Melburnians, get ready to sit in the room where it happens — because Lin-Manuel Miranda's game-changing, award-winning, rightly raved-about Hamilton is finally coming to town. After initial rumours back in May suggested that the hit show would play Her Majesty's Theatre from March 2022, that news has just been officially confirmed and announced. So, mark Wednesday, March 16 in your diary, and don't throw away your shot to see the biggest thing in musical theatre this century. The Broadway blockbuster finally made its way to Australia earlier this year, opening at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in March with a cast that includes Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Chloé Zuel as Eliza Hamilton, Lyndon Watts as Aaron Burr, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, Matu Ngaropo as George Washington, and Victory Ndukwe as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. When it was revealed last month the Mary Poppins musical would float into the same venue from May 2022, however, speculation about Hamilton's future quickly kicked into gear. Obviously the Sydney theatre can't host two shows at once, after all. Hamilton is currently selling tickets for Sydney shows until Sunday, December 19, although exactly when the production will finish up in the New South Wales capital hasn't been advised. Still, come mid-March, Arrow, Zuel and company — including Shaka Cook as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, Marty Alix as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, Elandrah Eramiha as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, and Brent Hill as King George III — will all be exploring 18th-century American politics in song in Melbourne. Haven't become a Hamilton obsessive yet? Not quite sure why it has been the most-talked about theatre show of the past six years? The critically acclaimed hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. In addition to its swag of Tony Awards — 11 in fact, which includes Best Musical — it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize. Until now, Melburnians eager to see the show had to be content with trips north or watching the filmed version of its Broadway production, which started streaming via Disney+ in 2020 (and yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard). This won't be Miranda's first musical to come to Melbourne, with his take on the classic 2000s film Bring It On: The Musical hitting the city in 2018. And, the news arrives just weeks out from the long-awaited — and lively, vibrant and charming — movie adaptation of Miranda's Washington Heights-set In the Heights reaching cinemas. Other big musicals, such as The Book of Mormon, have toured the country after their big local premiere seasons, so Hamilton's Melbourne stint was hardly unexpected. Here's hoping the $10 ticket lottery comes with it. Sydneysiders, if you haven't yet booked yourself in to see the musical, you'll want to remedy that while you can. And Brisbanites, start crossing your fingers that Hamilton plans a move up north after its Melbourne season. Hamilton's Melbourne season will kick off on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. Head to the musical's website for further details, or to buy tickets from Monday, July 19, 2021 — with presales for Telstra Plus members available from 10am on Thursday, June 24. Images: Daniel Boud.
German artist Martin Klimas is painting with sound, endeavouring to answer the question: 'what does music look like?' Klimas put his idea into practice by splattering paint on a scrim, placed over a speaker while playing music. By turning the volume up, the paint colourfully vibrates off the scrim allowing Klimas to seize these moments as photographs. Through this series, Klimas has captured what music would look like as a physical object. Taking over 6 months and 1000 photographs to create, music from the likes of Miles Davis, Kraftwerk and Steve Reich and Musicians was featured. It makes you wonder what it would look like to have your favourite song framed. [via Gizmodo & NY Times]
Melbourne Fringe Festival is set to return this month (November 12–29), and with it comes one helluva opening night party. But, this year, the party will take place in your lounge room. Club Fringe will broadcast into homes all over Australia from 9.30pm on Thursday, November 12. For this year's festivities, Fringe has joined forces with the folks behind Yirramboi Festival as part of NAIDOC Week. They've curated an all-First Nations lineup including some of Melbourne's best independent talent. The night will kick off with a Boonwurrung Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country. Then, rapper Deejai with vocalist Breanna Lee, Arrernte drag artist Stone Motherless Cold and electro-tribal pop duo The Merindas will all take to the virtual stage. DJ Soju Gang will keep the party vibes going until midnight. Don't forget to nab your tickets, which are choose what you pay (with a $10 suggested donation). Then prep your dance floor (aka living room), deck yourself out in glitter and get ready to party like its 2020. Top image: The Merindas
Self-taught Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio and his internationally acclaimed company Mau return to Carriageworks with the Australian premiere of Stones in Her Mouth. Featuring an ensemble of ten Maori women, the piece is inspired by the strong Maori tradition of women authoring poetry and chant. Incorporating Maori language, spirituality, ceremony and genealogy, it explores themes of female oppression, silence, outrage and resilience. Mau has become recognised internationally for their beautiful, unnerving and hypnotic creations grounded in native Pacific cultures and their ancestral, elemental worlds. Stones in Her Mouth — combining choral work, dance and oratory — looks set to continue the company's habit of sidestepping traditional expectations, refusing to sit neatly within categories of 'theatre' or 'dance' and instead striving to reach a near-spiritual plane through performance. Ponifasio, who was once a philosophy student before he formed his "company of people", told the Australian, "I try to activate the space. To create a sort of cosmological space where we can somehow realise that we are part of the whole process of earth." To get a little taster of what they do, watch this video of Mau's Carriageworks performance of Birds with Skymirrors. Stones in Her Mouth is on at Carriageworks from May 28 to June 31. Tickets are $35 from here, but thanks to Carriageworks, we have four double passes to the Thursday, May 29, performance to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address.
After a weekend packed with Halloween themed gatherings, do you really want to wait another year to get those spooky juices flowing again? Or perhaps you tend the bar, pulled the short straw on the roster this week and missed out on the revelries? Worry not, because there is always the option of pushing on through Sunday with help from Tasmanian death metal legends Psycroptic and their state bros Moo Brew at Frankie's. Frankie's get super psyched for Halloween, and this year won't be any different. Doors open at 4pm, which is when they'll crack Moo Brew's barrel-aged Scotch Ale, then DJs hit the decks from 7pm. After the band tear it up, the DJs come back on until 3am. Whatever your reason for wanting to get down this Halloween Sunday night, Frankie's has you covered.
Arguably the biggest pop sensation to emerge in the last five years, Billie Eilish has just announced a run of Australian and New Zealand tour dates throughout September 2022. The tour marks the first time Eilish has graced the shores of either country since 2019. In the two years since her last tour, Eilish has released her latest chart-topping album Happier Than Ever, a documentary and visual book, taken out the Hottest 100 and swept the Grammys, taking home all four of the major categories at the 2020 ceremony. The announcement of this run on dates also comes days after the announcement that Billie Eilish is set to become the youngest-ever performer to headline the UKs Glastonbury Festival in 2022. The Happier Than Ever Tour will kick off at Auckland's Spark Arena on Thursday, September 8 before moving to Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Tuesday, September 13. It'll then move on to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne and Perth's RAC Arena throughout the remainder of September. The tour follows previous tour announcements from international artists Tyler, the Creator, Gorillaz and Guns N' Roses, marking the expected return of international touring for the first time in more than two years. Tickets to the Happier Than Ever Tour start at $99 and are available as part of Telstra Plus and Vodafone pre-sales on Monday, October 11, plus Frontier and Live Nation pre-sales on Wednesday, October 13 before they go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 15. BILLIE EILISH — HAPPIER THAN EVER TOUR Thursday, September 8 – Spark Arena, Auckland Tuesday, September 13 – Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Saturday, September 17 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Thursday, September 22 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Thursday, September 29 – RAC Arena, Perth You can find all the details on Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever Australia and New Zealand tour at the tour's website. Top Image: Crommelincklars
What starts with a progress pride flag-raising ceremony, officially opens with Kylie Minogue and Charli XCX, then ends with MUNA and G Flip? What features the long-awaited return of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade to Oxford Street (with new viewing areas), more than 45 rainbow artworks all around town and a monumental pride march with 50,000-plus people walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, too? In other words, what'll make Sydney the centre of the queer universe from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, and make history in the process? Sydney WorldPride, the first WorldPride ever held in the southern hemisphere, and basically a mega Mardi Gras — and your unmissable reason to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community in the New South Wales capital in early 2023. Plenty of the above has been giving everyone reasons to rejoice for a while now; however, the Sydney WorldPride crew has just dropped the full event lineup. In-person, the team has done so with Bondi Beach's first-ever gigantic rainbow sand sculpture — which is on display until sunset today, Wednesday, November 9, if you're in the neighbourhood and keen to check it out — but this is a program worth getting excited about for the next 100 days until Sydney WorldPride arrives. Charli XCX has indeed joined the opening concert lineup, as has Jessica Mauboy, both of whom will perform alongside Kylie Minogue. Also welcome news: more tickets have been released for the previously sold-out gig, although don't expect them to stick around for long. At the Domain Dance Party mid-fest — another huge highlight — Kelly Rowland will headline‚ with DJ Dan Slater curating the bill, and DJ Suri and DJ Isis Muretech among those on the decks. And, the Bondi Beach Party on March 4 will turn the famed stretch of sand into an openair club for a casual 12,000 people, dancing by the water from dusk. If that's not enough to start making plans — a staycation or vacation via Concrete Playground Trips and its seven different Sydney WorldPride packages, perhaps? — overall the fest will feature more than 300 events over 17 days, making it the largest-ever LGBTQIA+ festival ever held in the region, too. Still on numbers, that hefty total includes 19 official major events, 68 WorldPride Arts experiences, 17 WorldPride Sports events and 192 Pride Amplified community events. That's a massive lineup to sift through, so here's the short version: wherever you are in Sydney during WorldPride, expect the festival to be in the vicinity. The list of standouts worth mentioning is similarly sizeable, including the gigs at Sydney WorldPride's at Marri Madung Butbut (Many Brave Hearts): the First Nations Gathering Space — such as the Klub Village party and performance, the Miss First Nation drag contest, and exhibition Bloodlines, which honours artists lost to HIV/AIDS. There's also the impressive WorldPride human rights conference, which is the largest of its kind ever held in the Asia-Pacific as well, and will span three days. Also, Queer Art After Hours will head to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and its new building; the Mardi Gras Film Festival returns for its 30th fest, complete with a big focus on Asia-Pacific cinema and a day of free outdoor screenings; and the Queer Formal is back. And while some Mardi Gras favourites, such as the official 10,000-person Mardi Gras Party at Hordern Pavilion and the Mardi Gras Laneway at The Beresford and Hill Street, have already sold out, there's clearly plenty more where they came from. The WorldPride Arts lineup alone spans exhibitions by Paul Yore and Dylan Mooney, the first dedicated exhibition of Australian queer artist David McDiarmid's photos, lesbian divorce comedy Blessed Union, the Australian premiere of Choir Boy by Moonlight co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney, and installation Eulogy for the Dyke Bar — which will indeed operate as a bar — for instance. And, there's a 24-hour dance piece, a comedy night hosted by Ru Paul's Drag Race Down Under's Coco Jumbo, and Powerhouse Museum's showcase of Sydney's leading LGBTQIA+ artists, designers, makers and performers as well. Sports-wise, 17 different activities will be featured, spanning everything from roller derby, ten-pin bowling, soccer, ice hockey and basketball to wrestling, swimming, golf and dragon boating. Then, throw in a Pride Climb on Sydney Harbour Bridge, LGBTQIA+ history walks and a Sapphic Literary Lounge at Watsons Bay Library, all from the Pride Amplified part of the fest. That program covers gin dinners, events in spas and pop-up fetish bars, and a world-record attempt at the biggest disco dance class, too, and there's more still to come. Sydney WorldPride will run from Friday, February 17–Sunday, March 5, 2023. For more information, head to the event's website. Making Sydney WorldPride plans? Concrete Playground Trips has a heap of exclusive packages on offer, including tickets to and accommodation around the Opening Concert, Domain Dance Party, Bondi Beach Party and more.
Sydney Fringe Festival has unveiled its tenth anniversary program, which promises over 342 shows (including 120 world premieres) across 21 postcodes. Running from September 1–30, the festival includes a few major firsts, too, such as a precinct in The Rocks, a touring hub sponsored by Innocent Bystander, a comedy on a vintage bus and an Archie Rose Cabaret Club. There are also a whole heap of immersive and interactive events going down this year, including an eerie theatre show inspired by Wolf Creek, intimate long-table dinners and talks, a Kevin Bacon-themed flashmob and a night of eats, drinks and music that'll transport you to Babylon. All of this is going down at five hubs located across the city. To help you sift through it all, we've broken down the program by what's happening at each — so, open your calendar and start planning. CITY TATTS HUB As announced in June, Sydney Fringe Festival will be taking over the CBD's 124-year-old City Tattersalls Club this year. As well as playing host to the aforementioned Archie Rose Cabaret Club (complete with lots of gin cocktails, of course), City Tatts will be home to 30 events, a Young Henrys bar, a diner, a Heaps Gay 'RSL extravaganza', a tongue-in-cheek interactive seminar on How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse and a 1920s-inspired speakeasy, which will be open every Friday night with a lineup of female musicians playing jazz and soul. To round out the festivities, City Tatts will host the official Fringe closing party: a giant, four-level Dance All Night party that'll feature everything from an 80s prom to a 'Kevin Bacon in Footloose'-inspired flashmob. THE ROCKS HUB Also in the city will be the festival's first-ever precinct in The Rocks. The harbourside area's many laneways will fill with market stalls, shows, interactive installations and a free program of events every Friday–Sunday. The latter will include a communal trash-to-treasure sculpture, pub sing-alongs and story telling. In terms of interactive experiences (there are a lot of them happening this year) there's the aforementioned comedy on a vintage bus that will let you relive the movie Speed — fittingly dubbed Speed: The Movie, The Play — and a choose-your-own adventure theatre show that places you in the first day of a job at a start up, called By The Water Cooler. PADDINGTON HUB Wander up Oxford Street and you'll find everything from yoga to dinner parties going down at the Paddington Hub. The latter will take the form of three long-table suppers and conversations held underneath Verona Cinemas. Each intimate dinner will have a different topic of conversation — the art of social change making, the art of listening and the art of a campaigning contemporary artist — a different guest speaker and the food will be curated by a different artist. They're one part of Yoke Magazine's pop-up — called Fringe Unyoked — dedicated to talks, exhibitions, yoga classes and workshops about creation and change. [caption id="attachment_735460" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hillbilly Thriller[/caption] LEGS HUB Physical theatre company Legs on the Wall will once again transform Lilyfield's The Red Box into a buzzing hub of performance, complete with an outdoor bar and lots of live music. The highlight of this hub is Legs' latest intimate, interactive, immersive and (slightly) terrifying new performance piece: Hillbilly Thriller. Shown to just ten people at a time, the show is pitched as "Picnic At Hanging Rock meets Wolf Creek meets Jedda" and combines film, performance, sounds and installation. We don't think this is for the faint hearted. Also happening here are Adelaide Fringe Award-winning show Yuck Circus and a dark and poetic show called La Vide. [caption id="attachment_735470" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Ballad of the Apathetic Son and His Narcissistic Mother by Niall Walker[/caption] INNOCENT BYSTANDER TOURING HUB & NEWTOWN PRECINCT On the western side of the city, the Newtown Precinct will return with a whopping 192 events taking over 22 different venues. One of those will be the festival's opening party, Fringe Ignite. The Fringe Festival organisers have teamed up with the crew behind King Street Crawl to fill the street with performances from over 150 different artists. Over at the Emerging Artist Sharehouse, you'll find World's Best/Worst House Party — an immersive theatre experience that's part show, part party. Newtown's Old 505 Theatre will be the home of the Innocent Bystander Touring Hub: a program of award-winning shows from around the globe. Among them are modern (and award-winning) retellings of Orpheus and Eurydice, a high-energy show about a real mother and son who are obsessed with Sia (expect swinging from chandeliers), a part-comedy, part-game show called Love/Hate Actually and Matriarch, a one-woman show that highlights the strength of four generations of Gumbaynggirr women. Innocent Bystander has set up a wine bar here, too, so you can sip on vino before, after or between shows. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE... While not officially hubs, you'll also find the three-night Fringeville in Hurstville — with pop-up food trucks, light installations and shows — and an immersive Babylon-inspired world at Chippendale's Kensington Street. The inner-city food destination will transform with live music, snacks, drinks and soundscapes for one decadent evening. Of course, the program keeps going (and going). To check out all the events, head to the Sydney Fringe Festival website. Sydney Fringe Festival 2019 will run from September 1–30 at venues across Sydney. For more information and to buy tickets, head to sydneyfringe.com.
Father's Day happens around the same time every single year, and yet it somehow always manages to sneak up on us. And while dear ol' Dad probably won't complain if unwraps the umpteenth pair of socks or bottle of whisky (he's good like that), there is another way to make him feel appreciated with an unforgettable experience. Showcasing adventures for every type of dad, experience website Adrenaline is a good place to turn to snag him something awesome before September 1. From spine-tingling helicopter tours to caving explorations, and cooking classes that'll make him an expert behind the barbecue, Adrenaline has plenty of great packages to mark the occasion. To help you figure out what to get, we've highlighted six experiences that are bound to impress. But if you're still not sure, plug dad's personality traits into Adrenaline's Gift Guide and you'll get the perfect suggestion. HELICOPTER RIDES If climbing aboard a high-powered helicopter for a scenic flight doesn't get dad pumped to get out of the house this Father's Day, maybe nothing will. You'll have plenty of choices for scenic flights including those that climb high above Sydney's stunning skyline or explore beautiful out-of-town regions like the Hunter Valley or the the south coast. For dads who don't mind some thrill-seeking, there are also adventures involving military-style helicopters and a series of death-defying manoeuvres that'll get his blood pumping. Whether he prefers a quick scenic tour or an hour-long session that'll teach him the ins and outs of the aircraft, a helicopter ride will undoubtedly leave your dad stoked this Father's Day. INDOOR SKYDIVING Even if your dad thinks he's something of a daredevil, jumping out of an aeroplane isn't everyone's cup of tea. But an indoor skydiving package will help him experience the next best thing to leaping out of a plane at 14,000 feet. Fortunately, the indoor alternative is much safer than the falling-from-the-sky kind — plus, a rainy day won't ruin your plans. Adrenaline's indoor skydiving packages are suitable for most ages and fitness levels, so Dad will soon be making his way into iFly's specially created flight chamber for lift off. Donning a flight suit, goggles and a helmet, he'll be in safe hands as a personal instructor will be there to show him the ropes. SWIMMING WITH SHARKS Since we're on the trend of gifts that'll probably thrill and frighten your pop in equal measure, we're also going to suggest this exhilarating experience, too. This fin-filled (see what we did there?) experience will have him facing off to some creatures of the deep — well, actually, creatures of the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. On this underwater adventure, your dad will get to spend 30 minutes hanging/floating around with more than 30 sharks, including grey nurse and seven-gill sharks, along with stingrays, sea turtles and plenty of exotic fish. Plus, you can watch the whole thing unfold from the spectators' tunnel — take a camera so your dad can brag to his mates at the pub later. KAYAKING TOURS There's something remarkably peaceful about paddling along a picturesque waterway in a kayak. If you think your dad might benefit from some quality downtime, help him chill out this Father's Day by booking him a kayaking tour. He'll have the chance to gain a new perspective on the city, as Adrenaline offers kayaking adventures that set out along Sydney Harbour, through Ku-Ring-Gai National Park or around Bundeena in Sydney's south. If you're looking for something that goes above and beyond, there's also a wide collection of tours that include morning tea, buffet lunches and even oyster and wine tastings. AMERICAN BARBECUE SMOKING CLASSES Given the way most dads concerns themselves with the barbecue, you'd think they were all born to be expert grill masters. But if you're tired of yours overcooking the meat, get him a gift that'll not-so-subtly hint that he needs to touch up his skills. One class that's bound to do the job is an American Barbecue Smoking Class, which will teach him the fundamentals of controlling the coals, picking out the best wood and learning how to prevent the meat from sweating. If he's going to keep demanding unbridled control of the barbecue on every special occasion, he ought to have the skills that every self-respecting cook needs to do the job perfectly. Plus, you'll get the added benefit of springtime barbecues that are better than ever before. QUAD BIKING Do you have the type of dad who is still just a big kid at heart? If so, zipping, skidding and leaping around Glenworth Valley on four wheels is sure to get his adrenalin pumping. Located just an hour north of Sydney, this long-running quad biking circuit involves over 3000 acres of bushland, rainforest and trails around mountains. Your dad will be letting rip on a Honda 250CC quad bike (with automatic transmission) through bush trails and water crossings. Following a safety briefing, he'll get to let his inner child go wild for an hour-and-a-half. Oh, and we recommend packing him a change of clothes — things are likely to get dusty (and maybe even muddy). To find Dad an unforgettable experience for Father's Day that'll blow his (last year's gift) socks off, visit the Adrenaline website. Plus, until September 1, Adrenaline is running a sitewide sale with up to 52 percent off, so you can save some coin at the same time.
Lenin wrote secret letters with milk when he was in prison in Siberia. Not many people experiment with such strange pigments, and even less out of need than curiosity. For some artists held in Australian detention centres, working on the Refugee Art Project, paint and other art supplies became hard to get a hold of, so they made art with what they had at hand. Which led victoriana-like, delicate watercolour drawings done with instant coffee, among other ingenious ideas. These and other results of the Project will be on display at the Mori Gallery as part of Refugee Week, featuring work by artists originally from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Iraq and further afield. Detention centres are essentially prisons. Artworks at the Mori exhibition are by people stuck there, children and adults; a few released into the community, but most of them still behind bars. They get money from sales, but it doesn't do much to get them out of such places and into a life. Nonetheless, bearing witness to them is of no small importance. And once you're there, maybe you can think of something more useful to do. Image by All Fadhel.
Bondi's reliable party pub Beach Road has long been the place to hear some dirty tunes and be one with the d-floor on a Saturday night, but come Tuesday, February 28 it'll play host to something a little more #cleanliving: hip hop yoga. Led CrossFit Sydney's Naya Marie with accompanying beats from Melbourne DJ MIMI (of CRXZY SXXY CXXL), who will mine the back catalogues of just your average kings and queens of music — Kanye, Drake, Chance The Rapper, Beyoncè, Rihanna, et al. The soundtrack might be hectic but don't be afraid, the class will cater for yoga beginners as well as the more experienced. Even better than finding inner zen to Drake's 'Started At The Bottom' is the fact that 10 percent of profits will go to Australian-based charity Forever Projects, raising money for underprivileged families in Tanzania. Tickets are limited, however, so snap 'em up quick smart.
Take a wander through The Rocks this weekend and you're likely to stumble across a doorway into the Middle East. Tucked away inside a 19th century sandstone building, new restaurant Tayim serves flavoursome dishes inspired by Middle Eastern traditions — but with some modern touches. Tayim has moved into the premises that previously belonged to Scarlett Restaurant, on the ground floor of the Harbour Rocks Hotel. But Sydney architects Welsh + Major (The Mercantile Hotel, Fenwick Stone Building) have given the space a sleek revamp. Among the painstakingly restored sandstone, you'll notice splashes and wood, set off by striking wall coverings. Choose between two dining rooms — one comes with a friendly communal table, an outdoor terrace and a swish bar. Head Chef Ran Kimelfeld (ex-Nour) is behind the all-day menu. His not-so-secret weapon is an open grill (which you can watch in action in the communal dining room), where he cooks with old-school techniques, but adds ideas of his own. If you're with mates, tuck into share plates, loaded with grilled sardine shakshuka, summer mushroom borekas and grilled chicken masaha. Come dessert, options include roasted figs with radicchio, goat's cheese and chardonnay dressing, and semolina rose pudding with pistachio meringue and summer berries. Responsible for the drinks list is GM Reuvin Lim, who's also worked on beverages at Sake, Cho Cho San and Tequila Mockingbird. His picks for Tayim feature wines that match bold, spicy flavours, with drops from Australia, Turkey, France, Italy and beyond. The seasonal cocktail menu offers creative twists on classics. If you don't have time for a sit-down feast, swing by the Tayim Deli, which you'll find next door. Here, you can grab Middle Eastern street food to take away, including falafel, chicken shish and lamb kofta wraps, plus salads and sides, from Israeli couscous to roasted cauliflower. Find Tayim at 34 Harrington Street, The Rocks from Friday, December 14. The restaurant will be open from 6.30am–1pm Monday to Friday and 7am–11pm on weekends, and the deli will be open 7am–3pm Monday to Friday and 9am–4.30pmon weekends. Images: Guy Davies.
Marius von Mayenburg's The Ugly One is all kinds of satirical, and while it tends to be the convention to call satires 'searing' or maybe 'biting', let's bypass those particular clichés in order to say that the play moves on at an, er, 'cracking' pace. It is, at roughly an hour, quite short and a lot happens onstage. Like engineering, office politics, extramarital affairs, a lot of fruit getting eaten, and a bunch of surgeries rendered (especially the first) with ingenious and brutal sound effects that really justify the 'cracking' thing. "We'll start with the nose," the surgeon explains at the start of each, "because it sticks out furthest from the face." Onomatopoeia ensues. Faces are the big thing of the play, with the central characters transformation from having an "unacceptable" face to one that is perfect, precipitating a new age of personal and professional success that turns weird when his plastic surgeon starts replicating the procedure all over town. The subsequent confusion and upset is absurd enough that you don't feel bad about it, but hits close enough to home that feeling bad about not feeling worse comes into effect. The simple production design and sensitive performances keep the play poised between allegory and relatability, ending up at a point where you know you're not that shallow, but may be left wondering if you're not-shallow enough.
If school camp flying fox left you scarred for life, it's time to jump on a Taronga-bound ferry and start the healing process. Strung high above the ground in the zoo's wild bush lands is Wild Ropes, an adrenalin-pumping rope course. You'll climb, swing and soar from one challenge to the next, tiptoeing across bridges, scuttling through tunnels, scrambling up aerial rock walls and hanging out on a hoverboard. In between extraordinary feats, keep an eye out for koalas, kangaroos, emus and wallabies down below. And, when you're pausing to get your breath — and calm — back, check out the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from whole new, dizzying angles. All in all, there are four courses to conquer: two for scaredy cats and two for madmen. Once you've dominated the lot, you'll have smashed at least 40 obstacles. Not bad for a day at the zoo. If you've got little ones (or you've been asked to babysit your nieces and nephews over the holidays), you can now bring them with you. The adventure park has just launched two children's courses, which are appropriate for rugrats as young as three. To celebrate the launch of the new, mini courses — and just in time for the holidays — we're giving away a discount for all Monday to Friday bookings until December 16. Just use the code 'wildcp' at checkout to receive 20% off. (For the code to be valid, you'll need to make adult and junior bookings separately and only book up to four tickets.) Wild Ropes is open between 9.45am and 3.45pm, seven days a week, 364 days a year. Tickets start at $37 for adults and $20 for children, and we recommend booking online in advance. Things can get busy.
"Painting, like art, attempts to fill holes in hearts and minds wrought by life, work, politics and culture." Okay? So, yeah, the basis of this show is a bit, um, 'hol[e]y shit'. Forgive me for that, but honestly? A concept that presumes that painting has been "repeatedly killed by the middle of the 20th century" sounds a little bit risible. But this is actually a legit, serious issue given that it is striking at the basis of what painting is, is about, and might be for. The works in Extended Painting, by artists Tom Loveday, Mark Titmarsh, Sean Lowry, Mark Shorter and Andre Brodyk, collectively consider the act of painting itself by way of works of which some are paintings and some are not. The issues at stake are of the purpose and function of painting as techne rather than how a painting manifests a technique. What did Minimalism do to painting? What about Abstract Expressionism? How does appropriation as a thing change the status of the art object and how does the difference in the way we can represent and experience duration via newer media impact upon what it is to look at a painted work? Again: holey shit. Image: Tom Loveday, Video Stills "Polar Bear 002," 2011
To help slow and stop the spread of COVID-19, a number of hygiene measures are recommended. We all know them by now. They include frequently washing our hands and using hand sanitiser, maintaining 1.5-metre social distancing and staying home if you've experiencing even the slightest of symptoms. Wearing masks is another tactic, but the approach within Australia has varied state by state throughout the pandemic. They were first mandated in Melbourne back in mid-July, and were made compulsory in some indoor situations in Greater Sydney at the beginning of 2021. In Queensland, they'll be required for the three days that the Greater Brisbane area is in lockdown from Friday, January 6–Monday, January 11, in response to the first community case of the new, more contagious COVID-19 strain in the country. When it comes to flying, because social distancing can be difficult and you're sat in close quarters in a confined space with other people for a period of time, mask usage has long been recommended — but it'll now be mandatory, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced today, Friday, January 8. The new rule was adopted by the first Australian national cabinet meeting for 2021, alongside a number of other changes made in reaction to the new COVID-19 strain. The mask mandate applies to all domestic flights within the country, and to international flights to and from our shores as well. For domestic flights, only children under 12 won't have to don a face covering. Folks will have to wear masks for not only for the duration of their flights, but at airports as well, including airports overseas for those about to hop on flights to Australia. The rules cover international air crews, too, who will now be required to undergo a COVID-19 test in Australia every seven days or upon arrival, with the exact requirement to be determined by each state. Compulsory pre-flight testing for international travellers coming to Australia has also been adopted by the national cabinet, as part of "a set of improved measures to tighten the end-to-end process of international arrivals in Australia," said the Prime Minister. "Travellers to Australia must return a negative COVID-19 test result prior to departure to Australia," he advised; however, there "will be exemptions in extenuating circumstances. This could include for seasonal workers from amber-risk countries where there is limited access to testing, with mitigation of testing on arrival in Australia". Australia is reducing caps on international arrivals in some states as well — in New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland — by 50 percent until February 15. In NSW, a weekly cap of 1505 will be in place, while WA's will be 512 and Queensland's will be 500. Quarantine workers will also be subject to changed requirements, moving nationally to daily testing. National cabinet is taking an expansive view of the term 'quarantine worker', and the Prime Minister said that "states are encouraged to take as broad a definition of that as they can, as is done in many states — that would extend to transport workers for people going to quarantine, not just those who are the cleaners or others directly involved in that process, medical staff and so on." As for when this'll all come into effect, the Prime Minister advised that the changes will be implemented "over the course of the next week — and the compliance arrangements that sit around that will be put in place by the Commonwealth and the state governments". For more information about the status of COVID-19 in Australia, visit the Australian Government Department of Health website.
This Is Not Art is the dream that keeps us trudging through winter each year, looking towards that October long weekend when Newcastle transforms into some wild, uncontrollable and utterly miscellaneous beast of the arts. Except that, for a moment there, it looked like this year's festival wouldn't happen. In early July, with less than three months left until the festival, TINA were notified by Newcastle City Council that their triennial funding had been canned. This meant an $18 000 deficit in the budget: a nightmare for any small arts organisation. The event, which annually offers over two hundred and fifty free events, featuring the work of more than four hundred Australian artists, and typically attracting over five thousand participants, was in serious doubt. Thanks to an assertive campaign by Festival Coordinator Eliza Adam, this week TINA have confirmed that the show is back on the road. Phew! Incredibly, supporters of TINA raised a huge $8 750 over only two weeks. What's more, the Copyright Agency Limited jumped on board to offer a huge $9 000 and a Newcastle-based web company, Izilla Web Solutions, pledged $2 000. In the wake of popular outrage, Newcastle Council flipped to offer TINA increased financial support, plus additional provisions for planning and assistance into the future. This year's festival is once again looking good. Keen to see TINA be all it can be? You can still help! Donations are being accepted at TINA's Pozible site until 7 August - and let's face it, it's a small fee to pay for an amazing, five day festival that's already free. TINA is also heavily reliant on volunteers, and there's a huge range of things to be done which you can check out here.
If you live in Adelaide, you probably already think your city is the best place in Australia. For two days this spring, music fans across the country will share that view, too. Come November, the South Australian capital will play host to a brand-new — and huge — music festival called Harvest Rock, and it boasts one helluva lineup. Headlining the bill is Jack White, with The White Stripes frontman playing his only Australian show — and, at Rymill Park and King Rodney Park across Saturday, November 19–Sunday, November 20, he'll be joined by plenty of international talent. The Black Crowes, Khruangbin and Groove Armada are all on the roster, as are The Lumineers and Hot Chip. Yes, that's a lineup worth planning a weekend in Adelaide for. From the local contingent, Crowded House will bring a hefty dose of nostalgia — don't dream it's over indeed. The Avalanches sit among the other big drawcards, as do Courtney Barnett, You Am I and Tones And I. [caption id="attachment_865436" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mia Mala McDonald[/caption] Hailing from Secret Sounds, the crew behind Splendour in the Grass, Harvest Rock's two-day run will also place a big focus on the other part of its moniker: food. That'll include a dedicated stage for chef and bar stars to showcase their skills, a clear marquee serving up curated bites by chef Jake Kellie (arkhé, Burnt Ends), and a food truck park. Plus, the bar lineup is being curated by Australian wine critic Nick Stock, and features Archie Rose Distilling Co pouring spirits, wine tastings at a cellar door pop-up, a beer hall and a champagne bar. One watering hole will be a LGBTQI+ space, too, and there'll also be a booze-free bar for anyone keen on avoiding a post-fest hangover. HARVEST ROCK 2022 LINEUP: Jack White Crowded House The Black Crowes Khruangbin Groove Armada Sam Fender The Lumineers Tones And I The Avalanches Courtney Barnett Kurt Vile Angus & Julia Stone The Teskey Brothers Hot Chip Goanna Genesis Owusu The Living End Cat Power You Am I Meg Mac Marlon Williams Holy Holy Alex Cameron Ruby Fields Allen Stone Electric Fields TOWNS Slowmango Harvest Rock will take over Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka and King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina, Adelaide, on Saturday, November 19–Sunday, November 20, with tickets on sale from 9am AEST on Wednesday, August 24. Top image: Paige Sara.
We're understandably sceptical about most tech things that are promised to us. Australians are always the last to get blockbuster films and critically-acclaimed television shows, we're geo-blocked from most great things online, and we pay depressingly more than the rest of the world for all our tech and entertainment goodies. It's a tough hand we've been dealt; one so bad we've taken to just skirting the system completely and either sneakily paying for overseas services like Netflix or becoming all-out pirates. But here's some good news: it looks as though the latest streaming service being shoved in our faces won't completely suck. Joining the iffy selection of commercial Australian streaming services like Quickflix and Foxtel's Presto, Fairfax and Channel Nine's new venture looks like a winner. Launching in February 2015, it's been announced the service will offer on demand viewing with no ads and no contract, it will have a fixed fee of about $10 per month, and it'll be exclusively airing the much-anticipated Breaking Bad spin-off, Better Call Saul at the same time as the US. High fives all 'round, people. This is all every sneaky Australian Netflix user has ever wanted. In fact, to put some icing on the already spectacularly delicious cake, this new platform will also have all five seasons of Breaking Bad in its catalogue and will be revealing one more awesome show every week 'til its launch next year. If there's one thing that's holding it back, it's the name. Though it was previously referred to as StreamCo, today it was announced that this new platform will officially be called Stan. That's right, your new favourite late-night best bud/ultimate time waster will share a name with a melodramatic late '90s rap collaboration from Eminem and Dido. "[We wanted a name] that consumers could actually associate with and actually have a character with," said CEO Mike Sneesby. "Stan is not going to be a character in itself but a brand that will build its own character in being truly Australian." Regardless of that ridiculous logic, this is still a service we can get behind. Though details of the Australian Netflix launch have not yet been announced, at $10 a month Stan would actually be competitive with the US version of Netflix which Australians currently (somewhat dubiously) access for around $9. These price points are also well below the $29.99 fee Quickflix users fork over monthly. So really, it's not so bad. It's not so bad.
It's amazing what you can do with a butter cake mix, vienna cream icing and some lollies. Indeed, if you grew up in Australia or New Zealand in the past four decades, it's highly likely that you've eaten that above combination many a time. You probably also begged for it to be served in various creative shapes and configurations at all of your childhood birthday parties. And, even when you were months and months away from next blowing out your candles, we're guessing that you pored over pictures of cakes made using those ingredients for hours and hours, studiously planning which one you wanted next. Yes, we're talking about the cake recipes that line the pages of the best kids' book there is: The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. If you didn't live in a house with one of these beloved tomes on its shelves when you were young, then you turned mighty green-eyed with envy at your friends who did — and now this source of so many happy cake memories is turning 40. That's reason enough to bake a cake, naturally. If you need some help, The AWW is releasing a new hard-cover anniversary version of the classic text, too. From Monday, August 17, the limited-edition book will return to newsagents and supermarkets (and, from Tuesday, August 18, to bookstores as well), complete with over 50 of those recipes you loved and obsessed over way back when. [caption id="attachment_778934" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The original 1980 cover[/caption] That includes the famed train cake, which graces the book's cover as it always has for all these years. In case you didn't commit the entire recipe collection to memory when you were a kid, other highlights span the swimming pool cake filled with green jelly, as well as the duck cake with a beak of potato chips. Or, there's also the liquorice-heavy witch cake, plus the meringue-covered towering castle cake (and if you've ever been lucky enough to have someone spend hours making the latter for you, you'd remember it). Whether you're isolating or quarantining, or just spending more time at home cooking like everyone has been in 2020, consider that your next baking project — or several — taken care of. The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book 40th Anniversary edition hits newsagents and supermarkets from Monday, August 17 — and will be available in bookstores, too, from Tuesday, August 18.
Good news has been in short supply in 2020, so when something positive comes along, it's worth celebrating. In Victoria, after two tough periods of lockdown this year, the state has just hit an impressive milestone — with no active COVID-19 cases present. That figure comes as the state also hits 25 consecutive days without any new COVID-19 cases or deaths, which is obviously also fantastic news. To put those achievements in context, when Victoria announced on October 26 that it had zero new cases or deaths that day, it was the first time it had celebrated that feat since early June — and that mid-year news was the first time since the start of the pandemic. By mid-August, the states cases had climbed to 687. That was the peak of the second wave, thankfully, and since then, the numbers have slowly been decreasing. The Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services has sent out its daily Tweet with yesterday's numbers and it's what we all want to see: a big fat zero in all four crucial fields. So there are no new cases, no deaths, no active cases and no cases from an unknown source across the past fortnight, either. https://twitter.com/VicGovDHHS/status/1330996503817703430 Of course, this doesn't mean the war is over, but it is great to hear as Victoria continues to open back up. It's also the first time that cases have hit zero in the state since February. Today's zero new cases places Victoria's total at 20,345, which includes 19,525 people who have recovered from the coronavirus, as per the state's last reported numbers on Monday, November 23. So far, Victoria has conducted more than 3.5 million tests for COVID-19. While restrictions have been easing across the state, the Victorian Government has continued to encourage the state's residents to get tested and respect the rules. The last round of eased restrictions came into effect on midnight this past Sunday, with Victorians no longer required to wear masks outside (as long as you can maintain social distancing) and venue and gathering limits increasing. At-home gathering sizes are set to increase again on Sunday, December 13 — just in time for Christmas. The state has been slowly progressing through a five-step roadmap to COVID-normal since mid-September. For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the Department of Health and Human Services website — and for further details about Victoria's steps for reopening, head to the roadmap itself.
One of the many casualties of last year's pandemic fallout was Melbourne Museum's much-anticipated Treasures of the Natural World exhibition, which is set to feature a monumental collection of rare, ancient and fascinating artefacts curated by London's iconic Natural History Museum. The blockbuster installation was originally slated to make its debut Down Under in May 2020, but was instead postponed as COVID-19 restrictions swept in. Now, the wait is almost over, with news of a new opening date — Saturday, June 12. Come winter, Melbourne Museum will finally play host to this Australia exclusive, showcasing more than 200 groundbreaking items that have each helped change the course of scientific history. The exhibition is once-in-a-lifetime stuff, packed full of artworks, specimens and other objects that give insight into the mysteries of the natural world, and also mark the biggest moments in human discovery. Visitors will have the chance to see the 400,000-year-old hand axe that was discovered next to the bones of a woolly mammoth, check out the 200 million-year-old Ichthyosaurus fossil that Mary Anning unearthed at the tender age of eleven (as mentioned in the recent film Ammonite), and even explore some of the pieces from Charles Darwin's personal collection that were seminal to informing his theory of evolution. Among its many stories, the exhibition also has a strong focus on sharing First Peoples' narratives from across the globe, taking an important deep dive into the histories and relationships that Indigenous people have with the natural world. London's Natural History Museum is one of the world's top five most visited museums, and is renowned as a global leader in the areas of taxonomy and biodiversity. This is your chance to get up close and personal with some of its coolest scientific finds — all without having to wait for those international borders to reopen. Tickets that were purchased for the original dates of the Treasures of the Natural World exhibition automatically remain valid for the new run — you'll just need to show them at the Museum's ticketing desk. Treasures of the Natural World will launch at Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, from Saturday, June 12. To find out more and grab tickets, check out the website. Images: Queen Alexandra's Birdwing Butterfly, the Latrobe Nugget and the Cursed-Amethyst — all via Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.
In 2023, Queensland made history when it became the first Australian state to commit to pill-testing services not just ad hoc or at festivals, but on an ongoing and permanent basis. The Sunshine State's strategy is now being put into place, starting over 2024's Easter long weekend. Accordingly, festivalgoers at 2024's Rabbits Eat Lettuce will be able to use Queensland's first event-based pill testing service onsite. The aim, at fests and in general, is to ensure that Queenslanders heading for a night out and to big music events can check their illicit substances for dangerous ingredients — and do so for free, voluntarily and confidentially. The state-funded sites are being established as a harm-reduction strategy, to minimise overdoses and other adverse effects resulting from party drugs. Exactly where in southeast Queensland the permanent locations will pop up hasn't been revealed as yet, but there'll be two venues. As well as winning the tender for the initial pair of fixed-site spots, Queensland Injectors Health Network, The Loop Australia, and the Queensland Injectors Voice for Advocacy and Action will also provide at least one festival-based service this year. Harm Reduction Australia, which operates as Pill Testing Australia, will take care of several other pill-testing services at festivals in 2024 and 2025, capitalising upon its experience in Canberra at fests and at a fixed-site spot. Indeed, Queensland's move comes after trials in Canberra, which has included Groovin' the Moo in 2018 and 2019. The Australian Capital Territory also launched the country's first fixed testing site as part of a six-month trial. Drug checking has been used overseas since the 90s, but remains a controversial topic in Australia. Indeed, when Groovin the Moo conducted its first trial in 2018, calls to offer pill testing had been circulating for the prior two years, after a 15-year-old collapsed from an overdose at the fest's Maitland event in 2016. Rabbits Eat Lettuce, which takes place just outside of Warwick in Elbow Valley, experienced two deaths at its 2019 festival. "In 2021, there were 2231 drug-induced deaths in Australia — the equivalent of five deaths a day. That's 2231 deaths too many, and we know this number will continue to grow if we don't act now," said Queensland Minister for Health, Mental Health and Ambulance Service Shannon Fentiman. "I want to be clear that these services are all about harm minimisation; we don't want people ending up in our emergency departments — or worse, losing their life. They aim to make people aware of the dangers of taking illicit substances, influence behaviour and, ideally, reduce their use of substances," Fentiman continued. [caption id="attachment_809941" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dave Byrne[/caption] For more information about pill testing in Queensland, head to the Queensland Government website.
Perspective can be a tricky thing to find when you're deep into a second stretch of lockdown, dreaming about the small freedoms being enjoyed by the rest of the country. After all, Melbourne's currently up against some of the world's toughest COVID-19 restrictions, with the return to normality looking anything but speedy. But one local video production company has found a way to embrace all those uniquely Melbourne lockdown feels, and created a documentary based on the phases of our stage four plight. Titled Iso-Cray: A Story of Melbourne Locked Down, Monster & Bear's latest work hopes to kick-start some important discussions about how we're all coping — really — and what we can do to help others through this funky time. While the nightly news is focused on the bigger picture, this ten-minute video creation is celebrating the day-to-day reality, normalising the lockdown moods in the hopes of doing good things for Melbourne's mental health. Plus, it should give interstate mates a solid glimpse at what's really happening down south. The short flick documents everyday life through this latest bout of restrictions, sharing stories of creative resilience from real people in iso all across the city. The cross-section of folks on camera is diverse, but those iso-cray feelings are the same across the board. Basically, whatever you're going through, you sure ain't alone. "I think we all recognise this is a once in a 100-year event, and it's refreshing to see a city (and the broader state) giving each other permission to feel every kind of emotion on the spectrum," said Monster & Bear Creative Director Sarah Hickey in a statement. "We should all be able to share our feelings right now, and we shouldn't be ashamed of it." Tune in to see the kaleidoscope of emotions that is a bunch of real locals living their lockdown lives — from living room dance sessions to late-night musings and some good old-fashioned screaming. Iso-Cray: A Story of Melbourne Locked Down is available to watch in full now.
What could be better than small plates and cocktails on a Sunday arvo? Rum Cha Sundays have launched at Luis Tans. With two sittings at 12pm and 2pm every week, Venezuelan head chef Alejandro Franco Lancini is bringing you his South American flare in bite size dishes. Described as the "unforeseen love child of traditional Chinese yum cha and Latin American flavour", the menu is more tapas than yum cha. Beef dumplings ($10.50) smothered in chimichurri and black turtle beans sit on the menu next to carne mechada spring rolls ($13.50) of pulled beef and whipped guasacaca sauce. Since a lazy afternoon on Bondi's Campbell Parade isn't complete without summery cocktails, Luis Tans has you covered with a fruity list of Bloody Marys and rum cocktails. It's a Sunday session you won't mind getting stuck in for.
For much of his career, Ryan Gosling has perfected on-screen smouldering. He's the kind of actor who can utter few words and still convey everything, as movies such as Drive and Only God Forgives demonstrated so well. But Gosling is also exceptional at comedy, which Barbie reminded the world in 2023 with glorious ballad-crooning, beach-loving Kenergy. Next, cinema's baby goose is getting into action-comedy mode in the Sydney-shot The Fall Guy. Based on the 80s TV series of the same name, the film follows stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling), whose career isn't what it used to be. After taking time off, he's back at work getting set on fire for a living — but the fact that his ex Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer) is directing brings chaos. That's just the first dose of the movie's mayhem. Also complicating matters: that megastar actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bullet Train), who Seavers is meant to be doubling for in Moreno's flick, has gone missing. So, the stunt professional now has another task: work out what's going on by solving a conspiracy. If you're thinking "wasn't Gosling in the stunt game in Drive?", you're correct; however, The Fall Guy couldn't be in more different territory tonally. That said, when Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham tells Gosling "you're a stuntman — nobody's going to notice you, that's your job", in The Fall Guy's just-dropped first trailer, you'll already know that his casting means that's never going to prove true. As well as finding a missing actor, getting immersed in action intrigue to unravel a criminal plot, saving his latest movie and doing his regular job, Seavers is on a mission to win back Moreno — but IRL stuntman-turned-filmmaker David Leitch, who also helmed Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, puts stunts to the fore as much as rom-com banter in the initial sneak peek. Written by Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw scribe Drew Pearce, The Fall Guy co-stars Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar-nominee Stephanie Hsu, plus Winston Duke (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). Also a big feature in the trailer: its Sydney shooting location, including the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Everyone in Australia knows that Gosling was in the country to make the movie — and we all know that any flick shot here will show off that fact in its footage, as seen in the trailer for the also Sydney-made Anyone But You recently as well. On the small screen, The Fall Guy ran for 113 episodes from 1981–86, starring Lee Majors after his best-known role in The Six Million Dollar Man. Check out the trailer for The Fall Guy below: The Fall Guy releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, February 29, 2024.
The Red Rattler is hoping for an extra-special birthday present this May; after five years, the alternative arts space, currently facing an uncertain future, is looking to the community for support. 'The Rat' was founded in 2008 by a quintet of queer artists and activists dedicated to independent arts and grassroots activism. They "hocked everything that they could" to create a space that is not only accessible but also legal, and able to survive the market vicissitudes threatening so many live performance venues. All too often, Sydney's exorbitant rent levels get in the way of the arts underground. Two of the five original founders are now departing to take on other projects, so the Rat has decided to adopt a new model, which will see a shift towards becoming a collective-owned, self-sufficient entity. The catch is that this will only be achievable if the venue can find the $40,000 needed to purchase a 40 percent share in the warehouse that it calls home. Enter crowd funding. Audience members, artists and patrons are being asked to donate to the Rat's Pozible campaign, which, at the time of publication, ends in 46 days and has reached 50 percent of its goal. A failure to meet the target amount may mean closure. Given the growing list of venues that have kicked the bucket recently, losing the Rat would seem a rather tough blow. The space occupies a particularly important position, in terms of its focus on community. "The Red Rattler prides itself on accessibility in terms of both affordability and a non-discriminatory mode of operation," says Jamie Ferguson, a member of the volunteer advisory management committee. "[It] was set up as a space where racism, homophobia, transphobia and sexism are not welcome on stage, in the audience, at the door or at the bar. The Rat has and continues to be a space where everyone feels welcome and part of a family, and able to be oneself and also be experimental. There is no judgment, which is a great thing for artists, and performers who want to push boundaries or simply try new things." Anyone wanting to become part of the Save the Rat campaign can make a contribution or offer their services as a volunteer. They're also invited to the venue's fifth birthday celebrations, which will take the form of a fundraiser on Friday, May 3. The line-up includes DJs Seymour Butz and Adonis, Mojo Juju, Wife, Venus Vamp, and "loads of cake".
Deep-voiced Sydneysider Kirin J Callinan preludes a massive Europe tour with a few stops on local turf, i.e. a national tour. He and his '80s cricketer hairdo will be rocking Oxford Art Factory this Sunday, October 4 30. Callinan kicked of his music career as guitarist for Mercy Arms, before going solo with his own unique genre of chaos. His live shows have become infamous, with constant streams of stories from his gigs appearing online. In the words of Clash's Joe Zadah, "these unhinged and confessional sermons are made of savage riffs, self-deprecation and loop pedals." Between his hectic string of live gigs, he's made time to release his album Embracism (out now on XL/Terrible Records), perfect a flamboyant fashionably/unfashionable style and team up with Mark Ronson and Tame Impala as they covered 'I Sat by the Ocean' for Like a Version. Now, Callinan embraces his home city. His Sunday night show will be supported by Molly Lewis and Donny Benet.
While horror has traditionally been the realm of the silver screen, The Walking Dead and newcomer Hannibal have brought all the magnificent gore, thrills and frights of the genre into our homes and onto our televisions. Part cop drama, part serial killer thriller, NBC's Hannibal is a somewhat-prequel to Silence of the Lambs starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy (you can guess which one's the conniving, cannibalistic title character). Recently renewed for a second season, it investigates the lives of Will Graham, an FBI agent, and Hannibal Lecter, forensic psychiatrist. The story is based loosely on the material of Thomas Harris's horrific novel Red Dragon but adds a few grotesque twists along the way. The A.V. Club's Todd VanDerWerff described the series as "an intricately twisted serial-killer thriller, but it's also a surprisingly deep series about psychiatry and the state of the human mind", adding that it "had every reason to be a cheap cash-in and has, instead, turned into one of TV's best shows." The Walking Dead, meanwhile, is more out-and-out horror — and, at this point, one of the most well-known and loved TV shows on the planet. Zombies, backstabbing, amputations: totally gross, and totally excellent. About to start its fourth season, it's packed with scream-out-loud scares, and brings a "film-quality drama series about zombies" to life on television. Season three picked up the story three months after season two ended, with both factions of the main characters attempting to keep their lives together whilst, of course, fighting off the infected zombies. Hannibal: Season One and The Walking Dead: Season Three are released on DVD in Australia on September 25. Thanks to Hopscotch Films, we've got 10 prize packs including copies of both series to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au
Having dominated Australian dining for decades with the likes of Bondi's Icebergs Dining Room, Da Orazio and The Dolphin Hotel, restaurateur Maurice Terzini is now taking his talents to Asia. And his first stop is Seminyak, Bali, where his new restaurant Da Maria will be opening on Saturday, November 5. As the name suggests, the venue will be bringing a splash of Italy to the tropical Indonesian island. Roman architects Lazzarini Pickering took care of the design and, walking into the courtyard, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd landed on the Amalfi Coast. The cool whites and blues, bold shapes, fountains and feature ceiling are a contemporary take on 1960s aesthetics, including that of Giò Ponti's famous Sorrento hotel Parco dei Principi. "Da Maria is our portrait of Maurice Terzini in Bali," said Carl Pickering. "'Bali Style' wouldn't have worked for the ideas Maurice had for this restaurant." That said, there is evidence of Balinese influence in the rubber trees, cacti and passionfruit vines. Plus, you'll notice a dash of French fer forgé style in the tables and chairs. As far as the food goes, Terzini has gone for a modern take on simple, traditional Italian dishes. A cool 24 hours of fermentation goes into the pizza dough, which is made using Neapolitan techniques and cooked in lava stone ovens. You'll also find porchetta (whole pig) which has proved a big hit at Bondi's Da Orazio. Among the lighter dishes, there's asparagus with anchovy butter and parmesan, snapper crudo with tomato, chilli and marjoram, and octopus with overnight beans, red wine vinegar and parsley. If you're up for a long feast, then order 'La Panarda', which will get you a selection of sharing plates. "We are offering traditional Italian food, done correctly, in a modern environment without trying to reinvent the wheel," said chef Steven Skelly. "It's accessible, fresh and fun and we really enjoy cooking it." Meanwhile, in the Americano-influenced bar, expect Italian classics, like the Negroni and the Spritz, as well as house-made liqueurs, including vermouth, and a contemporary wine list. As at any Terzini establishment, special events will pepper the calendar, to be curated with help from Motel Mexicola's Adrian Reed. DJs will be popping in every night from 10.30pm onwards and, before then, you'll be kicking back to playlists put together by Sydney DJ Kali (Picnic). Last but not least, there's an onsite boutique, Da Maria Shop by Ten Pieces. Ten Pieces is Terzini's fashion label, launched in partnership with Lucy Hinkfuss in 2011. Find Da Maria at Jalan Pettinenget 170 Badung, Bali, Indonesia, open daily from 5pm–2am and on Sunday for brunch from 11am–3pm.
The last thing any Australian wants this summer is to spend more time indoors, but it looks like the weather has other plans. It already appears that most of the east coast will see out spring with rain and clouds, and they're not the only wet conditions in much of the country's immediate future — with the Bureau of Meteorology's declaring that a La Niña weather event has developed in the Pacific Ocean. When the weather phenomenon hits Australia, it usually means soggier times — and that's what BOM is forecasting for eastern, northern and central parts of the country. And, cooler temperatures, too, so perhaps this won't be the hot vax summer we'd all been hoping for. (Obviously, exactly what constitutes 'cooler' needs to be put in context of Australia's usually toasty summer weather; we aren't quite in for frosty conditions.) In a statement, Bureau's Head of Operational Climate Services Dr Andrew Watkins explained that La Niña "increases the chance of cooler than average daytime temperatures for large parts of Australia and can increase the number of tropical cyclones that form." And, in a revelation that won't surprise anyone who's had a wet week or so — Sydney and Brisbane have both seen rain — Dr Watkins advises that "La Niña is also associated with earlier first rains of the northern wet season, as we've observed across much of tropical Australia this year." The Bureau has declared that a #LaNiña has developed in the tropical Pacific. Typically during La Niña, there is above average rainfall for eastern, northern and central parts of Australia. pic.twitter.com/4KJeKsVI6A — Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) November 23, 2021 Australia last experienced La Niña last spring and summer, so we're getting back-to-back stints of sodden weather; however, that's not out of the ordinary. "Around half of all past events returning for a second year," Dr Watkins said. In good news, the 2021–22 La Niña might have a weaker effect locally than last year's event — and definitely isn't predicted to be as strong as the weather phenomenon proved between 2010–12. Having an umbrella handy is clearly smart advice over not just the coming days — with showers, rain and/or storms forecast for all Aussie capitals except Perth — but for the summer ahead. It's smart Aussie summer advice in general anyway, but particularly so this year. La Niña forms part of a naturally occurring shift in ocean temperatures and weather patterns along the equator in the Pacific Ocean — a cycle known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). When it occurs, waters in the central or eastern tropical parts of the Pacific become cooler than normal, and persistent southeast to northwesterly winds get stronger in the Pacific's tropical and equatorial regions. Also, clouds shift to the west — so, closer to Australia. For more information about the Bureau of Meteorology's La Nina declaration, head to the BOM website.
If you're looking to shop locally for your swimwear this summer, look no further than Active Truth, which is offering 20 percent off its Australian-made, sustainable swimsuits. Plus, you'll receive free express shipping, so even though we're already one week into February, you'll have your new swimsuit at your doorstep before summer ends. Active Truth is accessible to beachgoers of all shapes and sizes, with a wide range of swimwear from XS to 3XL. The brand is also committed to sustainability, supporting the Healthy Seas initiative and making its swimwear from reconstructed recycled fibres, such as discarded fishing nets. If you're keen to snag some new togs, have a look through the catalogue of one and two-piece swimsuits and order before the sale ends on Tuesday, February 9. 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.
Stepping back to its titular year, 1985 is filled with signs of its time — from Walkmans playing Madonna, to bars pulsating with synth, to fashion choices that couldn't come from any other period. And yet, for all of the exacting music choices, production design decisions and costuming touches, it's the film's cinematography that grounds it so firmly in the past. With director of photography Hutch shooting on grainy 16mm, Yen Tan's third stint as a director feels like it was made in the era it depicts, then subsequently unearthed now. That couldn't be a higher compliment. This is how many low-budget movies looked three decades ago, with 1985 not only meticulously recreating the same aesthetic, but quietly nodding to the wealth of queer cinema that came before it. Framed with precision, those speckled monochrome images serve another purpose, too. A film's style can say as much as its story, which is never in doubt here. 1985's black-and-white visuals overflow not only with visible texture, but with meaning and emotion — as seen in its loaded shadows, inky contrasts and jittery flecks. How better to convey a world where so much is left unsaid than to cloak it in grey? How better to express existential turmoil than to strand its protagonist between light and dark? And how better to show someone striving to soak in every last detail than to make each grain jostle for attention? Every inch of 1985 looks and feels as it should — like Adrian Lester (Cory Michael Smith) has returned to his Texan hometown at the height of Reagan's America not just for Christmas, but with much more serious matters on his mind. The 20-something hasn't been back to Fort Worth since he left for New York, where he can express his sexuality openly, and his family haven't forgiven his absence. While Adrian's homemaker mother Eileen (Virginia Madsen) understands more than she'll ever utter, his Vietnam veteran father Dale (Michael Chiklis) openly seethes with hurt and hostility, and his pre-teen younger brother Andrew (Aidan Langford) clearly wishes he'd had a role model over the past few years. Awkward is one way to characterise this stilted reunion; caught between the conservative religious rhetoric spouted by the Lesters' favourite radio station and the reality of Adrian's new life is another. Conceiving the narrative with co-editor Hutch, but penning the screenplay solo, Tan treads delicately around the obvious. Given that his protagonist is a gay man in the mid-80s, and that a climate of fear is evident from the outset, it's hardly surprising that AIDS leaves an imprint on this tale. Given the historical context, it's not difficult to guess where the film is headed either, however the movie's slow reveal is as much about reflecting Adrian's experience as it is about both storytelling and chronicling a pivotal period in the past. When a person is faced with tragedy, their perspective changes forever, and yet the minutiae of everyday life cruelly and relentlessly goes on. 1985's power and poignancy stems from this fundamental truth, as Adrian goes home, sleeps in his childhood bed, spends time with his family and hangs out with his high-school girlfriend (Jamie Chung), all while knowing what no one else does: although he steadfastly wishes otherwise, nothing can ever really be the same again. In taking such an internalised journey — even one so astutely made tangible via stylistic flourishes — 1985 is fond of lingering in certain moments. This patient approach is noticeable, even in such a concise 85-minute movie, but it also has another function. As led by Gotham's Smith and ably supported by Madsen, Chiklis, Langford and Chung, this is a film anchored by exceptional performances that live and breathe when they're given the room to do just that. (Often, visually, Tan literally gives them space by peering at his actors in long and medium shots.) What comes to the fore, too, is the complexity of these characters, who never adhere to one-note archetypes despite initially appearing otherwise. That's another essential truth that 1985 conveys perfectly: no matter how transparent a person's facade may seem, you can never truly know just how they're afflicted by pain and heartbreak underneath. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5LfaKTKoI
This year, as we are wont to do, we ate a lot of meals. We ate mussels and Mexican in Sydney, sushi and salted caramel in Melbourne and fried chicken and Frankenstein foods in Brisbane, as well as some excellent meals on our travels. But, when it comes down to it, at the end of 12 months of noshing, there are only a few truly memorable meals that spring to mind immediately — the ones that were so good, we gushed about them for the next three weeks and nagged our partners/colleagues/friends to return with us ASAP. Here are the dishes burned into our taste memory — if their respective eateries still list them on the menu, book a table immediately. ROUGAMO (CHINESE BURGER) AT XI'AN BIANG BIANG, SYDNEY What if I told you one of Sydney's most memorable burger experiences can be found at a Chinese restaurant in Haymarket? That's right, this year Xi'an Biang Biang introduced us to 'rougamo', aka the world's oldest 'hamburger'. Originating in the Shaanxi province of China, this ancient meat sanga is made from a flaky pastry pocket stuffed with juicy pork shreds. It's soft. It's crunchy. It's everything. Expect warm fatty juices to run down your arm and awkward stares from strangers when you go to lick it off. Let's just say, we can see why it caught on. — Erina Starkey, Sydney food and drink reviewer KANGAROO AND CROCODILE, CALYPSO DREAMS AT MOMOFUKU SEIBO, SYDNEY Puffed kangaroo tendon and crocodile soup aren't things you'll usually see at Seiobo. But neither is Jock Zonfrillo. The native-ingredient wizard, from Adelaide's Orana, helmed the kitchen alongside head chef Paul Carmichael for one night in October, dishing up creative Caribbean dishes with Australian twists. The night began with the above — the broth was rich, the puffed tendon light and tangy — and ended with a dessert of buttermilk and eucalyptus. If you see this elusive pair on a lineup together anytime in the future, I recommend you make a reservation, tout de suite. — Samantha Teague, editorial manager A post shared by Marco Fanuli (@marco_fanuli) on Sep 24, 2017 at 12:41am PDT TEA SANDWICH AT AFRICOLA, ADELAIDE I had dreams about this sandwich on the night after I first tried it. It's a simple yet exceedingly delicious creation: crispy roasted chicken skin on crustless white bread with flat-leaf parsley and a generous lick of chilli mayonnaise. Served with a dish of hot drippings from Africola's signature peri peri chicken (usually spiked with Bourbon if chef Duncan Welgemoed is lingering behind the bar), no less. It's the ultimate hangover cure, which they need to start packaging up and shipping around the country. — Samantha Payne, Sydney contributor WAFFLE-COATED SATED CARAMEL ICE CREAM AT ANNAM, MELBOURNE Salted caramel remained as popular as ever this year and new Vietnamese restaurant Annam was all over it. When I visited in November I revelled in a glorious six courses finished with an an epic waffle and coconut-battered deep-fried ice cream, drizzled in salted caramel sauce. Achieving that moreish balance between salty and sweet this was the perfect way to finish the feast — the modern twist on a Chinese restaurant favourite has easily been one of my fave dishes of 2017. — Ashleigh Whitehill, Melbourne contributor A post shared by Samantha Teague (@teaguese) on Oct 23, 2017 at 4:33am PDT SCALLOP, HAM AND PEAS AT SASAKI, SYDNEY This is what happens when Yu Sasaki recreates pea and ham soup. The head chef and owner of our best new Sydney restaurant of 2017 used prosciutto jelly, scallops and pea shoots to create an Instagram-friendly, edible yin yang symbol that transported its eaters to snotty childhood winters. The restaurant's menu changes frequently, so this is no longer on offer, but there are many other next-level dishes — like the Japanese Madeleines — to enjoy. — Samantha Teague CHICKEN PARMA SPRING ROLLS AT LITTLE BIG HOUSE, BRISBANE Of all of the culinary hybrids cooked up by foodie Dr Frankensteins, Little Big House's might be the most unexpected: chicken parma spring rolls. They're also one of the tastiest, from the oh-so-crispy pastry to the succulent sauced-filled filling. And to think we've all been eating them separately for all of these years. — Sarah Ward, weekend editor KINGFISH SAN CHOY BAU AT ESTER, SYDNEY Most Ester regulars will be familiar with its famed kingfish and mandarin dish, but if you're lucky enough to see kingfish san choy bau on the menu, order it immediately. A recurring special on the menu, the Ester team basically pick the flesh off the roasted kingfish head (which would have gone into the bin otherwise) and then roll it up in a lettuce head with mint, cress and delicious spicy sambals. — Tahlia Phillips, business director A post shared by Jamie // JamJam (@jamjam.li) on Dec 9, 2017 at 6:32pm PST SMOKED MUSSELS AT DEAR SAINTE ÉLOISE, SYDNEY As overall winner of Concrete Playground's best new Sydney bar of 2017, it's no surprise I indulged in one of my favourite meals sitting at the long copper bar of Dear Sainte Eloise. The dish that, for me, carries the succinct menu selection is the smoked mussels on toast ($14). Like bruschetta from the sea, the briny broth is slurpable and the mussels are plump and succulent. The combination of crunchy carrots and fresh parsley with the shellfish is supremely well-balanced — much like Dear Sainte Éloise itself. Pair it with a expertly recommended glass of white from the extensive 350 plus wine list and you'll know exactly why this laneway spot has quickly secured a place in sydney food-loving hearts. — Marissa Ciampi, Sydney contributor PORK BELLY SALAD AT AGRARIAN KITCHEN, HOBART They say you don't win friends with salad but when the salad in question has chargrilled pork belly and a perfectly poached egg, which, when broken, runs through the freshest mixed leaves I've ever eaten, you might want to rethink that statement. Everything the Agrarian Kitchen uses on their menu comes from their on-site garden and farm giving the food this incredible energy and life to it. A must-visit if you're in Tassie. — Samantha Payne HUITLACOCHE AT CHULA, SYDNEY Fungus fans, this one's for you. Potts Point eatery Chula is dishing up a superb "Mexican pizza" called the tlayuda de huitlacoche. This intriguing dish sees a crispy tortilla base topped with refried beans, Oaxacan cheese and blistery black clumps of corn smut (yep, smut). Both a disease and a delicacy, this unusual Mexican ingredient reveals pungent earthy flavours with a funky kick of blue cheesiness. If you like truffle, you need to give huitlacoche a try. — Erina Starkey PANI PURI AT TONKA, MELBOURNE By no means a new dish, but my first pani puri experience — and it delivered becoming something I continued to chase throughout 2017. Tonka's fragrant, slightly warm aromatic water is addictive poured into those crispy parcels filled with potato, mung bean, tamarind chutney and dates. — Quinn Connors, partnerships editor A post shared by Lauren Vadnjal (@lrnvdnl) on Mar 1, 2017 at 4:06pm PST GLUTEN-FREE LAMB RAGU PAPPARDELLE AT KINDRED, SYDNEY Back when I was diagnosed as coeliac in the early 2000s I used to eat rice cakes and tiny pieces of toasted gluten-free bread and think that this was my life now. Slowly, it got better; restaurants started to bring in sans-gluten supermarket spaghetti as an alternative and stopped serving burgers in lettuce cups (mostly), but we still hadn't hit the gluten-free golden age. So I personally don't think it was overdramatic to shed a tear when this bowl of pappardelle was placed in front of me at Kindred — not only was it GF, but the Cleveland Street restaurant makes it fresh in-house, just the same as its regular pastas and breads. It was a special pasta moment and I have returned to Kindred multiple times to relive it. — Lauren Vadnjal, deputy editor PORK BELLY CONGEE AT EITHER OR, SYDNEY Well thought out in design, drinks and food, Either Or serves a menu of Asian-inspired breakfast favourites. The pork belly adobo congee is a clear winner, featuring umami flavours and served with mushrooms, micro greens and a poached egg on top. — Quinn Connors A post shared by Vicky Hanlon (@vicsta.gram) on Dec 22, 2017 at 5:11pm PST CHOCOLATE SOUR CREAM LAYER CAKE AT BEATRIX, MELBOURNE When things get tough, eat cake. The best way to eat a takeaway slice of Nat Paull's infamous Beatrix chocolate sour cream layer cake is straight out of the box on the walk back to North Melbourne Station. It's an old favourite of mine that never, ever disappoints — the buttercream frosting is cloud-like in texture and moreish at the same time, while the dried raspberry crumble on top finishes off with a sharp, sweet aftertaste. — Nathania Gilson, Melbourne contributor VEGAN PATATE PIZZA AT GIGI'S, SYDNEY While Sydney's New York-style pizza scene is somewhat dwindling, rising from the ashes of the woodfire is a healthy crop of simpler pizza restaurants using fewer (but better) ingredients. Newtown's Gigi's has gone one step further and is making fully vegan Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana-certified pizzas in traditional Neapolitan style. Physical restraints would be required to hold me back from finishing the patate pizza with thin-sliced roasted potato, garlic, rosemary and black truffle pâté. Pair it with a natural wine and Gigi's rocket, radicchio, apple, pistachio and cinnamon salad. Plus, you can feel good about supporting the plant based ethical eating movement over pizza and wine. — Kitti Smallbone, Sydney photographer
In an attempt to boost audiences, an independent theatre in Barcelona has introduced Pay As You Go to the comedy circuit. Rather than risking an advance ticket purchase and (for better or worse) taking the show as it comes, you're charged per laugh. That's right, the sorer your face muscles are when the curtain falls, the bigger your bill. The scheme is a response to plummeting theatre attendance. Mid-last year, Spain's arts scene took one of its hardest hits ever when the government increased the tax on drama performances from 8% to 21%. Consequently, ticket sales dropped by a whopping 30% in just twelve months. Rather than surrendering to despair or closing down altogether, Teatreneu, which boasts eight stages, looked for solutions. That's when they teamed up with ad agency the Cyranos McCann to invent 'Pay Per Laugh'. Facial recognition technology, attached to each seat, records every smile or laugh — and you pay €0.30 per expression recorded. If you're in a bad mood, hard to impress or incredibly self-controlled, you walk away with your bank account intact. If, however, you’re more easily amused, you're charged up to a maximum of €24. The new scheme is truly great news for the performers. According to the promo video, the initiative saw most spectators pay €6 more than they normally would, and led to a 35% increase in crowds. They're contemplating expanding their emotional palette to include dramatic theatre 'Pay Per Cry' fees and our favourite idea, 'Pay Per WTF' — naturally, for performance art. Via Springwise.
There are a few theories floating around about alt-pop Sydney singer-songwriter Andy Bull. The first (now proven) is that the shorter his hair gets, the more attractive he becomes. The man truly is a sort of mythical anti-Samson. The second is this: the reason Andy Bull hasn't become a household name in Australia has less to do with Andy Bull and more to do with the inhabitants of Australian households. You see, we don't quite know what to do with him. He's not shiny enough for our pop tastes; he's not weird enough for our alternative tastes. He's a little Regina Spektor/Ben Folds, but he's also just a little Justin Timberlake. The man refuses to be pigeonholed. But international superstars have ridden the Bull and concluded that it is an experience to be had. Music critics have done the same. He's been invited on the road with the likes of Joss Stone, Tim Finn and Duffy. When he wasn't busy touring with international superstars, he was releasing killer singles like 'Small Town Girl' and 'Young Man'. Then, upon dropping his debut album, We're Too Young, in 2009, Bull was showered with a Cyclone Zane of critical acclaim — including a 4-star review from Rolling Stone. Your chance comes on June 8. After 18 months off the road, Andy Bull returns to promote his newest Triple-J-dominating single, 'Keep on Running'. https://youtube.com/watch?v=JSGUxRWR_r8
It has been less than a week since NSW Health advised that a new locally acquired coronavirus case had been identified in Sydney's eastern suburbs — and, over the past few days, the state's response has rolled out as expected. Mask rules changed, with covering your face now required on public transport and in indoor public settings. Folks in the city's east have been asked to avoid any non-essential social gatherings. And, as always happens, the list of places visited by people who've since tested positive to COVID-19 continues to grow. You know the drill from here, because naming locations and venues that positive coronavirus cases have visited is key element of NSW's containment strategy, and has been for months. The list has been growing swiftly in recent days, with 106 places currently named at the time of writing — including a number of big and notable sites. IKEA has popped up on exposure site lists a few times during the pandemic, and it has again now, with a case visiting IKEA Tempe from 10.15am–12pm on Wednesday, June 16. If you were there at the same time, you'll need to get tested and then self-isolate until you receive a negative result. Another sizeable venue: Central Station, which pops up on six of the seven public transport routes included in the current rundown. NSW Health specifically calls out the train routes rather than the station, but if you caught trains that arrived or departed on platforms 17, 21, 23, 24 and 25 on Tuesday, June 15, you'll want to check the list — as you might need to get tested and then self-isolate until you receive a negative result. The list of places considered close contact sites has 25 entries at present, too, so if you've been in Barangaroo, Bondi Junction, Drummoyne, Fairy Meadow, Newtown, North Ryde, Northmead, Redfern, Shellharbour, the CBD, Tempe and Vaucluse, you'll want to check it out — especially given that NSW authorities keep stressing that transmission has been happening via fleeting contact. Cafes and shops feature prominently on the list, because we now live in a world where grabbing a coffee or going to Myer might mean that you have to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days. https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1406501732000026629 As it has throughout the pandemic, NSW Health is maintaining an ongoing register of locations that have been visited by positive COVID-19 cases — you can check out the entire list on its website. And, if you need a reminder, the symptoms to look out for are coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste. You can find a rundown of testing clinic locations online as well. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. Top image: Westfield Bondi Junction via Google Maps.
UPDATE April 28, 2023: Moonage Daydream is available to stream via Netflix, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video Ground control to major masterpiece: Moonage Daydream, Brett Morgen's kaleidoscopic collage-style documentary about the one and only David Bowie, really makes the grade. Its protein pills? A dazzling dream of archival materials, each piece as essential and energising as the next, woven into an electrifying experience that eclipses the standard music doco format. Its helmet? The soothing-yet-mischievous tones of Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane/The Thin White Duke/Jareth the Goblin King himself, the only protective presence a film about Bowie could and should ever need and want. The songs that bop through viewers heads? An immense playlist covering the obvious — early hit 'Space Oddity', the hooky glam-rock titular track, Berlin-penned anthem 'Heroes', the seductive 80s sounds of 'Let's Dance' and the Pet Shop Boys-remixed 90s industrial gem 'Hallo Spaceboy', to name a few — as well as deeper cuts. The end result? Floating through a cinematic reverie in a most spectacular way. When Bowie came to fame in the 60s, then kept reinventing himself from the 70s until his gone-too-soon death in 2016, the stars did look very different — he did, constantly. How do you capture that persistent shapeshifting, gender-bending, personal and creative experimentation, and all-round boundary-pushing in a single feature? How do you distill a chameleonic icon and musical pioneer into any one piece of art, even a movie that cherishes each of its 135 minutes? In the first film officially sanctioned by Bowie's family and estate, Morgen knows what everyone that's fallen under the legend's spell knows: that the man born David Jones, who'd be 75 as this doco hits screens if he was still alive, can, must and always has spoken for himself. The task, then, is the same as the director had with the also-excellent Cobain: Montage of Heck and Jane Goodall-focused Jane: getting to the essence of his subject and conveying what made him such a wonder by using the figure himself as a template. Nothing about Bowie earns an easy description. Nothing about Bowie, other than his stardom, brilliance and impact, sat or even stood still for too long. Driven by themes and moods rather than a linear birth-to-death chronology, Moonage Daydream leaps forward with that same drive to ch-ch-change, the same yearning to keep playing and unpacking, and the same quest for artistry as well. Taking its aesthetic approach from its centre of attention means peppering in psychedelic pops, bursts of colour, neon hues, and mirrored and tiled images — because it really means making a movie that washes over all who behold its dance, magic, dance. That's the reaction that Bowie always sparked, enchanting and entrancing for more than half a century. In successfully aping that feat, Morgen's film is as immersive as an art installation. Exhibition David Bowie Is has already toured the world, including a 2015 stint Down Under in Melbourne; Moonage Daydream sits partway between that and a Bowie concert. This gift of sound and vision is as glorious as that gig-meets-art concept sounds — and yes, live footage beams and gleams throughout the documentary. Among the snippets of interviews, smattering of music videos, melange of clips from cinema touchstones that reverberate on Bowie's wavelength in one way or another, and scenes from his own acting career on-screen and onstage, how could it not? During his five years, fittingly, spent making Moonage Daydream, Morgen had access to the original concert masters, from which he spliced together his own mixes using alternative angles. Zooming back to the androgynous space-alien Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tour is exhilarating, including when the feature's eponymous song explodes. Jumps to the 90s, to the Outside and Earthling tours, resonate with awe of a more grounded but no less vibrant kind. The Serious Moonlight segments, hailing from the 80s and all about pale suits and glistening blonde hair, see Bowie relaxing into entertainer mode — and, amid discussions about his wariness about making upbeat tunes, mastering that like everything else. When Bowie takes to the stage in Moonage Daydream, it plays as a concert film, in fact, even if there's always a new vintage chat with the man himself, compilation of movie images or video from one of his singles to swiftly follow in this musical mashup. The entire viewing experience is designed to feel like an event and a show; seeing it on the biggest possible screen, and sitting close enough to it so that all that's in front of you is that Bowie-adorned screen, is heartily recommended. Enlisting Bowie's longtime producer Tony Visconti, Moonage Daydream has the sound, not just the soundtrack, to both match and evoke that like-you're-there sensation. (Or, to make its audience feel like Bowie's here in the cinema in front of you.) Those tunes have also been remastered, aided by audio engineer Paul Massey (an Oscar-winner for Bohemian Rhapsody), and they're given the thunderous volume they deserve. Mesmerising fans comes easily in this Bowie mosaic's frames and tunes, with the doco edited as well as written and directed by Morgen; freak out in a Moonage Daydream indeed. For the casually interested, the film uses its style as part of its substance, and as an immersion technique — a tactic that Baz Luhrmann's Elvis also used in a just-as-vivid and expressively stitched-together manner. Understanding by feeling: that's the 2022 wave of modern music icon love for viewers to fall for, although Moonage Daydream and Elvis are clearly different features. The pair's subjects can be heroes, and that's a fact, and their directors want viewers to absorb why beyond merely being told. Among the time-defying jumps backwards and forwards throughout his life — channelling his always-futuristic air — Bowie's narration isn't about singing his own praises, instead flowing with insights into his processes, loves and challenges, and why he kept seeking the new and the bold. Hearing it as the movie's music and visuals work their magic is as revelatory as it's meant to be. Get your 'lectric eye on this and you'll slide through a multi-sensory ode — a multimedia extravaganza — that also includes looks at the Starman's paintings, which he was cautious about unveiling to the world; hops from the Brixton of his birth to his Los Angeles stint, and to his Berlin period and his tours through Asia; and buzzes with delighted-to-the-point-of-anxiety 70s-era crowds. Naturally, a refusal to be easily pinned down, to stop pushing itself and stop transforming also echoes, again paralleling Bowie himself. Morgen teases one song then layers in another, or sets up a segue but veers elsewhere: he is the propulsive documentary's DJ and he loves being playful. Every choice and surprise chimes with the utter Bowieness of it all, and how indefinable Bowie was and still is. Moonage Daydream is noticeably light on his last few decades, and on the reasons he stopped unleashing his inimitable presence upon stages, but perhaps that's another movie's job; this one is wondrous and wonderful anyway.
It might be hard to imagine how Australia's contentious immigration and asylum seeker policies could be fodder for comedy, but Tom Ballard has somehow managed to produce a 'comedy lecture' that is at once moving, thought-provoking, and piss-your-pants funny. The award-winning comedian's latest show Boundless Plains to Share (which takes its title from that oft-forgotten line in our national anthem) tackles the history, inhumanity, and hypocrisy of Australia's immigration policies. It's that rare kind of performance that will leave you both furious and introspective, and also belly-sore from all the laughter. This is one comedy event you definitely don't want to miss.
Video games and drinking have long been buddies. Drinking and art have a healthy relationship. Now, thanks to Sydney based pop-up art gallery, fiftyone, these three tasty aspects of culture can now buy a house in the 'burbs, raise kids and happily grow old together. Bring on GAME OVER. Taking place at Cremorne's art-loving Bread and Butter cafe on June 12, GAME OVER is one night of video game-themed fun, with art and drinks thrown in for good measure. Local artists Robby Williams (no relation, but will indeed entertain you), Phil Marsden and Rohan Cain will be exhibiting and selling their latest pieces and prints. Then there’s the epic Mario Kart tournament on the big screen, bound to separate the Bowsers from the Toads. The whole idea behind fiftyone is to provide young artists a platform to exhibit, as well as bringing art to the after-hours crowd. Proudly continuing the philosophy, GAME OVER promises to do just that. With free entry, live music, art, booze and video games all thrown under one roof, it’ll be nothing short of a KO. Nothing left but to finish him.
Smirnoff takes on a Brazilian spirit speciality with the introduction of a new flavour of vodka, Caipiroska. The Caipiroska mixed drink is typically made by combining vodka with lime wedges and sugar, but Smirnoff has created three different versions of the sweet liquor: lime, mango and passion fruit. The unique flavours deserved to be encased in something more exceptional than the average glass bottles, so Smirnoff wrapped them up in style. The promotional bottles of Smirnoff Caipiroska come in colourful skins that can be peeled off like the fruits they represent. The opaque skins conceal the traditional Smirnoff packaging and give consumers an idea of just how fruity the new concoction is. If you think your taste buds can handle the tangy twist of the Caipiroska mixed drink, here are the simple ingredients: 35 ML Smirnoff vodka, 1/2 lime cut into wedges, 2 small spoons of brown sugar, and 15 ML simple sugar. Enjoy! [via Comunicadores]
The National Gallery of Victoria is wrapping up this wild year in style, hosting the blockbuster second edition of its much-hyped NGV Triennial. Taking over the gallery from Saturday, December 19, the exhibition looks set to be the biggest art event to hit the city in three years, featuring works from over 100 artists, representing 30 different countries. Among them, you can expect a diverse response to this year's themes of illumination, reflection, conservation and speculation. With a lineup like this — and many months of missed art appreciation to make up for — it's hard to know where to even start. But we're here to help. We've delved into the program and pulled out five must-see artworks set to grace the gallery's hallowed spaces this summer. Start plotting your post-lockdown art gallery debut now, with this roundup of five captivating artworks to check out at the NGV Triennial. [caption id="attachment_795343" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dhambit Mununggurr, 'Can we all have a happy life' 2019-20, courtesy Salon Indigenous Art Project. Installation view at NGV International, photographed by Sean Fennessy.[/caption] DHAMBIT MUNUNGURR: CAN WE ALL HAVE A HAPPY LIFE If you've got a thing for hues of blue, this immersive work from Yolnu artist Dhambit Munungurr will surely resonate. While artists from her home of Yirrkala (Northeast Arnhem Land) traditionally paint using hand-ground ochres and other natural pigments, Munungurr was granted special permission to switch to acrylic paints after a 2005 car accident left her with ongoing injuries. She's since developed a special love for the colour blue and as such, her recent works have left a significant mark on Yolnu art as a whole. This NGV installation Can we all have a happy life (2019–2020) is the latest to embrace the artist's go-to colour palette, featuring a vibrant series of 15 bark paintings and nine larrakitj (hollow poles). [caption id="attachment_795344" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cerith Wyn Evans, 'C=O=D=A' 2019–20, courtesy White Cube, London. Installation view at NGV International, photographed by Tom Ross.[/caption] CERITH WYN EVANS: C=O=D=A Big and bold is the name of the game for Cerith Wyn Evans' latest work, titled C=O=D=A (2019–20). The London-based artist has created a large-scale, neck-tilting celebration of light and movement, with his series of neon 'drawings' suspended brightly together in mid-air. Among them, you'll spy frantic scribbles, carefully structured shapes and even doodles referencing chemical compounds, each design experienced in countless new ways from different angles as audiences move around the installation. The full display towers at up to six metres high, challenging viewers to continually switch their perspective as they explore how each shape interacts with the next. [caption id="attachment_795349" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Atong Atem, 'Studio series' 2015, courtesy MARS Gallery, Melbourne. Installation view at NGV International, photographed by Tom Ross.[/caption] ATONG ATEM Atong Atem serves up some fresh cultural perspectives with her series of early photography works offering a vibrant exploration of identity. Born in Ethiopia in the 90s and now based in Melbourne, the artist has developed her body of work honing in on migrant stories and post-colonial practices in the African diaspora. For this portrait project she gives a nod to the old-school studio photography practices of her homeland, via a collection of staged shots dripping with colour. The vintage-inspired images are heady and impactful, featuring a festival of patterns and hues delivered through props, backgrounds, textiles and garments. [caption id="attachment_795351" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stuart Haygarth, 'Optical (tinted)' 2009 (foreground), Mark Rothko, 'Untitled (Red)' 1956 (left) and Sabine Marcelis 'Dawn XXXIII' designed 2015. Installation view at NGV International, photographed by Sean Fennessy.[/caption] STUART HAYGARTH: OPTICAL (TINTED) A collection of over 4500 recycled tinted prescription spectacle lenses are the unlikely heroes of this stunning piece by British artist Stuart Haygarth. Optical (tinted) (2009) speaks to ideas of consumption, time and loss, as a thing of beauty is hatched from a bunch of discarded objects. Best known for his work repurposing everyday items into unexpected lighting installations, Haygarth here puts together a layered, shimmering sphere of used lenses. The intricate work features a careful assembly of elements, with cloudier lenses at the core making way for clearer glass pieces towards the outer edges. It's then lit from within, creating a sort of dazzling disco ball that'll have you reassessing your thoughts about waste and trash. [caption id="attachment_795355" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Porky Hefer, 'Plastocene – Marine Mutants from a disposable world' 2020, courtesy Southern Guild, Cape Town. Installation view at NGV International, photographed by Tom Ross.[/caption] PORKY HEFER: PLASTOCENE — MARINE MUTANTS FROM A DISPOSABLE WORLD We'd imagine there won't be too many times in your life you'll get to admire a giant octopus crafted from hand-felted cigarette butts. But this supersized oceanic beauty will be just one of many featured in a new large-scale installation by Porky Hefer. Plastocene – Marine Mutants from a disposable world (2020) sees the South African artist and his collaborators create a series of handmade sea creatures plucked from some dystopian future. The work's built on the notion of species being able to transmutate, eventually adapting themselves to fit a world of polluted oceans and plastic waste. The NGV Triennial 2020 will be on show at NGV International from Saturday, December 19 until Sunday, April 18, 2021. For more info and to see the full program, visit the NGV website. Top image: Cerith Wyn Evans, 'C=O=D=A' 2019–20, courtesy White Cube, London. Installation view at NGV International, photographed by Tom Ross
The Vanguard has been the burlesque theatre venue in Sydney for years and has thrived as the art has seen a resurgence. They have recently hosted incredibly popular shows, including Star Wars Burlesque and Batman Follies of 1929, and after two years of performing themed shows, the Vanguard's famous The Jaded Vanities are getting back to their roots in order to present an entirely new and compelling show. The Jaded Vanities promises to challenge the conventions of the genre and take burlesque to a whole new level by leading the audience on an alternative and sensually imaginative journey. So if you feel like opening up your horizons, being entertained and enjoying some of the best and most innovative burlesque performers in Sydney, then the Vanguard is the place to be every Sunday until September 8.
In the fickle hospitality industry, and in a city that's seen controversial lockout laws come and go, ten years is nothing to sniff at. For Shady Pines Saloon, it's definitely something to celebrate. The first of many successful venues by the Swillhouse group — which then went on to open The Baxter Inn, Frankie's, Restaurant Hubert and Alberto Lounge — Shady Pines has won the hearts (and caused the hangovers) of many a Sydneysider in the past ten years. The now much-loved Darlinghurst spot threw open the doors to its bar filled with taxidermy, peanut shells and honky tonk tunes back in 2010. And now it's celebrating its graduation into double digits with a big ol' party. [caption id="attachment_653449" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Leticia Almeida[/caption] Get down to the basement venue from 4pm on Sunday, March 1. There'll be live honky tonk, western swing and rockabilliy music kicking off at 5pm, thanks to the likes of the Cruisin' Deuces, Extension Chord and The Sweet Jelly Rolls. As always at Shady Pines, there'll be endless peanuts to shell and snack on, whisky to swill and sip, and $10 margaritas and negronis from 4–6pm. We suggest you stock up on the work Berocca in preparation for Monday. Images: Leticia Almeida
Ah, the humble food truck. Hallmark of the most sophisticated civilisations. Naturally, that world-class institution, Cambridge University, has its own local food truck, known fondly as the Trailer of Life. And for good reason — because everyone knows that a food truck is a comfort to drunken stomachs everywhere, a great alternative to stuffy restaurants and a justification for casual dining en plein air. Plus, where else can you go at midnight, other than Maccas? In recognition of this fact, and following a successful trial this October, Sydney's food trucks are celebrating their own popularity by getting together in one spot to feed you, one Friday every month, following a successful trial run in October and November. There's probably no better way to kick off (or conclude) your TGIF festivities. StreetFest Food Trucks United, as the monthly event is known, will open from 5pm at Belmore Park near Central Station. What tasty nomz will be available there? Are we talking pulled pork banh mi on crispy baguettes? Are we talking caramelised onion and aioli slathered on organic beef burgers? Veggie Patch Van, Tsuru, Cantina Mobil? All your digestive tract's fevered questions are answered on the Sydney Food Trucks website. There's even a smartphone app so you can align yourself yet more closely with this noble enterprise. Lord Mayor Clover Moore, that crafty cookie, says that the event is "part of our ongoing work to create a world-class night-time economy across Sydney". This is an initiative we can certainly get behind, and it mirrors public demand: a recent survey of food truck customers confirmed what we all know deep in our waters to be true, that (a) food trucks create new business in the city, (b) food trucks are the go-to destination between 9pm and midnight, and (c) food trucks tend to generate a devoted following, attracting customers who will happily travel up to 2km just to partake of their goodies. Not only that; the presence of a food truck also enhances a public space, helping to populate it, with all the benefits for a buzzy community that brings.
Thinking about UK cinema's biggest names brings a wealth of famous talents to mind. Odds are that they're on the 2023 British Film Festival program in one way or another. When the Australia-wide cinema celebration returns for its latest tour, it'll do so with Olivia Colman's latest movie, Ian McKellen's as well, what might be Michael Caine's final role and an Alfred Hitchcock documentary. Ken Loach, Liam Neeson, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Richard E Grant, Timothy Spall, Helena Bonham Carter, Gemma Arterton, Maggie Smith: they're all covered, too. In total, 28 films are on the British Film Festival's 2023 lineup, including both brand-new flicks and retrospective screenings. Audiences can see the results throughout November, with the festival kicking off on Wednesday, November 1 in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth — and on Thursday, November 2 in Canberra, Brisbane and Byron Bay. BFF will keep is projectors whirring for four weeks, wrapping up on Wednesday, November 29. Opening night's One Life will begin the 2023 fest, with the Hopkins (The Son)-starring biopic coming to Australia after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. It tells the tale of Sir Nicholas Winton, whose World War II story includes assisting in the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children, earning him the label of the 'British Schindler'. Johnny Flynn (Operation Mincemeat) plays the humanitarian in his younger years, with Bonham Carter (Nolly) also co-starring. Still on BFF's big festival slots, the Colman- (Heartstopper) and Jessie Buckley (Women Talking)-led Wicked Little Letters will close out the 2023 event. The two actors reunite after both featuring in The Lost Daughter, although this time they aren't playing the same character. Instead, they're in a mystery-comedy that's based on a real-life scandal dating back 100 years And, playing as BFF's centrepiece is The Critic, which is where McKellan (Cats) and Arterton (Funny Woman) come in, and Mark Strong (Tár), Lesley Manville (The Crown) and Nikesh Patel (Starstruck) as well. As the name makes plain, it does involve a critic — a theatre specialist, in a whodunnit that's based on the novel Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn. Also a huge inclusion: My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, the new documentary from The Story of Film's Mark Cousins. This time, the filmmaker turns his meticulous attention to a director like no other, and to plenty of suspense, including featuring footage from the bulk of Hitchcock's classic films. Among the other highlights, war veteran tale The Great Escaper could be Caine's (Best Sellers) last performance; The Old Oak marks the latest from iconic filmmaker Loach (I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You); The Lesson features Grant (Persuasion), Julie Delpy (On the Verge) and Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters) in a literary thriller; and musical Greatest Days features Take That's songs. Or, there's Sweet Sue from Leo Leigh, son of Peterloo and Mr Turner director Mike Leigh; the Irish village-set In the Land of Saints and Sinners, which features Neeson (Retribution), Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones, and also Sex Education); Samuel Beckett biopic Dance First, with Gabriel Byrne (War of the Worlds) as the playwright; Golda, starring Mirren (Barbie) as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir; Mad About the Boy, a doco about Noël Coward; and Pretty Red Dress, which is set to the songs of Tina Turner. Plus, fans of movies about music can add Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), which hails from Control's Anton Corbijn and hones in on the titular photo-design company and its contribution to record cover art, to their BFF schedule. And, among the retrospective titles, the Mirren-starring Caligula, rock opera Tommy and drama Howard's End are all playing in 4K restorations — with Smith's (The Miracle Club) Oscar-winning performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, plus The Remains of the Day, Women in Love and Morgan — A Suitable Case for Treatment also on the classics list. BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL 2023 DATES: Wednesday, November 1–Wednesday, November 29 — Palace Norton St, Palace Verona, Chauvel Cinema and Palace Central, Sydney Wednesday, November 1–Wednesday, November 29 — The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, The Kino and Pentridge Cinema, Melbourne Wednesday, November 1–Wednesday, November 29 — Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas, Adelaide Wednesday, November 1–Wednesday, November 29 — Palace Raine Square, Luna on SX, Leederville and Windsor, Perth Thursday, November 2–Wednesday, November 29 — Palace Electric Cinemas, Canberra Thursday, November 2–Wednesday, November 29 — Palace Barracks and Palace James Street, Brisbane Thursday, November 2–Wednesday, November 29 — Palace Byron Bay, Byron Bay The 2023 British Film Festival tours Australia between in November. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
When your friends start talking furiously about how The Wire is the best TV show ever made, do you go quiet, trying not to let them know that you haven't watched it? The moment that the final season of Game of Thrones ended, did you instantly feel the urge to start all over again, because you just weren't ready to say goodbye yet? Whether there's a big gap in your pop culture knowledge or you're eager to revisit one of your favourite shows, that's where binging comes in. Serious binging — not just sitting on the couch and watching whatever your streaming platform of choice's algorithm happens to suggest. Serious binging involves committing time and effort to a show, working your way through it from start to finish and finding yourself obsessed with every last detail. It also means that you become that person who tells all their friends to watch or rewatch something. Yes, we've all been there. Finding time to hop into serious binging mode hasn't really been a problem in recent months, but if you're wondering what to watch next, we're here to help. Australia now has more streaming platforms than ever, and one of them is probably playing a TV series you desperately want to devote a big chunk of time to. Here are ten television standouts that you can currently watch from their very first seconds until they ultimately fade to black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faRl5Bea-Go THE SOPRANOS The gangster genre has been part of popular culture since cinema's early days, but on TV, nothing is an essential and influential as The Sopranos. If you've watched any mob-related show or movie since 1999, it'll owe as much of a debt to David Chase's New Jersey-set crime drama as it does to the filmography of Martin Scorsese. Across six exquisitely written seasons, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco led the way — with Tony Soprano's work life, leading a local branch of the mob, intertwined with his home life with his wife Carmela and their kids Meadow (Jamie Lynn-Sigler) and AJ (Robert Iller). In fact, when the show starts, all of the above is giving Tony panic attacks, inspiring a visit to psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). Also featuring everyone from Steve Buscemi and Joe Pantoliano to Janeane Garofalo and Ben Kingsley, The Sopranos was simply the best thing on TV until it wrapped up in 2007. All six seasons of The Sopranos are available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9rKY8MLWTU THE KNICK Over the past few months, almost everyone has rewatched Contagion, with Steven Soderbergh's prophetic outbreak thriller hitting rather close to home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2011 film is just one of the highlights on his busy resume, though — and if you're eager to watch the best thing he's ever made, then hit up medical series The Knick. Set at the turn of the 20th century, it follows the staff of a New York hospital as they endeavour to navigate everyday illnesses without the aid of modern advancements, pioneer experimental (and dangerous) surgical techniques, and try to stop their patients from dying. Also in career-best form is Clive Owen, who plays opium-addicted chief surgeon Dr John Thackery, while Moonlight's Andre Holland is similarly excellent as his new assistant chief surgeon. And, because that's the way he approaches most things he works on, Soderbergh directed, shot and edited every tense and thrilling episode. All of The Knick's two-season run is available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIhUsfhXBJM GREAT NEWS You've seen 30 Rock, the brilliantly funny Tina Fey-created sitcom set within the TV industry. But if you haven't watched Great News, which she executive produced, then you're missing out on one of the other ace television-focused comedies of the past decade. This time around, it all takes place within a TV news program. Katie Wendelson (Briga Heelan) works on The Breakdown as a segment producer, but she wishes her boss Greg (Adam Campbell) would let her handle the show's top stories. There's plenty of workplace hijinks stemming from that premise alone, as well as from the overinflated ego of newsman and host Chuck Pierce (John Michael Higgins), and the celebrity antics of his co-anchor Portia Scott-Griffith (Nicole Richie). Complicating matters, though, is the arrival of Katie's overprotective mother Carol (Andrea Martin) as the show's new intern — and the results are equally smart and silly, as well as highly topical. All of Great News' two-season run is available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNHsA4WIFvc TWIN PEAKS It's the mind-bending small-town mystery-drama that comes with its own menu — and with plenty of thrills, laughs and weirdness. Whether you're watching Twin Peaks for the first or 31st time, you'll want to do so with plenty of damn fine coffee, fresh-made cherry pie and cinnamon-covered doughnuts to fuel your journey to this place most wonderful and strange. And, of course, David Lynch and Mark Frost's seminal TV series doesn't just serve up 90s-era oddness centred around the tragic murder of popular high-schooler Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), but returned for a mesmerising third season back in 2017 as well. There's simply never been anything on television like Twin Peaks, because no one can make movies and TV shows like Lynch. No one can play a kind and quirky FBI boss like Lynch either, or a dedicated agent like Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper. All three seasons of Twin Peaks are available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUeOCo0HeJo THE WIRE There are many things that are phenomenal about The Wire, from the complexity that seethes through every episode and season, to the fantastic cast centred around Dominic West, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn, Michael K Williams and Andre Royo. It's the show that helped make stars out of Idris Elba and a very young Michael B Jordan, and it's absolutely unflinching in its exploration of law and order — and cops versus crime — in Baltimore. That said, as based loosely on the experiences of former homicide detective Ed Burns, and created and primarily written by ex-police reporter David Simon, the best thing about The Wire is how far and wide it ranges in exploring the Maryland city's relationship to law enforcement across its five seasons. Drugs, ports, the government, the school system and the media all fall into the series' remit, contributing to a show that feels as urgent now as when it first aired between 2002–08. All five seasons of The Wire are available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1v_q6TWAL4 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Back in 1992, big-screen horror-comedy Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced the world to a plucky California cheerleader who just happened to be fated to slay the undead. That's not the version of Buffy that everyone adores, obsesses over and has watched and rewatched for decades, however, with that honour belonging to Sarah Michelle Gellar in Joss Whedon's 1997–2003 TV series. And, from the show's witty sense of humour to its willingness to put its viewers through the emotional wringer, it's easy to see why television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the Buffy of record. A new slayer might be born into every generation, as the series taught us, but only one will always have our hearts — while grappling with trying to be a normal person, killing vamps and sometimes even falling for them, of course. All seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjuXTD0m9Lc ROUND THE TWIST Sometimes, you want to spend your time binging your way through serious dramas or clever comedies. And sometimes, feeling nostalgic by revisiting the local TV show every Aussie kid watched is on the agenda. For two seasons between 1990–93, then another two from 2000–01, Round the Twist adapted Paul Jennings' popular books into an offbeat fantasy series — and, if you were the right age, it was must-see TV. It's the source of plenty of lighthouse obsessions, given that's where the Twist family lived, and it's also a show that knew how to balance humour, strangeness and scares. And yes, the latter two seasons aren't as great, but we're betting they're still baked into your childhood memories anyway. All four seasons of Round the Twist are available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHlMgJxF30 MAD MEN If The Sopranos was the show that defined the 2000s, and it definitely was, then Mad Men did the same in the 2010s. Matthew Weiner's 60s-set advertising agency drama made a splash from the moment it started in 2007, but Mad Men is the epitome of a slow burn — with the series' charms apparent at the outset, but its full power accumulating and growing over time. That applies to the complicated Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Sterling Cooper's creative director and the show's point of focus, and to everyone in his orbit. Indeed, while Mad Men always tells Don's story, the depth and richness afforded not just fellow major characters such as Roger Sterling (John Slattery), Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) and Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), but the series' huge range of supporting players, is one of the show's biggest strengths. That, and its meticulous period look, obviously. All seven seasons of Mad Men are available to stream via Netflix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4zBo6El-ok ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Forget Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, the 2016 film that really isn't funny and definitely didn't need to be made. Completely erase it from your memory, and just focus on the British comedy's five TV seasons and numerous television specials instead. No one plays booze-swilling, trend-chasing, self-obsessed pals like Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley — and on the small screen, at least, their performances as PR agent Edina Monsoon and her magazine fashion editor bestie Patsy Stone are never less than hilarious. There's no scenario too outlandish for this pair, as Eddie's long-suffering mother (June Whitfield), daughter (Julia Sawalha) and assistant (Jane Horrocks) all endure in every episode. And, amidst all the laughs, over-the-top antics and satire, few shows have so astutely explored what it means to be growing older while refusing to let go of your younger years. All five seasons of Absolutely Fabulous are available to stream via Stan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlR4PJn8b8I GAME OF THRONES Maybe you adored every second of Game of Thrones, including how it ended. Perhaps you'd rather pretend that the last season didn't happen. Or, you could be looking for something to pass the time until George RR Martin finally releases a new book in his A Song of Fire and Ice series — aka the novels that HBO's big fantasy blockbuster is based on. Whichever category you fall into, the eight-season TV show unravels quite the story. Even if you're just in it for the dragons, the endless (and often literal) backstabbing, the soap opera-like relationships, Peter Dinklage's wonderful performance, the inevitable fate that awaits Sean Bean and the chance to say "you know nothing, Jon Snow" a few more times, that's completely understandable as well. All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are available to stream via Binge and Foxtel Now.
Renowned Sydney designer Henry Wilson has joined forces with innovative Sydney-founded furniture website NOMI to design an exclusive, super sleek, flat-packed shelving system called the Chevron Shelves. Customisable online down to the individual panel, the Chevron Shelves are delivered flat-packed and assembled without any tools. No tools. At all. Au revoir, Allen keys. Pairing up with one of Sydney's most celebrated multidisciplinary designers is a big new project for NOMI — the Sydney company revolutionising customisable furniture online. Wilson is well-known for his minimalist, bragworthy furniture, lighting and interiors — usually featuring some kind of self-build component (meaning extra dinner party bragging points). With the no-tools approach and customisable colour being the biggest drawcards, NOMI and Wilson both see manufacturing technique and swanky aesthetic as equally important in the design process. "Our mission is to combine innovative design with efficient manufacturing and cutting edge online technology," says NOMI director and co-founder Henry Gresson (another creative Henry). "Henry's Chevron Shelf epitomize this mission and we are very excited to have him on board." Taking its name from an Ancient Grecian interlocking zig-zag pattern, each Chevron Shelf can be customised in both size and colour with NOMI's slick website. You can pick your desired shelf height, shelf width and pick different colours for every single side panel, shelf layer and back wall — kind of like Shoes of Prey for furniture. Each unit will set you back around $150 each, depending on the material you pick, the width and the amount of layers you add. With each shelf made up of four pieces of precision-milled Birch-play and available in all the shades you've envied in glossy interior design magazines (teal, olive, rose), you can tailor the shelves to suit whichever room needs serious organising. "Everything about the Chevron Shelf reflects its construction method," says Wilson. "It achieves maximum yield from the resources used in its production. It's exciting for me to see it within in the NOMI range where the full potential of its flexibility can realised." Check out NOMI and Henry Wilson's Chevron Shelf here and get customising.
When you get right down to it, successful parenting is governed by one rule: try and make a better life for your kid than the one you had. So when are you allowed to make the call on whether you succeeded? And what do you tell your kids when they show an interest in pursuing the same career that morally bankrupted you? Sorting Out Rachel is David Williamson's latest play, in which he asks whether it's possible to dry clean a stained legacy. Bruce (John Howard) is a businessman at the end of a successful career. He has ushered through a few mergers, cut a couple of throats and kept his nearest and dearest fed and watered. But his daughter (Natalie Saleeba) isn't happy. Her husband (Glenn Hazeldine) is obsessed with their social status and his granddaughter Rachel (Jenna Owen) is veering closer to the sort of life Bruce is beginning to regret. Bruce knows how to fix these problems, but that would involve coughing up a secret he's been guarding for long time now. Thinking of starting a family? Liking the sound of a career in business? Head to the Ensemble Theatre and let one of Australia's most lauded social commentators explain why you haven't thought it through properly. Images: Heidrun Löhr
As of this weekend, Freda's will stay open till late. After years of applying to the council and State Government, the much-loved Chippo bar now has permission to serve until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights, and until midnight on Sundays. These hours represent a two-hour extension. "Being closely involved in the music community for almost a decade, I have seen the drastic decline in Sydney's nightlife — from the envy of the world, to a relative backwater," said David Abram, proprietor at Freda's. "We have lost a large part of our soul in this process, but this news gives hope to all those who want a better solution for our nightlife and who believe a night out should only be about relaxing, listening to music, dancing and engaging with each other in a safe and respectful way." For you, that means more hours to see more music, more art and more cultural happenings. The timing is good, as Freda's recently added an art space to its basement. Called Down Under, it hosts exhibitions, performance art and fashion shows.
