify tapped into the inherently social nature of music and that’s why users can easily share music with friends, create playlists and check out what their mates are listening to. The service's integration with Facebook makes sharing and collaborating easier than it’s ever been. There are three services offered by Spotify. A free (but ad-supported) option is available, as is an ad-free subscription for $6.99 a month. A premium service, which offers enhanced quality and exclusive content and offers, costs $11.99 a month. Spotify also offers a range of helpful apps, which open up a whole new world of discovery and enjoyment. Some of these include the Triple J app, which showcases all the music playing on Triple J's airwaves; Tunewiki, letting you sing along to your favourite lyrics; Rolling Stone Recommends, which provides reviews for users; and Songkick Concerts, to find out all the upcoming tours and shows in your area. Head to Spotify.com to register.
If you don't already have a date with Bluesfest in 2025, here are two new reasons to head along: ten-time Grammy-winner Chaka Khan and rains-blessing rock group Toto. The pair have joined the Byron Bay festival as part of a new lineup drop — the fest's fourth for this year's event — that showcases its commitment to variety. There aren't many fests in Australia where audiences will find the Queen of Funk and the yacht-rock favourites behind 'Africa' on the same bill. Across the Easter long weekend, so from Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20, 2025, Bluesfest will also welcome 'Sailing' and 'Ride Like the Wind' singer Christopher Cross — another yacht-rock inclusion — as well as the Polynesian tunes of Maoli. Clarence Bekker Band, Hussy Hicks, Eric Stang, The Steele Syndicate and The Royals round out the latest batch of artists. Khan is playing an Australian-exclusive set to celebrate 50 years in music, and returns to Australia two years after headlining the 2023 Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Among the Chicago-born singer's hits: 'I'm Every Woman', which was later covered by Whitney Houston; the Prince-penned 'I Feel for You'; and 'Ain't Nobody' with her funk band Rufus. As well as hearing the drums echoing tonight in 'Africa', Toto's discography includes fellow anthems 'Hold the Line' and 'Rosanna' — and its members are known for playing on a wealth of albums from other artists in the 70s and 80s, including 'Thriller'. [caption id="attachment_986631" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Michelle Brody[/caption] Bluesfest's 2025 lineup already features Crowded House, Ocean Alley and Vance Joy, plus Hilltop Hoods, Budjerah, Kasey Chambers and The Cat Empire — and Xavier Rudd, John Butler, Tones and I, Missy Higgins, George Thorogood & The Destroyers and many more. Before it started announcing its roster of talent in August 2024, the festival advised that it would bid farewell with its 2025 event, marking the end of an era — and coming at a time when Australian fests have been struggling and cancelling (see: Groovin the Moo, Splendour in the Grass and Spilt Milk, for just three high-profile examples). Bluesfest saying goodbye may no longer be happening, however, with reports that discussions are underway about the festival's future and also that artists are already being booked for 2026. [caption id="attachment_969986" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969990" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joseph Mayers[/caption] Bluesfest 2025 Lineup: First announcement: Crowded House Vance Joy Ocean Alley Tones and I Gary Clark Jr Rag'n'Bone Man RY X Allison Russell Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram Brad Cox Here Come the Mummies The California Honeydrops Marc Broussard Pierce Brothers Taj Farrant Fanny Lumsden 19-Twenty WILSN Cimafunk Neal Francis Second announcement: Hilltop Hoods Xavier Rudd John Butler The Cat Empire Kasey Chambers Melbourne Ska Orchestra CW Stoneking Budjerah Lachy Doley Group Ash Grunwald Kim Churchill Miss Kaninna The Beards Velvet Trip FOOLS ROSHANI Sweet Talk The Memphis Three featuring Fiona Boyes, Jimi Hocking and Frank Sultana Third announcement: Missy Higgins George Thorogood & The Destroyers Rodrigo y Gabriela Nahko BJ The Chicago Kid Melody Angel Don West Fourth announcement: Chaka Khan Toto Christopher Cross Maoli Clarence Bekker Band Hussy Hicks Eric Stang The Steele Syndicate The Royals [caption id="attachment_969988" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Roger Cotgreave[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969989" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969987" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_867504" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kurt Petersen[/caption] Bluesfest 2025 will run from Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20 at Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah. Tickets are on sale now — for further information, head to the Bluesfest website. Top image: Lachlan Douglas.
Designer garden pot business The Balcony Garden and leading wholesaler Exotic Nurseries are joining forces to present a huge warehouse sale with everything you need to give your home some fresh greenery. On October 19 and 20, you can score up to 90 percent (yes, nine-zero) off designer pots and planters from The Balcony Garden in Frenchs Forest, and access to beautiful indoor and outdoor plants from Exotic Nurseries. While the actual plants won't be discounted, the nursery usually only sells wholesale, not to the general public — so it's a good chance to get your green thumbs on them. As well as all this, there'll be experts on hand to offer plant care and garden styling advice. Pick up an incredibly trendy fiddle leaf fig, an artisan pot to put it in, and the confidence boost needed to keep your new plant alive. The sale will run from a 8am–2pm across both days. And if you go a little overboard and can't fit all your purchases in your car, or on the bus, shipping can be arranged for a little extra. The garden pot and plant warehouse sale will take place from 8am–2pm on Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20, at The Balcony Garden.
If there's two things that the end of the year always includes, it's Christmas decorations and plenty of drinks. They're both all well and good separately, but they might be even better combined — in a Christmas tree made out of tinnies, for instance. A real object that now exists ready for the merriest portion of the 2021 calendar, this Christmas tinnie tree isn't fashioned out of old cans. So, it doesn't merely celebrate the remnants of your past beverages. Instead, it gives you a place to stack new cold ones just waiting to quench your thirst. And yes, it comes with beers, as they're obviously essential to the whole concept. Craft Cartel is slinging these mighty jolly centrepieces this festive season, after giving beer lovers Australia's largest case of craft beer back in 2020. If you're keen to add one to your home — and to get sipping — it'll cost you $399, which covers a flat-pack tree that you then put together yourself, 48 brews ready to wet your whistle and delivery to your door. If you're wondering what you'll be drinking, those 48 tinnies span 24 different varieties — so, two of each. And, alongside cans from Ballistic, Slipstream, Sydney Brewing, Gage Roads, Modus Operandi and Brick Lane, there's seven limited releases among them, such as Stockade's The Mountie Maple Imperial Stout, Akasha's Korben Double IPA, Sauce's Caribbean Fogg Hazy Pale Ale and Moon Dog's Splice of Heaven Mango Ice Cream IPA. Design-wise, the tree itself uses sustainable timber, and is crafted to resemble a traditional pine tree — all thanks to Australian designer Ian Tran of Domus Vim. Who doesn't want to place all their presents around a tower of beer? No one, that's who. And if you decide it needs some tinsel as well, that's up to you. For more information about the Christmas tinnie tree, or to buy one, head to the Craft Cartel website.
Remember Sexy Tales of Paleontology or 100 Years of Lizards? These quirky and fun shows were not for everybody, but they won over crowds in sold-out shows at festivals throughout Australia. If kooky comedy is your thing, then you're sure to like the newest play brought to you by Sexy Tales Comedy Collective, Creature of the Nightfill. This new and nutty masterpiece is written by Patrick Lenton, directed by Ngaire O'leary, and the cast includes Alex Williams, Sarah Hodgetts, Laura Hamilton Neil, Emrys Quinn, Dominic Burke and Stephen Jones. The show's website writes that Creature of the Nightfall is "on the surface an absurd crime parody which aims to solve the mystery of how to make you laugh" but deep down is a story of dignity and friendship.
If you haven't spent much time in Kings Cross lately, this year’s Kings Cross Festival is the perfect reunion. On Sunday, October 12, Macleay Street will be transformed into an eating/walking/exploring pedestrian artery with a Long Table Lunch as the centrepiece. You’ll be able to try dishes from 20 local renowned restaurants — including Jimmy Liks, Barrio Chino and Popolo — without hurting the hip pocket, and get the inside scoop on Kazbah Souk, opening officially in late October. Stalls of artisanal delights, juice and coffee from local baristas will keep you hydrated for the whole weekend, and those after more of a kick can head to the pop-up wine bar or a number of tasting stalls showcasing wines from NSW makers. Headlining the artistic side of the festival is Tim Denoodle, whose ‘Somewhere City’ will be showing at Gallery Mercure. Those overwhelmed by the neighbourhood galleries can meet art advisor James Dorahy for an Art Walk starting at Michael Reid Elizabeth Bay and finishing up in the inner east's most popular car park, Alaska Projects. Get a further dose of Alaska at Sunday Studio Sessions and chat to the artists making work there. You can get in on the fun by hastagging #kingscrossfestival on your best Insta pic of the ‘hood until October 10 for a chance to have your art projected on the Australian Institute of Architects on the Saturday night, October 11. With the Cross still being contested ground in the wake of the lockout laws and evolving nightlife culture, this festival is the perfect time to come together and show the old stomping ground some love.
When your nine-to-five plays out like a well-oiled machine, it can sometimes feel like each week is a little same-same. But Sydney is brimming with a fine bounty of things to experience and explore each and every day. So aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing some adventure and spontaneity into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to help you celebrate the little things that bring a sense of adventure to life. Shake things up, as we give you seven different detours to take each week in Sydney. From Monday to Sunday, enrich your everyday with one completely achievable outdoor activity that inspires you to take the scenic route as you go about your daily routine. This week get out and about — go on a street art tour, fit in a picturesque jog and learn to boulder. Plus, we've got your future detours sorted for the new few weeks here. All require no more effort than a tiny break from the norm — what's your excuse for not trying them all?
We've talked before about the rapidly expanding genre of films we like to call 'BDF', or 'big, bumb and fun'. And let's be clear, that label's in no way intended as an affront. On the contrary, when done right, we love the BDF because it satisfies that very basic need every now and then to be entertained without having to tax our brains. More often than not, the BDF rears its head around holiday seasons in the form of disaster and/or alien invasion movies, with San Andreas, Pacific Rim and perhaps even the first Transformers all finding the right balance between the three key ingredients. When it goes the other way, however, usually on account of too much emphasis on 'the big' at the expense of 'the fun', these films quickly become joyless affairs that achieve little more than wasting your time and money. Think Batman vs Superman, Suicide Squad or Independence Day: Resurgence. In the seventies-set Kong: Skull Island, we're happy to say, that balance is back. Obviously it's a BIG movie – afterall, this is King Kong were talking about. It's also undeniably dumb. The dialogue is consistently bogged down in exposition, there's not a great deal of plot to speak of, and the characters make some pretty bizarre choices throughout. I'm no helicopter pilot, but if I suddenly discovered a high-rise sized gorilla and watched it hurl seven other choppers to their fiery death, I'd probably get the hell out of there, not fly directly towards it. Most importantly, though, this is a fun film. The action is well-paced and easy to follow despite director Jordan Vogt-Roberts' heavy reliance upon special effects. The one-liners, meanwhile, are solid enough, and John C. Reilly's downed WWII pilot, who never escaped the eponymous island, steals every scene in which he appears. It is, in short, an old-school monster movie complete with heroes, heroines, clowns and grizzly old soldiers. Then, of course, there's the big guy himself, although in truth the word 'big' doesn't really do him justice. In stark contrast to the original film, there's no caging this fella. He's a sixty-story silverback with a menacing glare and a mean right hook. When Kong battles the island's many monsters, it's like a street fighter up against ninjas: brute strength and stamina versus speed, stealth and agility. The humans, by comparison, are rendered little more than spectators. Of those humans, Kong: Skull Island boasts an impressive cast including Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman and Samuel L. Jackson, all of whom lend their considerable weight to a script that probably deserved less. Interestingly, it also features Chinese star Jing Tian, who recently appeared in another film by the same production house: The Great Wall. Tian's inclusion, while only minor, allows Chinese distributors to smack her image on all their posters and, potentially, open up a giant market that might otherwise be inaccessible to a US blockbuster such as this. One suspects this trend will see a rapid surge in the coming 12 months. Hopefully they develop a more nuanced means of including international cast members than the awkward crow-barring that occurred here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAbI4w95cTE
UPDATE, April 12, 2021: Seance's Sydney season has been cancelled until further notice due to ongoing issues beyond the organisers' control. For further information, head to the event's website. We'll update you with new show details when they're announced. After first spooking out Sydneysiders back in 2017, the unnerving Séance installation is returning to the city. This time around, the experience will be a little different. While past attendees stepped into a big, white container with dark curtains and black letters splashed across its side, in 2021 you'll be heading into a purpose-built space at Bay 43, an old warehouse at Circular Quay. Once inside, expected to be unnerved. That isn't changing. So, if you're not familiar with the installation and didn't have the chance to visit last time, a word of warning: it's aiming to mess with your senses. Between Thursday, April 8–Wednesday, June 30, participants will be able to take a seat inside the space, and then put on a headset. You'll next be told to put both hands on the table. The lights go out, leaving the place in absolute darkness and, for 20 uneasy minutes, you'll be taken on an immersive journey led only by touch and sounds. Expect to feel confused, repulsed and struck with temporary claustrophobia. According to organisers, numerous participants have bailed halfway through sittings in the past. You're probably thinking that there's something dark or supernatural about the whole thing — and going by the name, we don't blame you. But the installation's organiser says that 'séance' is simply a French word meaning 'session' or 'sitting'. Did we mention that the velvet seats date back to 1913 and were pulled from an abandoned theatre? And so Séance is a sensory experience that looks at the psychology of both sensory deprivation and the dynamics of a group sitting together. It's a scary indicator of how easy it is for confusion, disorientation and information overload to affect our judgement. [caption id="attachment_804877" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Séance in Sydney in 2017[/caption] Artists David Rosenberg and Glen Neath of Darkfield (who have collaborated in other sensory deprivation projects before) are the creative masterminds behind the project, which has been described as 'disorienting' and 'deeply unsettling'. You might've listened to Darkfield's at-home experiences in 2020, such as Double, Visitors and Eternal, and experienced a few bumps and jumps — and the company is hoping to find the right space to bring its other IRL installations, Flight and Coma, to Sydney this year. For now, we're serious when we say Séance is not recommended for the claustrophobic, the easily frightened or those afraid of the dark. Séance will take place at Bay 43, Circular Quay, from Thursday, April 8–Wednesday, June 30 — with sessions running Tuesday–Sunday. For more information and to buy tickets, head to Darkfield's website.
Every region of Italy thinks its pasta is made 'the right way'. And, with hundreds of unique varieties from across the country, it's unlikely you'll get the pleasure of trying them all. But Woolloomooloo-based restaurant Vizio Caffé e Cucina is helping you give it your best shot by serving up a different pasta from across Italy each week. Held for lunch, Monday to Friday, and dinner, Tuesday to Saturday, the Giro d'Italia special has seen pasta e fagioli from the northeastern alpine region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Rome's favourite cacio e pepe and lamb sagnetta from the popular farming region of Abruzzo. Each meal is paired with a glass of Italian wine that comes from the meal's corresponding region, with your bill coming to a grand total of just $30. Vizio Caffé e Cucina is a quintessentially Italian restaurant — and with the pasta being made in-house daily, this is some of the most authentic fare you're likely to find this side of the Mediterranean. To make a booking, visit the website.
You've played the video games, bought the toys, collected the trading cards, enjoyed the anime and watched Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. When Pokémon Go was the only reason that everyone was picking up their phones, you caught 'em all then, too. So, we're guessing that Netflix's upcoming Pokémon series will jump straight into your must-watch list — with the streaming service reportedly working on a new live-action take on everyone's favourite pocket monsters. Yes, Detective Pikachu also combined all things Pokémon with flesh-and-blood humans, and it proved a big box office hit to the tune of $433 million worldwide. So, it is far from surprising that Netflix wants to give the concept a spin. The platform already streams a few existing animated Pokémon titles, with Indigo League, Sun and Moon: Ultra Legends and Journeys currently available via the service Down Under. And, it is known to like padding out its catalogue with, well, pretty much everything it can get its hands on. As reported in Variety, the new live-action Pokémon series doesn't yet have a name — and if or how it might tie into Detective Pikachu is also unknown. That said, writer and executive producer Joe Henderson is expected to be behind the project, hopping over from Lucifer, which is set to end this year following its sixth and final season. When the inherently nostalgic new series might turn up, how many episodes it will span and who else could be involved also hasn't been revealed, because that's how early-stage the show is. But Netflix does love bringing back childhood favourites, as it has previously done with She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and the just-released Masters of the Universe: Revelation — not that Pokémon has gone anywhere since first debuting in the 90s. Obviously, there's no trailer yet for Netflix's potential live-action Pokémon show, but you can check out the trailer for Detective Pikachu below: Netflix's live-action Pokemon series doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when further details are announced. Via Variety.
It's no secret that we live in a digital age. Most of the things we do involve staring at some form of a screen: replying to emails, reading news, Facetiming friends on the other side of the world, binge-watching Netflix on the train. Take away our screens and what are we? Lost! Fortunately, there's a simple solution to the problem of spending so much time online, and that is making sure you're getting paid for it. If you spend more time online than you'd like to admit, it's worth making sure you have the skills to make it your profession. Love playing video games? Learn how to design them. Always find yourself correcting people's Instagram post? A Bachelor of Communications will give you complete grammatical bragging rights. As it turns out, you can complete all of these courses, and more, online. Open Universities Australia (OUA) helps you find a degree to fit your goals and study it online with leading Australian universities. So, no matter your physical proximity to the university running the course, or your life commitments, you can make it happen. Check out these degrees that can help you carve a profession out of your screen loving ways — and they won't interfere with the time you spend online. YOU SPEND LOTS OF TIME: READING THE NEW YORKER ONLINE Consider studying: A Bachelor of Arts in either Creative Writing or Internet Communications and Professional Writing and Publishing with Curtin University. Have you ever imagined yourself sitting in a villa somewhere in southern France, fingers poised over a typewriter as you ponder your next plot twist? Fancied yourself the next J.K Rowling, or perhaps a modern-day Jane Austen? Do what E.L James never did and enrol in a writing course that's sure to get those creative juices flowing. Curtin University's Creative Writing degree will allow you to explore a range of writing styles, as you study everything from the poetry of Walt Whitman to the screenplays of Alfred Hitchcock. And, if you study through OUA, you can access online support at all hours of the day, so no matter when you're squeezing in your study time, you'll have someone to help you along the way. YOU SPEND LOTS OF TIME: IN YOUTUBE HOLES Consider studying: A Bachelor of Digital Media with the University of South Australia. Is keeping on top of digital trends your thing? The University of South Australia's Bachelor of Digital Media will help you curate your passion into an employable skill set. Always watched National Geographic documentaries with envy? This course will teach you everything to do with video and documentary production as well as digital humanities, so you'll be equipped to travel the globe with little more than a camera and a laptop. Perhaps design is more your forte? You'll have a front seat (figuratively) to the creative process of creating web design, coding, and multimedia and graphic design. If you've always wanted to live inside the digital world and have the skills to manipulate it, this course is for you. YOU SPEND LOTS OF TIME: LATE-NIGHT GAMING Consider studying: A Bachelor of Information Technology in Game Design and Development with Murdoch University. The saying 'do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life' has never been more true. If you find it hard to tear your eyes away from Call of Duty, Fortnite or Mario Kart (hey, whatever tickles your fancy) this degree is definitely for you. Have you ever shouted out when you spot errors in your favourite games, even when no one is around? Here's your chance to be the brains behind the screen, building a solid foundation in IT — as well as getting creative with new game ideas. YOU SPEND LOTS OF TIME: LIVE TWEETING ABOUT TV SHOWS Consider studying: A Bachelor of Communication with Griffith University. If you're that friend who narrates each episode of The Bachelor non-stop, claiming you can see through their fake words and even faker smiles just from their body language, you're perfect for a career in communciations. Griffith University's Bachelor of Communication can help you spend the rest of your life investigating, critiquing and gathering knowledge about all kinds of comms. It opens a realm of possibilities to sink your teeth into. You might work towards becoming the next Miranda Priestly (except, you know, nicer), or learn about communications in other countries so that you can spend your days travelling the globe helping people connect. Perhaps your new digital media skills can help you edit and produce video campaigns, or become a PR wizard and get loads of free stuff. The possibilities are endless. YOU SPEND LOTS OF TIME: SILENTLY CORRECTING PEOPLE'S GRAMMAR ON FACEBOOK Consider studying: Graduate Diploma of Writing with Swinburne University. Think you're pretty good at writing, but could stand to fine-tune your skills? Ever find yourself wanting to comment on grammatical errors on Facebook? It's no surprise. When we're online, we're absorbing information. After reading so many reviews on new restaurants or articles dissecting the latest Queer Eye episodes, no wonder some of us are drawn to the written word. Fortunately for you, a Graduate Diploma of Writing from Swinburne University is a surefire way to turn surfing the web into full-time employment. Whether you use your newfound skills to write press releases for the next big tech startup or to review every cafe that serves turmeric lattes in your city — well, that's up to you. Explore hundreds of degrees from leading Australian universities — available online through Open Universities Australia. You could get paid to spend more time on the internet before your know it.
As summer kicks off in Victoria, the Victorian music industry is gearing up for its biggest event for the year: ALWAYS LIVE. This festival celebrates the diversity of music in Victoria, with a mix of international headliners and local musicians alike taking to stages statewide from Friday, November 22, to Sunday, December 8. When the festival nears its conclusion on the final weekend, some of the most anticipated events will be taking place. One of those is Garage Band, or rather the culmination of Garage Band since it's a longer-term initiative running as a part of ALWAYS LIVE, coming together for a free concert at Bunjil Place and Federation Square on Saturday, December 7 and Sunday, December 8. Since its inception in 2021, the program has run yearly to find and elevate young musicians from across Victoria with professional coaching. The 2024 class of Garage Band includes 30 artists and bands, and as usual, every musician is between 16 and 21. The artists will refine their skills through workshops and mentorship during the festival. Ten artists will perform at Bunjil Place on Saturday, December 7, while twenty artists will be found on multiple stages in Fed Square on Sunday, December 8. With individual artists and after-school indie bands in equal amounts, it's the perfect chance to get up close with the next generation of Aussie musicians, and it's free, so really, there's no reason to miss it. Garage Band will take over Fed Square on Sunday, December 8. For more information, visit the ALWAYS LIVE website.
Bounding into October, the six-week Everest Carnival continues with one of its premier events. Head to Royal Randwick on Saturday, October 6 for the Moët & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes Day. The outfits are always an important part of going to the races but, on this day, the passion for fashion is at fever pitch. Those looking to make a statement can enter the Harrolds Fashion Chute competition and have a mini photo shoot on the Octagonal Lawn. Then Australian fashion personalities will announce the winner for best-dressed later in the day. There are some great prizes up for grabs, including return flights to Europe and styling sessions with Harrolds. Or, perhaps, you would rather save your luck for the On Top of the World competition, a money-can't-buy experience on Everest Day. Over at The Mews precinct, food trucks will keep the crowds well-fed. There'll also be pop-up bars from the likes of Pimm's, Gordon's Pink Gin and Chandon S ready for you to visit and, over at the Heineken 3 Container, DJ Brooke Evers will play a set to keep the good vibes going after the last race. Don't forget that taking public transport to Moët & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes Day is complimentary — the cost of trains, buses, ferries and light rail included with your ticket.
Artists Jamie Cole and Murat Urlali use euphemisms and visual linguistics to challenge societal rhetoric, politics and stigma in Misplaced and Dangling, currently showing at Camperdown's Artsite Galleries. Part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2020 celebrations, the exhibition addresses ways of moving forward while still reflecting on the past. Cole's pop art-inspired works are bright and powerful, using a mix of collage, comic and stencil-art styles to cover everything from first loves to discrimination towards people with HIV. Urlali, on the other hand, draws on ancient Persian enamel techniques in his kitsch and overtly camp representations of the city of Rome. The exhibition is open from 11am–5pm every Thursday to Sunday until Sunday, March 1.
Despite what's being said about social media right now, it's still difficult to find a better constructed echo-chamber than a talkback studio. Talk is an attempt by Jonathan Biggins, one third of The Wharf Revue gang, to make sense of an ever-quickening news cycle and to find where shock jocks, the founding fathers of the age of alternative facts, will fit in their new utopia. John Behan (John Waters) is nothing out of the box when it comes to talkback hosts. As happy chatting about neighbours who have let their plum trees get out of control as why climate change doesn't exist on cold mornings, Behan is incendiary and loves it. The play begins as he falls afoul of the law for revealing the criminal record of a man being tried for sexual assault. "I think there's a little right-wing person hiding inside all of us," John Waters told ABC Radio. If that's true and yours is due for an outing, get yourself to Talk. There'll be more than enough vitriol to go round. Image: James Green.
“Industry has moved abreast of art & we now trade culture as capital, Enthusiasm is currency, and here is no better Petri-dish for new forms & expressions of the contemporary than the warehouse. ...a return to the village ...except the candlestick maker, the butcher & the blacksmith are now the zinester, the permaculturalist & community theatre director.” While the vast majority of us get up every morning, go to work, and earn money to pay the rent or mortgage, some others opted out. Inspired by artistic ideals and the bohemian movements of days gone by, artists, performers and assorted creatives have been reclaiming warehouses and setting up counter-cultural enclaves where they can work among like-minded souls, and by the looks of things, throw some pretty awesome masquerade balls. Bohemianism is thriving, especially in Melbourne. This City Speaks To Me is the work of British music photographer Luke David Kellet, who spent several years living among Melbourne's bohemian community. Inspired by the artists and their lifestyle, Kellet has created a photobook which is both a documentary of, and dedication to the raw, wild energy and enthusiasm of the culture and its characters. The fluid, gonzo-esque text from poet Si complement the images and give them a hallucinatory life of their own. It’s good to see that alternative art and culture are thriving, and even better to see it portrayed so eloquently. As well as the full, print version, a shorter version of the book is available as a free download (NSFW). This City Speaks To Me
Melbourne artist Sayraphim Lothian doesn't make art that hangs on walls in galleries. You're more likely to find her work hiding in a tree, resting on a bench or nestled under a bush. She likes to leave people little gifts, just to make their day that little bit more special and fun. This March Sayraphim's mission is to bring guerrilla kindness to Christchurch, which is still rebuilding following the horrific 2011 earthquake. Journey - The Kakapo of Christchurch is a two-week public art project that uses the Kakapo's journey to recovery as a metaphor for Christchurch's journey to regeneration. A native of New Zealand, the Kakapo is the world's heaviest flightless parrot. It's population dwindled to a mere 18 in the 1970s, and since then, the Kakapo has been on its own journey of healing thanks to conservation group Kakapo Recovery. Even though the Kakapo is still endangered, there are now 124 birds alive and well in the wild. "I want to do this project to celebrate the resilience and unity of the people of Christchurch after the earthquakes and the recovery of the Kakapo from near extinction," Sayraphim says. "Neither of these things could have happened without the resourcefulness and kindness of the people involved." From March 13-23, 2014, the artist will travel to Christchurch to install 124 soft sculpture Kakapos around the city. These birds will be left for people to find and move, hide, remove, adopt or throw away. Part participatory art project, part game, part scavenger hunt and part social media check in, Journey invites people to get involved with an art project on a personal level. Each soft sculpture bird will have a tag attached, introducing it to the finder as well as having Journey's website address to provide more information about the project. There will also be a hashtag for social media so people can follow the Kakapos' journey around the city. You can help make this project happen by contributing your own act of guerrilla kindness. In exchange for your pledge you will receive a reward, which could include your very own handmade Christchurch Kakapo.
These days, a simple flash of your smartphone can let you pay for stuff without tapping your debit card, see a gig without a hard-copy ticket and even split dinner bills without carrying around a heap of cash. And, thanks to legislation that's just passed through State Parliament, NSW residents could soon leave the old drivers licence card at home, if an imminent Sydney trial of digital licences is successful. The trial, which is set to start in November this year, will be only available for eastern suburb dwellers — namely Bondi, Bondi Junction, Bronte, Clovelly, Coogee, Randwick and Waverley. According to a statement released by the NSW Government, those willing to participate will have to register for a MyServiceNSW account and install a yet-to-be-released trial app. This will allow them to manage and renew their licence, and show it as proof of identity and age at police roadside checks, bars and clubs. For the trial, the digital licence can only be used in the suburbs listed above. If the trial is successful, the digital system will roll out across the state in early 2019. This means that any NSW driver would be able to access a digital version of their licence via the Service NSW app on their phone, eliminating the need to carry the original card. How exactly the government will curb the circulation of fake IDs is not yet known, but the statement says it is using "cutting edge technology" to do so. It will be an opt-in service, and all drivers will still be issued with a card regardless. Plans for the switch to digital were first announced back in 2016, which was followed by a successful trial of the digital licences in Dubbo and subsequent legislation being entered into Parliament earlier this year. The technology is still being developed by the NSW Government, but similar system was rolled out in South Australia in late 2017.
Family dramas are always told best with a bit of humour, especially when wrestling is involved. Set in New Jersey, Win Win director Tom McCarthy delivers an offbeat comedy-drama about Mike Flaherty (played by Paul Giamatti), a family man who tries to stay afloat of financial and familial woes by volunteering as a wrestling coach at the local highschool. Flaherty attempts to keep his law practice from going under by posing as the legal guardian of an elderly client Leo Poplar (Burt Young) while coaching a team of high school wrestlers. But when the client's grandson Kyle Timmons (Alex Shaffer) shows up looking for somewhere to stay, Flaherty's plans are altered; Timmons proves to be an asset to his wrestling team. But things take another turn when Timmon's mother turns up to claim him. McCarthy's directing caliber includes indie films The Station and The Visitor and critics are calling his latest installment a funny and humane portrayal of American suburbia. Win Win opens on August 18. Concrete Playground has twenty double passes to giveaway to our readers courtesy of Fox Searchlight. To get your hands on one, simply make sure you're a CP subscriber then email us at hello@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ci_I6n2j5Uw
Does the phoney joy and tacky commercialism of Christmas make you want to vomit? If so then boy, has Zach Clark made the movie for you. Depressing and darkly funny, White Reindeer, not to be confused with this 1952 Finnish horror film of the same name (as so many of us would, right?), is a raised middle finger to holiday cheer. Anna Margaret Hollyman plays Suzanne Barrington, a real estate agent whose December vitality is flattened after finding her husband murdered in a break-in. Worse still, at the funeral she learns from one her husband's colleagues that he'd been having an affair with a stripper. So begins Suzanne's yuletide descent into shoplifting, cocaine abuse and compulsive online shopping, all in an attempt to raise her wilted Christmas spirit They say that more people kill themselves during the holidays than at any other time of the year. White Reindeer shows exactly why that is, juxtaposing the aggressive merriment of the festive season with the sad banality of loneliness. Suzanne's discovery of her husband's bloodied body is accompanied by carols. Later, at the police station, a detective gives her a candy cane in a pathetic attempt to offer solace. Intentionally abrupt editing keeps us from ever finding our footing, and makes the world feel fake more often than it does real. Eventually, Suzanne decides to track down her husband's lover, who turns out to be a 22-year-old single mother named Fantasia (played by Laura Lemar-Goldsborough). This plot turn feels a little bit contrived, but ultimately you buy it thanks to the strength of the actors' performances. A scene in which the two discuss their feelings for the late Mr Barrington is surprisingly poignant, despite some occasionally on-the-nose dialogue. Even though it's only 82 minutes long, White Reindeer does feel padded out. The most obvious example of this is a bizarre sequence in which Suzanne attends a swinger's party hosted by her new neighbours (played by Lydia Hyslop and Drinking Buddies director Joe Swanberg). The scene doesn't have any real bearing on the plot, other than to perhaps suggest that Suzanne has sunk to a new low while also hammering home Clark's overriding point, about the perverseness that lurks behind baubles, knit sweaters and jolly smiles. Still, White Reindeer is well worth the ticket price. Even an apparent Grinch like Clark can't help but offer a glimmer of hope in the end, suggesting that, beneath the artifice and hideous plastic reindeer, the true spirit of Christmas isn't dead. White Reindeer will play exclusively at the Golden Age Cinema & Bar. https://youtube.com/watch?v=8qyzpGdu_v8
Sydney's picnic baskets have had quite the workout so far in 2021, but one of their biggest moments to shine is about to arrive for another year. When Moonlight Cinema sets up its outdoor screen in Centennial Park from early December, it's officially cheese, snack and openair movie-viewing season. The end-of-year mainstay returns from Thursday, December 9–Sunday, April 3 with an impressive batch of films gracing its outdoor setup. Get ready to catch a heap of recent blockbusters, a smattering of brand new flicks and a lineup of Christmas movies. You can't run an openair cinema at the jolliest time of the year without the latter, obviously. The Suicide Squad opens the bill, with the lineup including Cruella, Free Guy and Red Notice as well. Also screening: Edgar Wright's new movie Last Night in Soho, animated sequel The Boss Baby: Family Business, Disney newbie Encanto and the family-friendly Clifford the Big Red Dog. Among the retro fare, The Greatest Showman and Dirty Dancing are on the program; it would't be a Moonlight Cinema season without them, either. And, for your merry outdoor movie-watching pleasure, the Christmas selection includes Love Actually, The Holiday, Elf, The Grinch, Die Hard and Home Alone. It's also worth remembering that Moonlight Cinema is BYO — and there'll be food, snacks, a bar and (if you'd like to pay for them) bean bags as well. And, in great news for movie-loving pooches, you can bring them along, too.
It's not exactly news that a beer and a barbecue represent one of the holiest unions known to man. But having a cold one in-hand while rotating the snags in the other isn't the extent of the pairing. It goes a whole lot further than that, my friend. We've already explored the beautiful possibilities of battering, stewing and baking with beer and made one killer beer, bacon and cheddar dip — and now, we're spiking our marinades. Yep, this summer we'll be making beer marinades for our barbecued meats. After all, the ultimate way to make your food more beery is to soak it in beer (come on, we know you've thought about it before). Not only does beer add a depth of flavour to your cooking, it also contains enzymes that break down the fibres in your meat, giving it that sweet, sweet melt-in-your-mouth tenderness. Willing to give it a go? We've collected four of the best beer-based marinades for you to try at the next barbecue you're hosting, collated by the crew at James Squire. [caption id="attachment_555155" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Dollar Photo Club[/caption] CHICKEN: GARLIC BEER MARINADE This little beauty from The Slow Roasted Italian is relatively quick and easy to whip up — but its true value comes from how long you leave it to marinate. While even half an hour will get you a decent flavour, if you can manage to wait a whole day like the recipe recommends, your tastebuds will reap the rewards when it comes to dinner time. Try pairing this one with a James Squire Swindler Ale; the light fruity aroma pairs well with lean meats like this, as the delicate flavours of each don’t overpower each other. [caption id="attachment_555157" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Dollar Photo Club[/caption] BEEF: BEER AND BROWN SUGAR MARINADE This recipe from Yummly is 100% guaranteed to get your mouth a little watery. With a mixture of sugar, teriyaki, salt and pepper, the marinade is sweet and salty with the added caramel of a dark beer. It's easy as anything to whip up, and will take your average barbecue steak to the next level. [caption id="attachment_555156" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Dollar Photo Club[/caption] SALMON: BEER AND LIME MARINADE If you really want to impress your mates, you can’t go past this beer and lime salmon from Food.com. Using the usual salmon marinade suspects — lime, soy sauce, ginger and garlic —this one steps it up a notch with the addition of your favourite beer. Chuck it on the barbie like it's a shrimp, cook for ten minutes and reap the rewards when you tuck in. These recipes were originally published by James Squire. Head to the James Squire website for more recipes.
Food. Wine. Art. If any of these words pique your interest, Sydney's four-day celebration is for you. Uniting people in the spirit of Bastille Day, the event (previously BBR Festival) is back for a fifth year, with a new name and a killer lineup to boot. This year's street fest will see over 100 performers grace Circular Quay — from fire twirlers and magicians to opera singers and salsa dancers. All that wandering and watching is hunger and thirst-inducing, so a delicious assortment of specialty food, beer and wine offerings will keep guests fed and watered. Visit the Latin village for a woodfired pizza or catch a cabaret show at the French and emporium villages before relaxing into the Nordic quarter with a degustation at Electro Beer Garden. As the sun sets, head to the open-air cinema to watch an award-winning film from the comfort of an inflatable mattress, and grab a glass of sparkling from the Champagne bar. If previous years are anything to go by, Bastille Festival will be an epic showcase of food, wine and art. Are you ready to join the revolution? Image: Bastille Festival, the Food Wine Art Revolution.
Taking its cue from period dramas Downton Abbey and Gosford Park, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding plunges us into the eccentricities and delusions of upper-class Britain between the wars. Adapted from a 1932 novella by Julia Strachey, the film is director Donald Rice's debut feature. On her wedding day, Dolly Thatcham (Felicity Jones) is preparing to walk down the aisle with the bland but reliable Owen Bigham (James Norton) when the sudden appearance of her former lover, Joseph Patten (Luke Treadaway), throws her into a fit of confusion. Holing herself up in her room, Dolly gets stuck into a bottle of rum, trying to mitigate the now torturous process of final preparation. Meanwhile, her matriarchal, widowed mother (Elizabeth McGovern) strides about the manor, patronising any relative within arm's length and sending particularly scathing barbs in the direction of the troubled and seemingly regretful Joseph. The other members of the wedding party — a parade of oddball yet likeable Brits — dart in and out of the narrative, provoking an array of subplots. Dolly's sister Kitty (Ellie Kendrick) spends her time protesting about the lack of eligible bachelors on her radar, eventually making a comical effort to pursue the chauffeur. Cynical, sharp-tongued bridesmaid, Evelyn (Zoe Tapper), becomes the inappropriate target of Uncle Bob's (Julian Wadham) affections. Mackenzie Crook and Fenella Woolgar team up as Helen and David Dakin, a distanced married couple struggling to control a naughty son with a penchant for blowing up firecrackers. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding aims to satirise the upper class's sacrifice of emotional impulses for social control and the hypocrisy of obsession with appearances. However, while these intentions are clear, the script does not explore them with much depth, being neither gut-achingly witty nor gut-wrenchingly penetrating. Sure, moments of situational and verbal humour inspire laughs, and the storyline rolls along at a jolly pace, but the overall impact is entertaining and amusing rather than overwhelming. Flashbacks employed to depict Dolly and Joseph's love affair tend to come across as a little contrived and predictable. That said, the set is lush and the costumes have everyone looking their dapper-est best. McGovern and Treadaway offer particularly strong performances — McGovern for her charismatic, commanding interpretation of the ruler of the roost, and Treadaway for his vulnerable, multi-shaded take on the uncertain ex-lover. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding might make for some gentle Sunday afternoon escapism, but the Thatcham household is a long walk from Downton Abbey.
