Your mates at Concrete Playground know how much you guys love Nutella. Sydney went nuts over those damn Tella Ball milkshakes, Melbourne eats so much of the stuff they caused a temporary nation-wide shortage back in 2015, and Australia lost its collective shit when a toaster-shaped Nutella food truck started rolling around the country. Long story short, the food truck will be hitting the road again this month, embarking on a road trip from Sydney all the way over to Perth. We figured you'd want to hear about it — especially as all the goodies on board will be free. Alistair Fogg, the man behind Sydney's Nighthawk Diner (which has just opened a permanent store in Chippendale) must have had excess Nutella lying around, because he's once again devised the menu for the food truck. This time, he'll be drizzling Nutella on pancakes, crumpets, bagels, waffles and even acai bowls. And, yes, it's all free — although there is a limit of only one item per customer per day,. The nine-stop road trip will spend two days in Sydney, pulling up at Chatswood's pedestrian mall from 7–10am on Friday, May 11 and Peryman Square on the Cronulla Foreshore the morning after from 8–11am. From there, the truck will head to Griffith before going down to Adelaide and across to Perth.
The Night Noodle Markets has returned for another season, whipping Sydneysiders into a frenzy of tasty things on sticks, bowls of noodles and extravagant desserts from Wednesday, October 7 to Friday, November 6. This year, instead of bumping elbows with hundreds of others in Hyde Park, you'll be able to enjoy the festival's usual lineup of tasty treats at home, in your local park or on a beach. Yes, Night Noodle Markets 2020 is coming to you via delivery. This year, the delivery-only menu showcases eight food stalls which have created special menus for the occasion. Thankfully, many of the festival favourites have made the cut. If you're feeling a bit daunted by all that decision-making and wondering how best to navigate the smorgasbord of eats, we've got your back. Here's our pick of dishes worth trying — get excited for cheesy beef-filled waffles, prawn toast doughies and Korean-style loaded toasties. [caption id="attachment_785200" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Donut Papi leche flan[/caption] LECHE FLAN DOUGHNUT BURGER, DONUT PAPI Sydney's go-to for inventive, Asian-inspired doughnut creations, Donut Papi is returning to the Night Noodle Markets with a fresh haul of crafty desserts in tow. These guys sure aren't afraid to get a little creative, as you'll know from past ingenious doughnut iterations like peanut butter birthday cake, ube Oreo and even garlic bread. But the treat you need to sink your chompers into this month is the leche flan doughnut burger ($10). A slab of lush, sticky Filipino-style crème caramel is stuffed between halves of a sugar-crusted doughnut bun, ready and waiting to ooze upon that first bite. CHEESEBURGER PUFFLE, PUFFLE Everyone loves a quirky, cheesy food creation and this one's as fun to say as it is to eat. A return favourite from last year's markets, and a riff on the egg waffles you'll find at street stalls in Hong Kong, Puffle is a savoury waffle cone made out of cheese and filled with various flavour combinations. This month, Puffle is out to win you over with two different decadent versions of its dish, including the cheeseburger ($18) — an assembly of chopped bulgogi-style beef and extra melted cheese, finished with lashings of sweet and spicy ketchup, mustard and Japanese mayo — and a KFC option with spicy Korean-style fried chicken ($18). But, whichever filling you opt for, you're in for a crunchy, oozy and delightfully messy ride. TUPUC CHICKUR AND NOTORIOUS PIG BAO, BAO BROTHERS A regular favourite at the Night Noodle Markets, Bao Brothers is back again with its modern take on the Taiwanese gua bao. This year, the four-strong menu spans Korean cauliflower, mushroom croquettes and a spicy honey prawn number. But our pick lets you try two flavours in one — the Tupuc Chickur and Notorious PIG. The former is stuffed with fried chicken, lettuce and sesame, then slathered with chilli mayo; the latter tops caramelised pork belly with pickled cucumber, a peanut praline crumb, shallots and hoisin sauce. Nab both for $16. You won't want to share, so be sure to grab a second serve if you're eating with a mate or date. [caption id="attachment_782079" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kera Wong[/caption] WAGYU BEEF DON TOASTIE, TOASTIESMITH Sydney's new toastie-themed takeaway joint — now open in Darling Square and Chatswood — will join the Night Noodle Markets lineup for the first time this year. It's offering up Korean-style sangas that pay homage to Isaac Toast, a chain that serves up this popular street eat. Like in Korea, each loaded toastie is made using thick-cut brioche and comes topped with a fluffy omelette. Of the five options available, our go-to is the wagyu beef and onion don ($12) — it's stuffed with roasted sesame slaw, seaweed and a generous dressing of truffle mayo. Other fillings include shichimi-spiced chicken with smashed avo and pineapple, fried barramundi with tartare sauce and pickled cucumbers, and grilled prawn with corn chips and sweet chilli. PRAWN TOAST DOUGHNUT, DONUT PAPI Donut Papi's menu is really doing it for us this year. While we recommended nabbing the aforementioned leche flan doughnut burger for dessert, Redfern's cult favourite sweet shop is also slinging an extra special savoury option for the Night Noodle Markets. Its prawn toast doughnut takes house-made prawn and fish mince and schmears it on a yeast-raised doughie — which is then dipped in black and white sesame seeds, panko crumbed and deep fried. The dish is also served with a plum and sweet chilli sauce for dipping. This wild new creation is sure to change your mind on what a doughnut is supposed to taste like. The Night Noodle Markets at Home menus are available via Doordash from Wednesday, October 7 to Friday, November 6 as part of Good Food Month. Check out the full food lineup here. Top image: Kera Wong
When Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) heads from Cleveland to Los Angeles for his job, he discovers a previously unknown passion for acting after he stumbles into a class held by veteran thespian Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). The catch? Barry is a hitman, and that isn't a line of work that you can leave easily, especially when you become caught in the Chechen mafia's violent and deadly dramas. As Saturday Night Live fans will already know, Hader is an on-screen treasure, but he's never been better than he is in this part-comedy, part-tragedy series. Barry's struggle mightn't seem that relatable on paper, but it proves just that with Hader in the role. Also excellent is Winkler, expectedly, as well as Bill & Ted Face the Music's Anthony Carrigan as a Chechen gangster who befriends Barry, isn't that great at the whole crime business and quickly becomes one of the most memorable characters to ever grace a TV series.
Childish Gambino (real name: Donald Glover) is no ordinary artist. The American do-it-all, who took his stage name from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator, has a stacked resumé which includes Golden Globe winner, Grammy winner and Star Wars character. It should be no surprise then that his live show is not your average stand-behind-a-microphone experience. Glover announced via Twitter this morning that he is bringing his concert experience PHAROS to New Zealand this year. Described as an immersive virtual reality, multi-sensory concert experience, the event will be held over three days from November 23–25 at an undisclosed location near Auckland Airport — Concrete Playground Auckland's calling the vines and rolling pastures of Villa Maria Estate. The festival was first held in Joshua Tree, California, where Glover debuted material from Awaken, My Love inside a VR dome with collaborators. Episodes of his award-winning series Atlanta screened inside an amphitheater and an "Illumination Forest" projected art from inside the dome. Mystery is a big part of the experience; the first edition saw attendees seal their phones in lock bags for the duration of the concert. Glover told Vanity Fair that PHAROS is "meant to be a communal space—a place that evolves and reacts to the culture". "We aren't tied to a format and that lets us adapt in a way that others can't. We're selling real intimacy. We protect the experience and it becomes something you genuinely share with the people around you and you take away something special. We're looking at expanding the world in 2018—there will be more artists involved." Tickets are on sale now via the PHAROS app. Source: Vanity Fair.
For more than a year now, we've all been paying extra attention to maps — but not just to show us how to get from one place to another. Thanks to all manner of handy online diagrams, we've been using maps to see which venues have been visited by COVID-19 cases, and also to work out how far we can travel during lockdowns. Now, with vaccinations an important focus at this stage of the pandemic, there's also a particularly nifty interactive map that'll help you work out where to get the jab. If you're familiar with COVID-19 Near Me, the statewide map that draws upon New South Wales Government's register of locations that positive COVID-19 cases have visited, then you already know where to head for this new map. It's actually an added function on the existing website, which now comes with two options at the top: exposure sites and vaccination clinics. Like the exposure venues part of the map, the statewide diagram gives locations specific hues depending on how the clinics operate. A grey dot is used if the clinic doesn't take online bookings, a purple dot indicates that it's an AstraZeneca clinic and a blue dot shows a Pfizer clinic. This map isn't run by the NSW Government — it's just powered by its official data. So, NSW residents are urged to also check the official NSW Health website as well. At the time of writing, the map was last updated on Sunday, August 8. At present, all adults in Australia can opt for the AstraZeneca vaccine as long as you give a doctor your informed consent before you go ahead. Since Thursday, June 17, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has recommended the use of AstraZeneca vaccine in people aged over 60 only due to the risk of rare blood clotting disorders that've been linked to the vaccine when given to younger folks. That change followed an early recommendation back in April, which noted the AstraZeneca vaccine wasn't preferred for anyone under 50. But since late June, as announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, anyone of any age, including those under 60, can still get the AZ jab — after making an informed decision by talking to a doctor. For people under 40 who'd prefer the Pfizer vaccine, you need to fall into a specific group to access it at present, as the nation's vaccination rollout hasn't yet opened up the Pfizer jab to that age group. That means that adults aged up to 39 aren't yet eligible to get the Pfizer vaccination unless you're of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent; work in quarantine, border or healthcare roles; work or live in an aged care or disability facility; work in a critical and high-risk job such as defence, fire, police, emergency services and meat processing; have an underlying medical condition or significant disability; are pregnant; or participate in the NDIS, or care for someone who does. You can check out all existing COVID-19 vaccination clinics at covid19nearme.com.au. For more information about COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. Images: COVID-19 Near Me as of Monday, August 9.
Someone else's dream job might just inspire your next dream vacation, after Tourism Australia's Beach Ambassador (how do we apply?) just announced a handy list of the top 20 Australian beaches for 2022. The enviable gig sees beach expert Brad Farmer AM survey the nation's sandy spots and draw upon his almost 40 years of writing about beaches — and this year, he's picked Misery Beach in Albany in Western Australia as his best. There's obviously a lot to consider when anointing one of the country's 11,761 beaches as the cream of the crop — and naming the next-best 19, too. If you were to do it, or even just to try to pick somewhere to hit up over summer, you might wonder which ones aren't too busy or seaweed-y, which have the whitest sand and bluest water, and where's best for beach cricket. But Farmer's 2022 list heroes "nature-based locations, many quirky spots within easy reach of cities, and also celebrates the significant cultural value of the coast to Australia's First Nations people," according to Tourism Australia's announcement. Home of the Menang Noongar First Nations peoples, Misery Beach sits 15 minutes south of Albany and five hours southeast of Perth, and is small — sitting in a bay spanning 200 metres. Farmer describes the picturesque place as coming "straight from the pages of a beachscape artist's sketchbook", and that it provides "a dramatic feast for the senses with the look and feel of a perfectly framed filmset". That includes "crystal clear, turquoise water, virgin white sand, bounded by spectacular granite outcrops," and "only a handful of beachcombers, swimmers or kayakers availing themselves of its sublime surrounds", plus "seals, dolphins and returning migratory whales, seeking its calm shelter". It wasn't always this scenic, however, as the location's moniker makes plain. Farmer explains that Australia's last active whaling station sat nearby until it closed in 1978, "and for decades, this shoreline was often awash with whale offal, staining the beach blood red". Now, thankfully, he says that Misery Beach "belies its grim name". [caption id="attachment_712446" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Loch Ard Gorge, Visit Victoria[/caption] Misery Beach claimed top position after Cabarita Beach in New South Wales did the honours in 2020, Nudey Beach on Fitzroy island in Far North Queensland did the same in 2018, and Cossies Beach in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, in the Indian Ocean, earned the title in 2017. Among the 2022 list's highest-ranked spots, Misery Beach is joined by Horseshoe Bay in South West Rocks in New South Wales' mid-north, which took second place; The Spit at the Gold Coast's northern end in third; four-place getter Flaherty's Beach, on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula; and Loch Ard Gorge, in Port Campbell in Victoria, in fifth. The full list of 20 beaches covers every Australian state and territory, including Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean Territories. Other notable inclusions span Lake Wabby on K'Gari (formerly named Fraser Island), Mots Beach at the mouth of the Snowy River, Murrays Beach in Jervis Bay Territory and Jellybean Pool in the Blue Mountains. So pack your togs, round up some mates and start ticking these off. We see many road trips in your future — not that anyone ever needs an excuse to head to the beach. [caption id="attachment_710496" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jellybean Pool, Lauren Vadnjal[/caption] THE TOP 20 BEST AUSTRALIAN BEACHES FOR 2022 1. Misery Beach, Albany (Western Australia) 2. Horseshoe Bay, South West Rocks (New South Wales) 3. The Spit, Gold Coast (Queensland) 4. Flaherty's Beach, Yorke Peninsula (South Australia) 5. Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell (Victoria) 6. The Neck, Bruny Island (Tasmania) 7. Blue Pearl Bay, Whitsundays (Queensland) 8. Depot Beach, South Coast (New South Wales) 9. Murrays Beach, Jervis Bay Territory (Australian Capital Territory/New South Wales) 10. Dundee Beach, Darwin (Northern Territory) 11. Dudley Beach, Newcastle (New South Wales) 12. Thompsons Beach, Cobram (Victoria) 13. Coogee Beach, Perth (Western Australia) 14. Mots Beach, Marlo (Victoria) 15. Alexandria Bay, Noosa (Queensland) 16. Emu Bay, Kangaroo Island (South Australia) 17. Lake Wabby, K'Gari (Fraser Island) (Queensland) 18. Congwong Beach, Sydney (New South Wales) 19. Jellybean Pool, Blue Mountains (New South Wales) 20. Ethel Beach, Christmas Island (Indian Ocean Territories) Top image: @merrwatson.
Wolf Comedy is a monthly room held on the last Thursday of every month at Chippendale's best-kept secret, Knox Street Bar. Run by up-and-coming comedians Shubha Sivasubramanian, Kara Schlegl and Bish Marzook, as well as Gruen writer and creator of SBS Comedy's Backburner, James Colley, the motto of this room is, simply, 'be excellent to each other'. What that means in practice is a fun, accepting room, committed to diversifying comedy (read: comedians who are not solely twenty-something white dudes), and encouraging new people to perform. If you're a comedy fan but think insult comedy is tedious machismo or you simply don't want to be picked on as an audience member, this is the room for you. However, before the neckbeards rise up and start chanting Political correctness has ruined comedy! Seth MacFarlane is a god!, don’t mistake pleasantness for dullness. This room is all killer, no filler, and tickets routinely sell out.
It's been a David and Goliath battle from the very start, but it seems Goliath has finally made his size known — construction crews have this afternoon been found secretly demolishing the interior of the much-loved Palace Theatre. Though most mourned for the Palace back in June when the owner's lease ran up, many have still been fighting the good fight trying to get the venue heritage listed. After all their good work, the site was set to be reviewed for heritage protection from Melbourne City Council shortly. Now, much of what they were fighting to protect has been destroyed. Though the new owners, Jinshan Investments, are yet to obtain a demolition permit, it seems they're free to do as they see fit with the building's interior. Nearby businesses have reported the rubbish skips have been out the front all week, and construction workers have been spotted hauling out huge slabs of plaster and moulding that has been in place since the early 1900s. One worker told The Age that they were carrying out orders as the site was to be turned into apartments. City of Melbourne councillor Rohan Leppert was one of the first to speak out by calling the police to the scene. "There is no permit to demolish the building, and the owner knows that the Council and Government considers the interiors to be of significant heritage value," he said. "[It's] sheer vandalism." Protestors from Melbourne Heritage Action and Save the Palace Theatre are currently on site too. "We asked to see a copy of the demolition permit and were asked, 'who the hell are you?' and 'where's your badge?'" the group said on their Facebook page. They are now reporting that the demolition crew told police they were "removing plaster to check sprinkler systems". A snap protest has been called for 6pm tonight at The Palace. "[It's] a visual sign to the people who can turn this around that this IS NOT ON!" their Facebook post read. "While there is still something to save you all need to get off your arse and down to the Palace ... The people of Melbourne need to join together to make some damn noise." Outside the @Palace_Theatre at 6pm - make some noise! These cultural vandals need to be stopped and the decision makers must do something — Save the Palace (@SavethePalace13) November 20, 2014 It may be a fairly sad last resort, but if you've ever loved the venue it's time to get your arse up to Bourke Street. Do it for that incredible gig you snuck into when you were 17; do it for the first dates and the late nights and all the amazing bands that have played there over the years; do it for the goddamned principle of the thing. Photos via Melbourne Heritage Action.
It isn't by accident that watching The Changeling feels like being read to, rather than simply viewing streaming's latest book-to-TV adaptation. Arriving from the pages of Victor LaValle's novel of the same name, this new horror-fantasy series is obsessed with stories, telling tales and unpacking what humanity's favourite narratives say about our nature, including myths and yarns that date back centuries and longer. Printed tomes are crucial in its characters lives, fittingly. Libraries, bookstores, dusty boxes stacked with old volumes, beloved childhood texts, a rare signed version of To Kill a Mockingbird with a note from Harper Lee to lifelong friend Truman Capote: they all feature within the show's frames. Its protagonists Apollo Kagwa (LaKeith Stanfield, Haunted Mansion) and Emma Valentine (Clark Backo, Letterkenny), who fall in love and make a life together before its first episode is out, even work as a book dealer and a librarian. The Changeling also literally reads to its audience, because LaValle himself wants to relay this adult fairytale. He doesn't appear on-screen with book in hand, but his dulcet tones speaking lyrical prose provides a frequent guide. "Once upon a time" gets uttered, naturally. Declarations that stepping through someone's story says everything about who they are echo, too. Deploying the author to say his own words here and there is an evocative and ambitious choice, and one that has the exact desired effect: this series doesn't just flicker across the screen, but burrows into hearts and minds. Within its narrative, The Changeling regularly muses on being caught between memories and dreams. Viewing it takes on that same sensation. Getting LaValle reading is savvy as well, then, helping the show's audience share a key sliver of Apollo and Emma's experience. Debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday, September 8, The Changeling believes in the power of tales — to capture, explain, transport, engage, caution and advise. In a show created and scripted by Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Fifty Shades of Grey and Saving Mr Banks screenwriter Kelly Marcel, there's nothing more potent and revealing than a story. They're how we share ideas, express emotions, pass on information and keep records. They spark our imaginations, help us make sense of the world and offer pure entertainment. As Apollo and Emma learn on an eight-episode first-season journey filled with haunting mysteries, told with eerie intrigue and painted through gorgeously entrancing imagery, they also convey warnings and encapsulate our darkest truths. Aptly, New Yorkers Apollo and Emma meet amid books, in the library where she works and he frequents. It takes convincing to get her to agree to go out with him — and while that leads to marriage and a child, The Changeling's astute thematic layering includes Apollo's repeated attempts to wrangle that first yes out of Emma. In-between early dates and domesticity, she takes the trip of a lifetime to Brazil, where an old woman awaits by Lagoa do Abaeté. The locals warn Emma to stay away but she's mesmerised. What happens between the two strangers sends the narrative hurtling, with the lakeside figure tying a red string around Emma's wrist, granting her three wishes, but advising that they'll only come true when the bracelet falls off by itself. The Changeling isn't a fairytale purely because it involves wishes. It hasn't been badged as an adult version of folklore's short stories just because it's set in the Big Apple this century — Apollo and Emma meet in 2010 — and centres on a couple's tumultuous relationship, either. Where the pair's romance takes them next is right there in the show's name, a term used to describe a baby that's believed to have been swapped out by fairies; however, knowing that, and that witches, curses, monsters and underground cities also pop up, is just scratching the surface of their tale as well. LaValle and now Marcel understand that happy endings, when they do come, are merely a minor part of the narratives that we call fairytales. Amid their supernatural elements, horror and trauma always lurks. That's true of everything from Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood to Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, and of The Changeling. LaValle and Marcel's inspirations sprawl further, including to Greek myths, Scandinavian folklore, US history, Ugandan traditions, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Rosemary's Baby. The Changeling digs into parenthood's joys and stresses, especially for mothers. It lays bare the societal pressures, expectations and threats levelled at women constantly — and the myriad of male forces and reactions. In not only Apollo and Emma's story, but also in Apollo's mother Lillian's (Violent Night's Alexis Louder when she's younger, American Horror Story's Adina Porter when she's older), the series is intricately steeped in the immigrant and the Black American experiences. Courtesy of a stunning late episode solely devoted to Lillian, it recalls Angels in America while expanding upon the many tragedies inflicted upon folks on the margins. Directors Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jonathan van Tulleken (Upload), Dana Gonzales (The Handmaid's Tale) and Michael Francis Williams (David Makes Man) make The Changeling as complex aesthetically as it is narratively and thematically. When the show's visuals glow, that's never solely a stylistic choice. When its imagery is shadowy and hazy, the series isn't just employing an easy way to get ominous. Meticulously framed, lit and composed, The Changeling knows the oft-quoted old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, ensuring that every single frame deepens its storytelling. Sometimes that results in sights so unsettling that they're difficult to shake. At other times, Apollo and Emma's antics are positively ethereal to behold. It takes immense performances to weather everything that The Changeling throws at its characters, and to also guide audiences through each twist, turn, leap and jump. To fans of Short Term 12, Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, Uncut Gems, Knives Out, Atlanta and The Harder They Fall, it'll come as no surprise that Judas and the Black Messiah Oscar-nominee Stanfield is exceptional — soulful, simmering with emotion whether Apollo is falling in love or living a nightmare, and electrifying in his gaze alone. Backo, Porter and Louder are also excellent, anchoring a multifaceted portrait of both womanhood and motherhood. When she pops up midway, Malcolm in the Middle great Jane Kaczmarek is equally brilliant. What phenomenal storytellers this series has amassed. What an enthralling tale they help read to viewers, too. Check out the trailer for The Changeling below: The Changeling streams via Apple TV+ from Friday, September 8.
After the chaos that 2020 has thrown the world's way, hoping that 2021 will be different is perfectly understandable. For award-winning Sydney cocktail bar Eau de Vie, which was once 13th on the World's 50 Best Bars list, change is definitely in the air — with the beloved venue announcing that it'll be moving from the Darlinghurst spot it has called home for the past 11 years. Owner-operators Sven Almenning and Greg Sanderson have revealed that they won't be renewing their lease at the Kirketon Hotel; however, to the relief of cocktail lovers across Sydney, this isn't curtains for Eau de Vie. Instead, the pair will move the venue to a new location, although just where the bar will shift to hasn't yet been unveiled. Announcing the news, Almenning noted that "the last few years have not been without their struggles. That said, this is not the end". In a statement, Almenning and Sanderson also advised that the move stems from a combination of factors, but primarily came down to the lease. While mentioning the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry, the pair advised that "the decision to relocate Eau de Vie from its current site was down to the ten-year lease ending on the October 28, 2020 and not being able to reach an agreement for renewal". Of course, Eau de Vie will farewell its current digs in a fitting fashion. "There have been countless memories created in this space and it's absolutely worthy of some celebration — and for many of our guests and previous staff a last dram or blazer," Almenning said. "Great times were had here and it's only right we pay homage to them and all the people that brought it them to life." Eau de Vie hasn't announced exactly when its time in Darlinghurst will come to a close as yet, but it will shut its doors by the end of the year — likely just prior to New Year's Eve. Over the next two months, patrons can expect the return of some of the venue's star bartenders, as well as the original and famed cocktails that helped make the place such a hit. And, guests might even be able to take a piece of the bar home with them. As for where Eau de Vie is headed next, a new location is still being scouted, but the aim is to reopen in its new spot in early 2021. Find Eau de Vie at the Kirketon Hotel, 229 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst until the end of 2020, with its closing date yet to be announced. We'll update you with more details — and information about its new location — when they come to hand.
Can't afford the sky-high prices of partying but still stinging for somewhere stylish to swing your pint-sized designer handbag? Never fear. Nestled inside The Bristol is Midtown, and nestled inside Midtown right now is a series of irresistibly adorable mini cocktails. If you haven't yet, you're going to want to meet Midtown. It's a buzzing New York-inspired bar slinging some of the city's best martinis, margaritas and negronis. The atmosphere is cool, disco and a little bit electric, and the prices are decidedly affordable. At a teensy $6 a pop, you can enjoy a mini version of your cult-fave cocktails every single Wednesday to Saturday in March. There are seven to choose from – including Mini Pina Colada, Mini Espresso Martini and Mini Pickle Margarita – along with a $6 snack menu that's just as tidy. Fancy a bite of kingfish with sweet cucumber, burnt chilli, finger lime and plum? What about a rosemary and honey butter focaccia? Or go straight to the sweet stuff, with a tiny chocolate brownie with sour cherry and Chantilly cream. And did we mention the complimentary popcorn, marinated green olives and house-roasted chilli, lime and coriander peanuts for every table? All included in your Midtown $6 special – now that's cute.
UPDATE, APRIL 4: Due to concerns around the coronavirus, Disney has announced that Jungle Cruise will no longer release on its initially scheduled date of Thursday, July 23, 2020, with the film now hitting cinemas on July 29, 2021. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. When Disney isn't turning its beloved movie franchises into new theme park zones, as it's currently doing with both Star Wars and Marvel, the enormous entertainment company has been known to take the opposite approach. Plenty of its rides and attractions have inspired films, such as the entire Pirates of the Caribbean series, as well as Tomorrowland, The Haunted Mansion, The Country Bears and Mission to Mars. Now, Jungle Cruise is the latest to join the fold. As the Mouse House did with Pirates, it has enlisted some serious star power, with Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson taking the watery journey in the first movie based on Disney's popular river boat ride. She plays an explorer and scientist on a mission, while he captains the vessel she hires to transport her along the Amazon River. From there, as seen in the just-dropped first trailer, it seems that typical action-adventure hijinks ensue. The film's initial sneak peek also sets up a vibe that's part The Mummy, part Indiana Jones, part every other flick about someone scrambling through vast landscapes searching for something precious — in this case, a tree in the Amazon that possesses unparalleled healing powers. When Jungle Cruise floats into cinemas, it'll also feature Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti. Behind the camera, Jaume Collet-Serra is in the director's chair, marking a change of pace after the Liam Neeson-starring Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter (and Blake Lively shark flick The Shallows, too). Script-wise, the film is penned by Bad Santa writers (and Crazy, Stupid, Love. filmmakers) Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, as well as Logan, Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049 and Murder on the Orient Express' Michael Green. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydnzilTiBcY After being delayed from its original release date of July 23, 2020, Jungle Cruise will now open in Australian cinemas on July 29, 2021.
If Neighbours wasn't already famously taken as a title of an Australian TV series, it could've also fit Last Days of the Space Age. Set in the 70s in Perth, the eight-part Disney+ show incorporates everything from US space station Skylab and workers striking for their rights to the battle for gender equality, the nation's treatment of Indigenous Australians, grappling with trauma and the immigrant experience — plus Miss Universe and the Cold War as well. Navigating all of the above: three neighbouring families in the Western Australian capital's suburbs. Judy (Radha Mitchell, Troppo) and Tony Bissett (Jesse Spencer, Chicago Fire), Sandy (Linh-Dan Pham, Blue Bayou) and Lam Bui (Vico Thai, Total Control), and Eileen Wilberforce (Deborah Mailman, Boy Swallows Universe) are all good neighbours and good friends. The teenagers in the three households — aspiring astronaut Tilly Bissett (Mackenzie Mazur, Moja Vesna), her surf-loving sister Mia (Emily Grant, RFDS), her best friend Jono Bui (debutant Aidan Du Chiem) and new arrival Bilya Wilberforce (Thomas Weatherall, Heartbreak High) — also all go to school together. Those connections sit at the heart of the series — and, as almost everything that the Bissetts, Buis and Wilberforces know starts to change, their neighbourly ties couldn't be more pivotal. Mitchell and Spencer are more than a bit familiar with this type of situation on-screen. While their careers have taken them overseas for decades — Mitchell has Phone Booth, The Crazies, two Silent Hill films, Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen on her resume; Spencer featured in 173 episodes of House before his Chicago Fire stint; both also co-starred with a 00s-era Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire and Uptown Girls, respectively — they share a past on Neighbours. Last Days of the Space Age is Spencer's big return to homegrown TV, in fact, and his first major Australian small-screen role since playing Billy Kennedy. Ramsay Street's antics aren't set in 1979, of course. Spencer can see the symmetry with the Aussie television role that brought him to fame in the 90s and his latest show, however, he tells Concrete Playground. "The writing quality is a little bit more involved, but that's up to you to decide," adds Mitchell. As Last Days of the Space Age's Judy and Tony, the pair play not just a married couple but also colleagues at the Doull Power Plant, where Tony has been leading the worker strike for six months. When Judy is promoted and tasked with negotiating an end to the union action, their family dynamic is unsurprisingly shaken up. Aided by directors Bharat Nalluri (Boy Swallows Universe), Rachel Ward (Rachel's Farm) and Kriv Stenders (Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan), creator David Chidlow (Hidden, Moving On) unfurls the Bissetts' upheaval alongside the Bui family's efforts to build a new life after arriving from Vietnam. With the Wilberforces — and with 1979 marking 150 years since Perth was founded — the series also confronts the impact of colonisation. Game of Thrones fans will spot Iain Glen (Silo) among the cast as well, as Judy's father Bob. Also included in the clearly ambitious series, which enthusiastically embraces its era and its tonal rollercoaster: Tony's journalist brother Mick (George Mason, Exposure) covering the beauty pageant, where USSR contestant Svetlana (Ines English, Dead Lucky) is a frontrunner under close watch by her KGB minder Yvgeny (Jacek Koman, Prosper). With Last Days of the Space Age available to stream via Disney+ since Wednesday, October 2, we chatted with Mitchell, Spencer and and French Vietnamese actor Pham about what excited them about the show's bold mix of elements, the fight to be treated fairly that thrums through the series, balancing its tones, Mitchell and Spencer's homecoming, Pham connecting to her roots, Neighbours and more. On What Excited Mitchell, Spencer and Pham About Starring in Last Days of the Space Age Jesse: "I was in the States, I just had my first child and this script came across my desk — and I love period dramas. It was my first chance to play a father with two daughters, so I felt like I was looking into my future a little bit. I knew nothing really about unions or the history of unions, but my character's a very passionate union leader, so I researched that — and there's a whole pretty awful history of treatment of workers back in the day, and workers' rights. But the whole project felt like a really interesting ensemble. It was quite quirky, but it was ultimately about families, and families fighting for each other — and societal change and how they coped with that. And it was really well-written. Then I got to Australia and it was a great cast, and it was a great experience to bring it off the page and bring it to life on the screen." Linh-Dan: "I think when I choose projects, there's always something personal, somehow, unconsciously. And this one was very clear: it was about reconnecting with my roots, basically. Even though my parents didn't go through what the Bui family has gone through, I managed to talk to some of my relatives about it, and it reopened the conversation — and also discovering the hidden pain, the trauma, was my way to get into Sandy. The script was actually so amazing anyway, and period pieces are so interesting. To go back: first of all, Australia, I love traveling; 70s outfits, hello disco. So it was a no-brainer for me." Radha: "There's so much in all of the storylines, and this sense of community, and all different parts of the fabric of the Australian identity being reviewed, in a way, because we have an opportunity to have a bit of distance between now and 1979. I thought that was really an interesting mirror to history, how we've constructed our sense of identity and where we're going to go with it now. Looking through the lens of that period, I thought was really interesting. And I liked all the characters. I felt it was written with a really compassionate, kind perspective. There's so much snarky nastiness in the media lately, that it was nice to just be involved in a story that was trying to put something positive into the world. So I felt very aligned to all those aspects of the script." On Mitchell and Spencer's Homecoming — and the Joy of Not Needing to Imitate US Culture Radha: "It was a little bit of a sense of coming back home, maybe, for me and Jesse — that we were able to bring some of where we've come from to where we are now. It felt like a bit of a contribution for me, being able to come home and do something that I felt aligned to." Jesse: "Every Australian actor I know — because a lot of work is international, and for a lot of actors too — but every actor I know always loves to go home and try to do a project. Because you spend a lot of time learning about throwing yourself into other cultures, and more or less trying to imitate authentically who they are, and where they are in certain points in time and stuff. So to bring it back to something that's much more familiar is just a pleasure. Things are much, much more tangible. It's accessible. There's still challenges, but it makes it very, very fun. And especially when there's good writing and good casting — I know a lot of actors who are always trying to go back to their home countries and do it. And this was an opportunity to do that. So I grabbed it." Radha: "It's interesting — an imitation. That is true when you're working in the US." Jesse: "I mean, you don't think about it. You don't want to think about that." Radha: "Yeah, but you're imitating the culture, whereas here, I feel like this is our culture, talking about things that we're part of." On Whether Making a Show About Neighbours After Acting on Neighbours Feels Like a Full-Circle Moment Radha: "I think Jesse would say so." Jesse: "Yeah, a little bit. There was a little bit of that. Although, yes and no, because the dynamics, the themes that run through the show, the dynamics between the characters, is just a little different to Neighbours, but there is a similarity there." Radha: "We are neighbours in the show." Jesse: "I mean, we're next door to each other." On the Series' Resonant and Repeated Focus on Fighting to Be Treated Fairly Jesse: "I think it's a human trope. Everyone's fighting a hard battle against themselves and in society. It's something everyone can relate to. And it's enjoyable to watch, I think, characters have obstacles — to come up against them, sometimes fail, but sometimes find a way around that and breakthrough for a transformation. That's what this show is all about. It's about transformation, courage and ultimately hope." Radha: "But it's subverted, I guess, in a great way by this crazy stuff that's going on in history, and the crazy costumes. And all this stuff, there's a sincerity to it, but there's also an irreverence about the storytelling, which I think attracted me to it." On Balancing the Mix of Warmth, Tragedy, Humour and History Radha: "That's the challenge in the discovery. I think we were on set thinking 'what is this? Is this a comedy?'." Jesse: "Right. Right." Radha: "'Look at your outfit, man. I can't even look at you without laughing' — but here we are, we're doing this very serious scene." Jesse: "But that's life as well, when it's this tragedy but it's also kind of funny — a bit of black humour or quirky sort of humour. There's always a million shades of grey, which is better than just one colour. And yeah, that was a challenge. And we were always trying to figure out what the tone is in the scene and where you were with the character." Radha: "Even Bharat [Nalluri], who was the first director for the series, was like 'wow, okay, we're really going to create this together, the tone'. And we felt comfortable that he had recognised that that was part of what we were doing — that it couldn't be just taken for granted. I think that's what makes the series unique, that it's got its own tone, its own voice — and I think that was what we created." On How Pham Approached Playing a Character Caught Between Making a New Life and Grappling with Trauma Lin-Danh: "Well, you go deep. I think somehow what your parents instil in you, your family, your surroundings, you feed yourself from all of that, and it's the mystery also of acting, sometimes. Actually, my aunt had written a story about her side of the family, a book she self-published. I did read about that. And it was ups and down all the time, her first few years in France where she lost everything and she refused to go back to Vietnam, and had to fend for herself with her three kids. They were boat people, met some pirates. So, you just talk to these people and you feed off it. It feels a bit selfish and sometimes like I'm forcing a little bit. But they were very generous and we had great conversations with my family that I had not really had kept in touch with. So that's how I got through Sandy." On Mitchell's Take on Judy Being Pulled in Every Direction Both at Work and at Home — and Finding Herself in the Chaos Radha: "I just wanted to keep her really real. And I felt maybe what was charming about her is that she didn't want to do all these things. They were just happening and she was discovering her talents in action, but she wasn't ambitious at all. It was just happening, it was her nightmare that she was going to be doing all these things, and yet she was discovering herself in them. I thought that was really interesting about her. She wasn't this empowered woman — she was somebody discovering her power. And the conflict around that at home, and the challenges of having teenage daughters that just don't want to listen to you, I think it sort of played itself out. And maybe even my own personal bias against it — just feeling that I like these emancipated female characters, so to cut my own wings in the role was really interesting for me. I think those were the challenges, and I was lucky enough to be working with great actors, and we created this wacky little family together. And then the friendships around that, I think layered it with this — I think Linh-Dan was saying it was a feminist show in a way, and I don't think it is only, but it certainly celebrates the relationships between women and the details of women's lives in a kind of intimate way. I think that's one of the beautiful parts of the storytelling." Last Days of the Space Age streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Images: Joel Pratley, Tony Mott and Mark Rogers.
Live every week like it's scam week: on streaming platforms throughout 2022 so far, that's basically been the motto. Indeed, a line from one of the year's big swindle hits so far, Netflix's Inventing Anna, sums up this current spate of con artist-obsessed viewing perfectly: scam culture is here to stay. Dramatising the Theranos scandal, eight-part miniseries The Dropout is the third high-profile release in a month to relive a wild true-crime tale — following not only the Anna Delvey-focused Inventing Anna, about the fake German heiress who conned her way through New York City's elite, but also documentary The Tinder Swindler, which steps through defrauding via dating app at the hands of Israeli imposter Simon Leviev. Made by Hulu in the US and streaming on Disney+ via its Star expansion Down Under, as fellow reality-to-screen 2022 release Pam & Tommy did as well, it also dives into the horror-inducing Dr Death-esque realm. When a grift doesn't just mess with money and hearts, but with health and lives, it's pure nightmare fuel. To tell the story of Theranos, The Dropout has to tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley biotech outfit's founder and CEO from the age of 19. Played by a captivating, career-best Amanda Seyfried — on par with her Oscar-nominated work in Mank, but clearly in a vastly dissimilar role — the Steve Jobs-worshipping Holmes is seen explaining her company's name early in its first episode. It's derived from the words "therapy" and "diagnosis", she stresses, although history already dictates that it offered little of either. Spawned from Holmes' idea to make taking blood simpler and easier, using just one drop from a small finger prick, it failed to deliver, lied about it copiously and still launched to everyday consumers, putting important medical test results in jeopardy. That's the quick version of Theranos' gambit for the uninitiated, but The Dropout takes its time unfurling the full roster of ups and downs (including the fact that it was valued at $10 billion in 2013 and 2014). Created by showrunner and co-writer Elizabeth Merriwether — who was also behind TV sitcom New Girl — it draws its details from the American ABC News podcast of the same name, and doesn't skimp on the infuriating and complicated minutiae. In the beginning, Holmes is the kind of teen who listens to pop tunes to pump herself up and convince herself that she can do anything. She's studious and serious, and also desperate to be known for something. Then, as the series jumps between key years in Theranos' lifespan, she adopts an all-black, turtleneck-heavy wardrobe and deepens her vocal tones to get backers to invest their cash in an idea that doesn't work. A veil of secrecy surrounds the company, including for employees — and to say that questions aren't aren't welcomed is an understatement. Female fraudsters are doing it for themselves, screwing over everyone else and speaking in distinctive voices: that's another theme pumping through both Inventing Anna and The Dropout. But where the former is gleefully glossy and never overly interested in the why of it all, the latter knows that, for the people who relied upon Theranos for crucial health results, it's in potential life-or-death territory. It plays this tale straight and grim, and is also well-aware that it needn't be subtle about getting its point across. Of course, there's an inherent statement lurking in the reality of Holmes' life and lies, and the fact that they so easily tick all of the expected boxes. Hailing from a wealthy family, getting into Stanford, convincing her parents to invest her tuition money into Theranos when she dropped out (hence the title), boasting the connections to stump up other funders: it all follows a familiar path, which is a glaring indictment upon a society that gives rise to these types of scams over and over. When Seyfried's version of Holmes is seen talking to the camera, another recent account of a woman and a swindle springs to mind: The Eyes of Tammy Faye, for which Jessica Chastain is nominated for Best Actress at this year's Academy Awards. That film and the first four episodes of The Dropout share a director in Michael Showalter, who has a thematic niche at present, and also keeps working with talented actors putting in phenomenal lead performances. The skill on Seyfried's part to convey all of Holmes' personality quirks without coming across as cartoonish or a caricature can't be underestimated; it's impossible to stop watching her Holmes, even as every move she makes is exasperating. She's surrounded by an impressive lineup of fellow cast members — Lost's Naveen Andrews as Holmes' boyfriend and Theranos' Chief Operating Officer Sunny Balwani chief among them, plus everyone from Stephen Fry and Succession's Alan Ruck to Law & Order mainstay Sam Waterston and Inventing Anna's Kate Burton — but Seyfried is mesmerisingly exceptional, without ever really earning sympathy for Holmes in the process. We may just be living in peak scandal-to-screen times, with new examples dropping faster than almost anyone can reasonably watch them. Joe vs Carole, featuring original The Dropout star Kate McKinnon, is just new to streaming queues, too; WeCrashed, the Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway-starring WeWork drama, also arrives in March; and Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the company's former CEO Travis Kalanick, has premiered in the US ahead of arriving Down Under. Still, while The Dropout has plenty of company, it's easily one of the genre's standouts. The complex tale it relays, the performance it brings with it, the message it screams and the fact that, at every turn, it fleshes out the who, what and why: they're all pivotal and potent. Scam culture might be here to stay, but it isn't enough to just gawk its way — and The Dropout and its powerful take truly understands this. Check out the trailer for The Dropout below: The first four episodes episodes of The Dropout are available to stream via Disney+, with new episodes dropping weekly. Images: Beth Dubber/Hulu.
After three months behind closed doors, the Woollahra Hotel has reopened following some well-earned renovations. Built in the 1930s, the Woollahra Hotel is one of the east's landmark pubs — so it's nice to see the owners have opted for some gentle tweaking – rather than a complete overhaul. From the outside, Woollahra's still got that classic art deco aesthetic, with toffee-colored bricks and rounded cornices, but the front bar and restaurant have both been given a serious spruce. So what's changed? Well, the locals' front bar looks as good as ever, polished to within an inch of its life. It's still a great spot to bend an elbow after a game at the SCG or Moore Park. The biggest shift has been in the kitchen, where new head chef Jordan Muhamad (ex-Rockpool, Spice Temple, Chin Chin) has given the menu an Asian-inspired twist: think steamed snapper ($29), a selection of house-made curries and Hiramasa Kingfish sashimi. Head over on a Thursday night for curry night where you can nab your curry of choice with a serve of rice and a drink. And that's just the bar menu. There's also Bistro Moncur, hidden within the pub, newly refurbished, led by head chef Mark Williamson, dishing up some of Sydney's best French grub. Moncur has always been fancy date-night territory: Barossa chicken pâté, grilled sirloin and saffron crab omelettes, with a mix of local and international wines to wash it all down. Moncur Cellars' Mark Blake is handling the vino, and he's clearly got a thing for organic, vegan and preservative-free drops. There's a top-shelf cocktail menu, too, re-designed from the ground up. The Woollahra's open-air terrace is still there, with its fern-covered vertical garden, pink neon and dangling pendant lights, which are sure to please the Instagram crowd. A bit of razzle-dazzle with a rump steak never hurt anyone, after all. Appears in: The Best Rooftop Bars in Sydney
If you've ever felt a little hungover or lazy in the last few years, you'll know exactly how incredible online ordering systems likeDelivery Hero are. Shopping online for pizza is a thing of beauty, and the fact that it can come straight to your door, already paid for with minimum human contact is a marvel of modern technology. But now they've gone one step further: Delivery Hero are introducing the same service for your pets. Currently only available in Sydney, Doggy Bag is an extenuation of the service you know and love that offers a range of "gourmet takeaway meals for pets". No, your dog won't be subjected to the greasy Pad Thai and pepperoni pizza you were planning on gorging on. These dishes will be made to sufficient nutrition standards with minimum seasoning — your loving pet really shouldn't be punished for how lazy you are. Ranging from $5-9, Doggy Bags are currently available from 10 Sydney restaurants including Erskineville Turkish Pide & Kebabs, Micky's Cafe in Paddington and Millennium Pizzeria in Darlington. The menu options will include penne in a meat sauce with chicken, zucchini, carrots and pumpkin; and boiled chicken fillet with tumeric and garden vegetables. "Everyone we approached was very excited to develop meals for pets," said Delivery Hero marketing executive Guillaume Papillion. "The restaurants were all briefed with what ingredients they should and should not use. Onions, for instance, are toxic to dogs." The owner of Taste of India in Double Bay even consulted a vet on whether dogs could eat tumeric (they can). Though it's only been available for a few days, the service looks promising. Delivery Hero claim they already have plans to expand the reach of Doggy Bags across Sydney and the rest of the country. So, look out: there's a good chance your pets will be eating better than you in the coming months. Via Good Food.
He won't have two turntables with him, but he will be getting behind a microphone — 90s icon Beck, that is, at Bluesfest 2023. The 'Loser', 'Where It's At', 'Devil's Haircut' and 'Sexx Laws' singer has just been added to the Byron Bay festival's already-huge lineup, and he'll be playing an intimate acoustic show on his first-ever visit to the event. Beck will head to Australia almost three decades after 'Loser' brought him to fame, and got lodged in every 90s teen's head for the entire decade (and ever since). He has a hefty list of material to draw upon, though, thanks to 14 records since his 1993 debut album Golden Feelings, including 1996's acclaimed Odelay and 1998's Midnite Vultures. Yes, start making Easter plans now if you haven't already. Those dates: Thursday, April 6–Monday, April 10, which is when the annual festival returns to Byron Events Farm at Tyagarah for its 34th event. Beck joins a lineup that already includes Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, Bonnie Raitt and Gang of Youths leading the bill, plus Jackson Browne, Tash Sultana, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Jimmy Barnes with The Barnestormers, and Talib Kweli, GZA and Big Freedia as special guests of The Soul Rebels. As usual, Bluesfest's roster of talent spans a hefty array of music genres — blues and roots, obviously, but also soul, rock, hip hop, R&B and more — with Beth Hart, Buddy Guy, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and The Dukes, The Cat Empire and Xavier Rudd also set to take to the stage. Rockwiz Live will be doing its thing, too, in the perfect setting. With Beck's addition, 50 acts have been announced for what organisers are calling "the first original style Bluesfest since the world's borders re-opened". While the fest went ahead in 2022 after two years of pandemic cancellations (and a thwarted temporary move to October for the same reason), it showcased a primarily Australian and New Zealand lineup. With the return of international travel, Bluesfest can welcome top-notch acts from around the globe again. BLUESFEST 2023 LINEUP: 19-Twenty Allison Russell The Barnestormers Beck Beth Hart The Black Sorrows Bonnie Raitt Buddy Guy The Cat Empire Chain Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram Counting Crows The Doobie Brothers Elvis Costello & The Imposters Eric Gales Femi Kuti & The Positive Force Gang of Youths Greensky Bluegrass Jackson Brown Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit Joe Bonamassa Joe Camilleri Presents: A Star-Studded Tribute to the Greats of the Blues Jon Stevens Kaleo Keb' Mo' Band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Lachy Doley and The Horns of Conviction Larkin Poe Lp Lucinda Williams Marcus King Mavis Staples Michael Franti & Spearhead Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats Nikki Hill Robert Glasper Rockwiz Live The Soul Rebels & Friends with special guests Talib Kweli, GZA and Big Freedia Southern Avenue Spinifex Gum featuring Marliya Steve Earle & The Duke St Paul & The Broken Bones Tash Sultana Vintage Trouble Xavier Rudd Bluesfest 2023 will run from Thursday, April 6–Monday, April 10 at Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah. Season passes are on sale now. For further information, head to the Bluesfest website.
One of 2018's most interesting Australian documentaries told a unique and intriguing tale, stepping into the life of Sydney's Jason King. When the real-life figure isn't working as a security guard, he's out hunting ghosts, although he's not always doing the latter quite as literally as it might seem. King does indeed have a penchant for the paranormal, as well as a side business busting spirits out of people's houses. But, given that the first ghost he says he ever saw belonged to his own brother, who told him that he needed to find their estranged father, he's also haunted by his past. After hitting the big screen last year at film festivals and in general release, Ghosthunter is now taking on a second life — a fitting development, given its subject matter. As hosted by documentarian and filmmaker Ben Lawrence (who helmed the doco about King, plus this year's Hugo Weaving-starring Hearts and Bones), the film has now inspired a five-part podcast, delving further into this strange and compelling story. Released by Audible, it's available to listen to from today, Tuesday, July 23. It's great news for anyone who saw the movie and wanted to know more, and for folks who didn't get around to watching it just yet as well. And, it's obviously a stellar development for true-crime buffs, with Ghosthunter's five 30-minute episodes featuring police investigations, court dramas, family secrets, difficult traumas, murky mysteries, estranged figures from King's history and — naturally — hunting ghosts. Lawrence spent seven years turning King's tale into a documentary, so he has plenty of extra details to share. He starts with King's first ghostly memory, unpacking the rollercoaster ride of a story from that point onwards. In a podcast that doesn't just dabble with true crime, but with family memoir, it helps that King himself makes for an equally charismatic and eccentric character. As Lawrence explains: "you never know how deep the rabbit hole will take you. There were so many personal twists and turns over the seven years creating Ghosthunter that I found myself deeply immersed in Jason's life — I was even the best man at his wedding." Ghosthunter joins Audible's growing slate of Australian content, following in the footsteps of Marc Fennell's It Burns podcast, about the competitive world of breeding super hot chillies. Ghosthunter is available now on Audible — as part of existing member subscriptions, or free with a 30-day trial. The documentary can be rented on YouTube, Google Play and the iTunes Store.
Have brekkie at Jo and Willys and you'll be able to handle anything — from conquering the Bondi to Bronte walk to lazing about on the beach till dusk. North Bondi locals queue at this corner cafe for some of the heartiest, freshest breakfasts around. They're created by co-owner and head chef Guy Turland, star of YouTube phenomenon Bondi Harvest. And they're served all day long. Tuck into the Hipster Three Grain Breakfast Bowl, starring wild rice, quinoa and pearl barley, or the Green Eggs and Ham, with prosciutto and rocket cigar with hummus, poached eggs, and kale (in both wilted and chips form). Then there are the views. Outside, on a wooden stool, you'll be feasting your eyes of Bondi Beach panoramas. Inside, on a church pew or old-fashioned school desk, you can still see generous swathes of ocean, thanks to the huge windows, which fold away when the sun's shining.
"Darling it's better down where it's wetter," Disney's animated hit The Little Mermaid told us; however, the Mouse House also thinks that life is pretty great on top of the water. For nearly a quarter-century, the huge entertainment company has been taking fans of its ever-growing array of pop culture wares on themed vacations, all thanks to its Disney Cruise Line. Alas, setting sail from Australia and Aotearoa hasn't been a possibility — until now. Come October 2023, Disney Cruise Line will head Down Under for the first time ever, running Disney-themed holiday cruises from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland. And yes, given that Disney own plenty of huge franchises, that means these stints at sea are Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars-themed as well. The Mouse House's first 'Magic at Sea' Australian and NZ cruises will depart from October 28, 2023, with the season running through till February 2024. On offer: sailings for two, three, four, five and six nights — your pick — where you'll watch live musical shows, see Disney characters everywhere you look and eat in spaces decked out like Disney movies. Those musicals include a Frozen show; another production dedicated to the company's old-school favourites like Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Cinderella and Aladdin; and a Golden Mickeys performance, which is obviously all about Mickey Mouse. Or, there's a Mickey party set to DJ beats, nightly fireworks and a pirate shindig on the vessel's deck. While not every show and party is available on all cruises — especially the two-night option — the entertainment also includes Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Moana, Tiana, Cinderella, Woody, Jessie and more wandering around the ship. And, Chewbacca, Rey, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and Thor as well, if you like hanging out around folks in costumes. The dining setup rotates, so each day of the cruise takes you to a different location with a different theme. One day, you'll hit up the Animator's Palate, which focuses on bringing Disney characters to life — including getting patrons to draw their own characters — and on the next, you'll get munching in a restaurant inspired by The Princess and the Frog, and serving up New Orleans-inspired dishes. Or, there's also Triton's, which offers an under the sea theme given it's named after Ariel's father, and serves four-course French and American suppers. For folks travelling with young Disney devotees, there's also a whole range of activities just for kids — but adults without littlies in tow are definitely catered for, complete with a dedicated pool for travellers aged 18 and over, an adults-only cafe, the Crown & Fin pub, cocktail bar Signals, Italian eatery Palo, and a day spa and salon. Dates for Disney Cruise Line's first trips from Australia and New Zealand vary per city of departure, as do prices, but you can expect to enter this whole new ocean-faring world from $720 per person for two nights in a double-occupancy room from Sydney, $546 from Melbourne and $755 from Brisbane, and $760 per person for three nights in a double-occupancy room from Auckland. And, room-wise, there's ten different types to choose from — some with private verandahs, and some with ocean views through portholes. Disney Cruise Line's 'Magic at Sea' cruises will sail from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland between October 2023–February 2024, with bookings open from 8am AEST / 11am NZDT on Thursday, September 29, 2022. For more information, head to the cruise line's website. Images: Matt Stroshane / Kent Phillips.
They're called The Kindred, not The Family. Adrienne Beaufort is their leader, not Anne Hamilton-Byrne. But there's no mistaking the inspiration for JP Pomare's book In the Clearing and its new eight-part Disney+ adaptation The Clearing, which streams from Wednesday, May 24. Exploring the inner workings of an Australian cult based in rural Victoria, spouting New Age sentiments mixed with doomsday thinking, fixated upon blonde-haired children and led by a charismatic woman — a rare female cult leader — this tale fictionalises the real-life details documented in countless newspaper headlines since the 80s, and also in Rosie Jones' 2016 documentary The Family and 2019 series The Cult of the Family. Amid their so-wild-they-can-only-be-true stories, both of Jones' projects showed viewers the eerie image of children with platinum locks in severe bobs and dressed in matching blue attire. That distinctive look is similarly at the heart of Disney+'s first original scripted Aussie drama. In the earlier of its timelines, Amy (Julia Savage, Blaze) dons the tresses and uniform as one of the older children at Adrienne's (Miranda Otto, Wellmania) Blackmarsh bush compound — one being prepared to be her heir, and made an accomplice in the group's quest to add more kids to its ranks. Initially dutiful, the teenager is soon questioning the only existence she's ever known, with its harsh rules, strict aunties keeping everyone in line between Adrienne's sporadic visits, weekend services attended by well-to-do acolytes and, sharing the show's title, its LSD-fuelled confessional sessions. The catalyst for Amy's growing unease: assisting The Kindred to kidnap schoolgirl Sara (Lily LaTorre, Run Rabbit Run). Even before her hair is bleached, the eight-year-old that's rechristened Asha rejects her new home. So, as Aunty Tamsin (Kate Mulvany, Hunters) and Aunty Hannah (Anna Lise Phillips, Irreverent) struggle with the brood's latest addition, Amy is charged with helping her new sister assimilate. Creators and writers Elise McCredie (Stateless) and Matt Cameron (Jack Irish), co-scripting with Osamah Sami (Ali's Wedding), aren't solely interested in the rituals and restrictions at the heart of the cult, however, although they find much to mine in its routines, power games and warped dynamics. As it jumps between the past and present, The Clearing is even more concerned with the interplay between control and choice — and the trauma that springs both from a life enforced upon someone and from the decisions they willingly make. "They are as pure and untainted as it is possible to be," Adrienne tells her followers of Amy and her so-called siblings. "A generation raised away from the suffocating rules of society, nurtured under the most perfect conditions," she continues. Even if The Clearing didn't dart forward, then return to The Kindred's heyday, the twisted reality behind those words couldn't be more apparent. There's nothing idyllic about Amy's upbringing, where Tamsin plays cruel disciplinarian, Hannah's exasperation hangs in the air, Adrienne's conditional love and fleeting presence are dangled as carrots, and only Henrik Wilczek (Erroll Shand, The Justice of Bunny King) offers a reliable source of kindness. There's nothing caring about The Kindred co-founder Dr Bryce Latham (Guy Pearce, Mare of Easttown), either, who reinforces just how calculating this sect is about its operations. When The Clearing dwells in the now, still in Victoria at its leafiest, nothing evades the smear of heartbreak and damage as well. Indeed, when single mother Freya Heywood (Teresa Palmer, Ride Like a Girl) hears about a girl being abducted, she can't shake the feeling that history is repeating. She dotes over her primary school-aged son Billy (debutant Flynn Wandin), but she's also visibly nervous and anxious. When she keeps spotting a white van, she's a portrait of panic. In an apt opening image — the show's very first scene — Freya is initially introduced in a lake, submerged up to her shoulders before disappearing below. The Clearing's directors Jeffrey Walker (Lambs of God) and Gracie Otto (Seriously Red) bring this sight to mind often, including what happens next: the surface is still, Freya is lost to the water and her descent into its depths goes unnoticed by the surrounding world. How the show's timelines connect is one of its original mysteries, but the series brings 2011 movie Martha Marcy May Marlene to mind, too. Also a tautly made and atmospheric psychological thriller, the film flits between life within a cult and the difficulties coming out the other side; Love & Death's Elizabeth Olsen plays its many-monikered namesake, while Deadwood alum John Hawkes throws around his menace. The Endless, 2017's brain-bender about two adults returning to the UFO death cult they were a part of as kids, likewise bobs up — and, thanks to Freya's impressive remote home and a throughline about the sway that parents hold over their offspring, Hereditary does as well. As it ponders people forever changed and frayed by an inescapable influence, and how that shapes their paths as adults, The Clearing is clearly in exceptional company. With Savage, Palmer and Otto at its centre, The Clearing also fills its frames with impressive talent. In Blaze and now this, Savage continues to excel as young women dealt tragic hands by fate, and never paints her characters as victims first and foremost; complicated teens feeling every possible emotion in response to complex situations are becoming the rising talent's speciality. Palmer wears Freya's pain and agitation like a second skin, bearing the shattering weight of being unable to clean a murky past out of her head and heart, too. And Otto is transfixing as Adrienne, splashing around a brand of charisma that can keep a congregation in her thrall, and mistreated children, but can't patch over the imposing figure's dangerous sense of self-importance, her masterful scheming and the lengths she's willing to go to to have her flock in her sway. Brandishing its ties to The Family so overtly, and starring a who's who of Aussie film and TV — Claudia Karvan (Bump), Mark Coles-Smith (Mystery Road: Origin), Hazem Shammas (The Twelve), Xavier Samuel (Elvis), Harry Greenwood (Wakefield), Matt Okine (The Other Guy) and Doris Younane (Five Bedrooms) also feature — The Clearing was always going to intrigue, and has since being announced by Disney in mid-2022. That's why viewers will initially press play, but it isn't what makes the series so riveting. It's one thing to dramatise a notorious cult that drugged adults and kids with psychedelics, and to examine the woman pulling the strings. It's another to convey such a range of swirling mindsets, motivations, impacts and coping mechanisms, and so comprehensively and probingly. Chillingly and gripping from the outset, The Clearing haunts far more than just its on-screen characters. Check out the trailer for The Clearing below: The Clearing streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, May 24.
Even under normal circumstances, heading to the UK to see a theatre show isn't in most folks' budgets — which is why, for years now, Britain's National Theatre has beamed its performances into cinemas around the world via a series called NT Live. At the moment, with venues closed across the globe, the latter is obviously on hiatus. Enter a new initiative: National Theatre at Home. As the name makes plain, National Theatre is making its previously recorded productions available to viewers at home — so you can now get cosy on your lounge, put your feet up and pretend you're at the theatre. Shows will stream for free via NT's YouTube channel, with a different performance available each week. Each production will launch on a Friday morning, Australian and New Zealand time, then be available to stream for seven days. It all kicks off with Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors starring James Corden, who won a Tony Award for his performance in the production's 2012 Broadway run. Catch it from 5am AEST on Friday, April 3 (7pm UK time on Thursday, April 2). Then, head back on April 10 for Sally Cookson's stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, journey to Bryony Lavery's version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island on April 17 and enjoy William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on April 24. On May 1, one of National Theatre's biggest and best shows will drop: its stripped-back version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as directed by Trainspotting and Yesterday's Danny Boyle, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. When the production was performed live back in 2011, Cumberbatch and Miller swapped roles each night, alternating between playing Victor Frankenstein and his revived creation — and both versions are hitting the NT's YouTube Channel. After that, on May 7, comes more Shakespeare: Antony & Cleopatra, featuring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as the fated titular couple. Then, when May 14 rolls around, viewers can check out a never-bef0re-seen archival recording of Inua Ellam's Barber Shop Chronicles. Fans of classic American plays and fantastic actors can look forward to A Streetcar Named Desire from May 21 — with none other than Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois, alongside Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby. On May 28, James Graham's This House will hit YouTube, while June 4 sees Tom Hiddleston join forces with the Bard for a performance of Coriolanus. Keep an eye on the National Theatre at Home website, too, because more productions are likely to be added afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh9_EdHDsV4 Top images: A Streetcar Named Desire, Johan Persson. Frankenstein, 2011, photo by Catherine Ashmore. Jane Eyre, 2015, Manuel Harlan. One Man, Two Guvnors by Bean, Author - Richard Bean, Director - Nicholas Hytner, Designer - Mark Thompson, Lighting - Mark Henderson, The National Theatre, 2011, Credit: Johan Persson. Updated May 9.
Greek street food fans have reason to throw down a solid jig in the inner west today, with the opening of Drummoyne's Zeus Street Greek. Founded by a patriotic team of first generation Hellenic Australians (a formidable collaboration between the team behind Crust Gourmet Pizza and Pony Dining Group), Zeus is modernising souvlaki for the contemporary Greek food lover. Armed with traditional recipes and cooking methods passed down through five generations, Zeus are set to serve up Mirool Creek lamb cooked ‘kontosouvli' — a traditional skewer-grilled Cypriot method resulting geared for a little tenderness. "The inspiration for Zeus was to give Sydneysiders an innovative food experience that incorporates the founders’ passion for Hellenic food, culture and tradition," say the Zeus team, who plan to open more instalments in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. "Zeus pays homage to the 'God of hospitality' and the Greek custom of filoxenia or 'showing hospitality to all'. Renowned in Greek culture filoxenia translates to everyone being welcome in a Hellenic house where there is always food and wine to be shared whether it’s with old friends or new." Savoury street-style splendour at Zeus comes dine-in, takeaway or delivered to your Drummoyne doorstep. The eponymous house specialty, The Zeus, is set to be a Greek street food staple worth crossing the city for — slow-cooked lamb with Aegean slaw, smoked eggplant, onion and parsley in fresh pita. Theres the Uncle 'Tzimmy' Classic, with chargrilled lamb, pork or chicken with tomato, tzatziki, onion, paprika in pita (with the all-important chips) and ancient grain salads and mezze dishes for vegetarians (think marinated olives, spanakopita and the salty, salty monarch of Greek food — halloumi). Then for dessert, smoosh your face into Zeus' fig and cinnamon rizogalo. Going hungry isn't an option at Zeus. "When a Greek family hosts you, you’re treated like a guest of honour whether they’ve known you your whole life or you’ve just met that day," says the Zeus team. "Greeks welcome everyone with open arms and make sure that you don’t go hungry while you’re a guest of theirs. It’s this feeling of being welcomed in to the extended family that is brought to life when people drop in to Zeus." So what's this about free food? To celebrate the cutting of the red ribbon, Zeus will be giving away free souvla this Saturday 14 June between 12 and 3pm to everyone who drops in. Free. Souvla. Plus, they'll donate $2 from every souvla given away to Father Chris O’Riley’s Youth Off The Streets charity. That's some feelgood free food we can get behind. Opa! Zeus Street Greek can be found at 189 Lyons Road, Drummoyne. 'I Love Souvla Saturdays' start Saturday 14 June from 12-3pm (every customer nabs themself a free souvla).
Got a ticket to the game? What you need now is a trusty pub for a pre- or post-game bevvie, or two. No ticket? What you need is a pub with a big screen — chances are, you'll have a better view than half the people in the stadium. The trick is finding the right spot. For a venue to be game friendly, several elements need to be on point: well-positioned screens, a decent sound system, a friendly — albeit feverishly competitive — atmosphere, and quality food and beer. After all, watching a match can feel as taxing as playing one, so fuelling up and cooling down correctly is essential. We've joined forces with Heineken to round up four pubs that won't let you down. They're scattered across the eastern suburbs, the inner west and the lower north shore. So, wherever you are, both the game and a refreshing Heineken will be within reach.
Originally greenlit back in 2017, construction on Urbnsurf Sydney's massive man-made surf park is currently underway, and the finished site now has a brand-new opening date: autumn 2024. The $50-million development will hit a 3.2-hectare site in Sydney Olympic Park next year from the team behind Australia's first surf park, featuring perfect waves year-round, plus a slate of freshly announced food and beverage offerings. Sydney surfers can expect a diamond-shaped lagoon pumping out waves up to two metres in height. Thanks to LED lighting illuminating the man-made waves after dark, visitors will also have the option of an evening swim. The lagoon will be capable of churning out waves every eight seconds, with surfers set to catch between ten and 12 waves per hour. When surfers are done riding waves, Urbnsurf Sydney will also feature a wellness studio, skate park, hot tubs, beach cabanas and a surf academy for those looking to take their surfing to the next level. On top of all that, one of Sydney's premier hospitality groups, Applejack, has been put in charge of the culinary offerings at the park. Applejack owns and operates eight venues across Sydney, including Forrester's, The Butler, RAFI and Bopp & Tone. The team will be bringing the same produce- and service-driven approach found at its venues to Urbnsurf Sydney's premium restaurant with a rooftop terrace, waterfront cafe and takeaway kiosk. Applejack joins the Urbnsurf family alongside farm-to-table favourites Three Blue Ducks, who provide the food and drink offerings down in Melbourne. Urbnsurf CEO Damon Tudor said he was excited to use what the company had learned in Melbourne to bring a new inclusive way to surf to Sydney. "Growing up in the west and as a Sydneysider, we are blessed with a stunning coastline of surf beaches, but access to those beaches and crowding in the lineup is becoming an increasing issue." [caption id="attachment_871263" align="alignnone" width="1920"] RAFI North Sydney[/caption] Urbnsurf Sydney is excepted to open in Sydney Olympic Park in autumn 2024.
Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum invites visitors into the world of First Nations fashion and textile design. Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion runs until January 19, 2025 and reveals the depth and diversity of cultures across Australia. The title of the exhibition, Piinpi, is an expression from the Kanichi Thampanyu people (East Coast Cape York Peninsula) that reflects 'seasonal changes' and regeneration of Country. The gallery's curator, Kaantju woman Shonae Hobson, has commissioned works from some of the country's top designers. Those include hand-printed designs (using ancient techniques) by Gunnai, Wiradjuri, Gunditjmara and Yorta Yorta woman Lyn-Al Young, Teagan Cowlishaw's sparkly Deadly Kween jumpsuit (made from upcycled materials) and sculptural wearable art pieces by Grace Lillian Lee. [caption id="attachment_792476" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Grace Lillian Lee 'Body Armour'[/caption] Top image: Elisa Jan Carmichael, CIAF 2017 Saltwater Footprints Collection; Photo: Tim Ashton
You could spend a weekend in Broken Hill doing nothing but gazing at the sky. In autumn, huge cloud formations battle against the sun all day long, and, come evening, you've never seen so many stars. Perhaps it's this, along with the striking red earth of the surrounding desert, that attracts so many artists to this 18,000-person outback town, about 1200 kilometres west of Sydney and 850 kilometres north of Melbourne. Between gallery visits you can wander among grand 19th century architecture, have a yarn in proper country pubs (you'll be getting burgers, not sliders, 'round 'ere) and head underground to experience some legendary history, from mining to illicit two-up. Plus, there's a museum dedicated to Mad Max 2. Hit the road. [caption id="attachment_580402" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Simon Yeo via Flickr[/caption] SEE AND DO Let's start with the art. 90 minutes before sundown, drive to the 180-hectare Living Desert Reserve. On a hilltop affording 360-degree views, there's a dozen sculptures created by artists from all over the world, and strategically positioned to catch the sun's dying rays. The nearby 1.5-kilometre cultural trail features epic Sturt's Desert Pea displays and Indigenous story poles. Back in town, immerse yourself in the world's biggest acrylic painting on canvas by a single artist (Ando's 100-metre x 12-metre landscape), swing by Pro Hart Gallery and ramble around the many spaces of the high-ceilinged Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery. To get the lowdown on the area's history, join a Silver City Sights and Heritage Tour. In a comfy, air-conditioned bus, you'll cover 50 kilometres and over 100 years — from BHP's first mining of silver and lead in 1885 (BHP, by the way, stands for Broken Hill Proprietary) to the 2001 building of the Line of Lode Miners Memorial, which commemorates more than 800 miners killed on the job. [caption id="attachment_575825" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Jasmine Crittenden[/caption] Mining is still a dangerous business, but it was way more terrifying in the 1880s. Get acquainted with its historical extremes at the Day Dream Mine, 33 kilometres northwest of Broken Hill. Back then, workers did it so tough for so little, their bosses handed out opium to ease the pain — presumably cheaper than paying sick leave — and when the drugs wore off, horehound beer was the next refuge, often sending drinkers blind for a day or two (hence the phrase 'blind drunk'). You'll hear these and other tales while squeezing through tunnels 30 metres underground. Recover with scones and tea in the homestead. [caption id="attachment_582402" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Amanda Slater via Flickr[/caption] Another 15 or so kilometres west, the outback proper begins at Silverton. Home to just over 600 people, this tiny town peaked in the 1890s when silver was found nearby, and is now an arty enclave, where donkeys roam wild and days end best with a beer at the famous Silverton Hotel. Among its crowded walls — which are hung with guitars, trumpets, Akubras and empty stubbies — you'll find souvenirs from the many film crews to have passed through, from Wake In Fright (1970) to Mad Max 2 (1981) to Razorback (1984). Delve deeper into movie history at the Mad Max 2 Museum. Opened by obsessive collector Adrian Bennett in 2010, this shed is crammed with behind-the-scenes photos, costumes and vehicles, including the original gyrocopter and interceptor. When you're max-ed out, meander around Silverton, visiting The Horizon Gallery, the John Dynan Art Gallery and the Silverton Gaol Museum, before driving four kilometres north to Mundi Mundi Plains to watch the sun set over what looks like the edge of the world. EAT AND DRINK In most of Broken Hill's pubs and restaurants, you can count on hearty, meat-heavy cooking — mammoth-sized feeds that reward a long day of hard yakka. At The Palace Hotel — where Mitzi, Felicia and Bernadette stopped over during The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert — dig into crispy-skinned, grilled Atlantic salmon with dill, creamy garlic sauce, mash, veg and a splash of Chardonnay. If you're dining on a Friday, hang around afterwards for a game of two-up — The Palace is the only place in Australia where it's legal all year-long. Before 1984, you would've dropped into Broken Hill's illicit two-up school, held behind a green door on Crystal Lane. Two blocks away is the majestic, heritage-listed Astra. This swish hotel, built in the 1890s, has eight suites and a big, shady verandah. Downstairs, relax over a cocktail in the Red Lush Lounge or slide into a cosy, high-backed chair in Trinders restaurant for a modern Australian feast, like their signature surf 'n' turf: fillet steak topped with king prawns, grilled banana, hollandaise and seasonal veggies. There are a few cafes bringing more contemporary fare to the outback. Get your single origin coffee fix at health-minded, family-owned The Silly Goat on the main drag. Among the sunflowers, burnt orange feature walls and timber tables, you'll also find their "turmeric elixir", cold-pressed juices, house-baked treats and inner-city-style mains, like the haloumi burger with mushies, beetroot relish and aioli. A few blocks to the northwest, outside the GP Super Clinic, is The Caff, opened by local couple Summa and Nathan Rayner in February 2014. The fun fit-out was a 100 percent DIY job, from the blue tartan seats ripped straight out of a school bus to the recycled wooden tables. Every dish on the menu is made from scratch. Try just-baked waffles packed with zucchini and corn and stacked with chilli con carne and guacamole, a gourmet pie or some bread and butter pudding-style French toast. And just south of the town centre, there's Bells Milk Bar. This isn't one of those trendy, ironic, retro-themed places — it's the real thing. It's been open since the 1930s and the decor dates to the 1950s. The syrups, cordials and ice cream are all made in-house in small batches, according to secret recipes. Choose from over 40 milkshake flavours or 16 spiders, slip into a booth in the back room and crank some Bill Haley and The Comets on the juke box. STAY For oodles of space and light, a king-size bed, a spa and a separate lounge area — including your own mini-kitchen — check into the Red Earth Motel. The spick-and-span interiors are inspired by the desert. Think luxe white linen dotted with earthy-patterned pillows and lounge chairs in reds and ochres. If you're travelling in a group, book into a two- or three-bedroom apartment. The shaded swimming pool lets you cool off after a busy day of sun and adventures. Meanwhile, you can sleep under an original artwork at Ibis Styles. Owned by locals Michael and Dana Farcich for 27 years, these lodgings were known as the Mine Host Motel before being acquired by Accor in the mid-2000s. 42 two-toned rooms stretch across two storeys, encircling a central pool. There's also an on-site restaurant, the glass-walled, green-and-purple-lit S-Que, where country dishes are given fancy touches. The steak, for example, is a 450-gram, chargrilled Tomahawk behemoth, with kipfler potato chips, rosemary salt, house coleslaw and portobello mushroom sauce. You probably won't need to eat again until you're at the other end of the drive home. Jasmine Crittenden travelled as a guest of Destination NSW. Top image: Simon Yeo via Flickr.
"It's a hard film to Google," says Molly Manning Walker of How to Have Sex, simply due to her debut feature's moniker. "Everyone's always really loved the title, and it's been the title since the beginning. I guess it gets complex when it goes onto the internet and you get bots saying 'maybe I'll learn something' or 'they think they could teach me how to have sex'," the British writer/director continues. "The only thing I think someone once said was 'why don't we call it How Not to Have Sex?'. And I was like 'I think that's too obvious'. As it spends time with three 16-year-old British girls on a boozy Greek getaway to Malia, Crete — a Schoolies-esque rite-of-passage vacation where getting sloshed, soaking up the sun and slipping between the sheets are the only aims — How to Have Sex is as candid as its name. But Walker is never interested in being bluntly overt or neat; rather, everything about the movie is honest, raw and authentic. Premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and collecting the Un Certain Regard Award in the process, her picture resonates because it's so lived in, so ripped from reality and so familiar to everyone who has ever been a teenager. It isn't a slice-of-life documentary, but finding someone who doesn't recognise their own youth in its frames will be rare. Walker doesn't just understand that sensation, which she's seen firsthand among audiences after screenings; she's in the same camp. Amid its fluorescent colours, strobing lights and sweaty intimacy, How to Have Sex sports a doco feel because its guiding force's own teen experiences partly inform this tale of Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Vampire Academy) and her best friends Em (debutant Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake, Halo) heading abroad to let loose, drink away their days and hook up. That includes witnessing fellatio on a stage in front of a heaving crowd, a scene in the feature — and in actuality — that couldn't say more about how cavalier that teen attitudes on sex can be, especially when aided by free-flowing alcohol. It also helps show the mindsets, plus the lack of thinking, that contribute to not taking an active approach to consent. How to Have Sex sees Tara lose her virginity in an inebriated haze of coercion and peer pressure. It also sees how and why a situation like this is so heartbreakingly common and recognisable, and unravels the aftermath. Walker's aim isn't to direct judgement at any character within the film, but to start conversations. Workshops also helped her gauge IRL takes on consent among today's teens. In England and Wales, How to Have Sex will now be shown to the age group it depicts as part of lawyer-led sessions run by the Schools Consent Project. With her first stint in the director's chair — she's also a cinematographer, lensing Scrapper, which debuted at Sundance 2023 — Walker has made an unforgettable feature. The BAFTA-nominee has also crafted a piece of essential viewing. And, as she always hoped, it is sparking discussions. "I think even without these holidays as such, these experiences happen when you're out and about in your local town as well. So I think as much as it was a comment on these holidays, it's a bigger conversation than that for sure," Walker says. Still, wanting that to be the outcome wasn't the same as knowing that's how people would respond. "It's been beautiful to see how people react to the film. We never expected it. When we were in the edit, you finesse over all these small things and spend so long stressing about how people might see it. So yeah, it's been pretty magical." Walker hopped from Cannes to the New Zealand International Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival with How to Have Sex last year, describing the period as "pretty hectic, just really full on". "We finished the film on like the Friday and we went to Cannes on the Tuesday, so I hadn't really had time to breathe or think about it," she also tells Concrete Playground. Her must-see feature receives a general release in cinemas Down Under from Thursday, March 7, 2024 — and Walker kept chatting with us about getting people talking, the movie's inspirations, those workshops, casting British Independent Film Awards' Best Lead Performance- and BAFTA Rising Star-winner McKenna-Bruce, ensuring that Tara wasn't just a victim and more. [caption id="attachment_944364" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Molly Manning Walker behind the scenes on Scrapper.[/caption] On What Inspired How to Have Sex, Including Walker's Own Experiences "I was very different as a teenager. I was like, when I was 16, long fake hair, fake eyelashes, covered in fake tan — and I went on loads of these holidays. I went on a holiday with some friends, and we were recalling some of the scenes from these holidays that we remembered, and I started to think it had a big impact on our perception of sex and how we navigate sexual experiences. That's where the idea sort of started. I guess it's all a combination of experiences and just imagination as well. The blowjob on stage is something I witnessed when we were on holiday." On the Research and Workshops That Helped to Shape the Movie "We lived in Malia for two weeks on the scout. We lived there in high season in the middle of a party town, so we were witnessing a lot of chaos all the time. Some of that, we were going up to people and saying 'we're making a film, can we take pictures of your outfits?'. And they were up for it. So it was all direct reference from reality or from memory. We went all around the UK doing some workshops, and it was just mad to see their perception on consent. Not many of them were wised up to consent. We would show them the assault scene and they would be like 'yeah, but, you know, they slept together the night before, so it's fine'. Or stuff like that. So it was really shocking, to be honest." On Giving How to Have Sex That Ripped-From-Reality Specificity "Every choice was to make it as authentic as possible, to ground it in reality. I would never have wanted it to feel like it was a film. So all across the production design, costumes, we chose a documentary cinematographer — everything was to ground it in reality. I wanted to really live and breathe it with them. The first half of the film is meant to be this really joyous party experience — and the second half, you start to see the underbelly of the party town. You see the glitter and then you see the darkness of it. It was split in two halves, both in every design, in production design, in lighting, in everything." On Finding Mia McKenna-Bruce to Play Tara, and the Impact of Her Performance on the Film "It was actually pretty early in the casting process. We got a tape of of Mia, and she's just so funny and her tape was so funny, but there was so much going on behind her eyes. I was pretty sure straight away that she was the one, which we were shocked at because we thought Tara would be the harder one to cast, considering how much she has to go through. But I was just really confident. I don't know what it is — when you see someone, you just kind of know. She's such a legend, Mia. She's a superstar, and she comes to set every day with energy. And often her first take, you'd be like 'so good', so you know where to go with that. But what it did mean was that we could experiment loads because she would always nail it on the first take, so we could bring some options to it. Sometimes, we would try a take with no words or we'd run lots of different experiments, which was really fun — and we could only do that because Mia was so good at nailing it the first time." On Ensuring That This Wasn't a Standard Victim Tale — and That Tara Was Resilient "With Tara, we wanted to not tell a victim story as we classically see it on screen. She's meant to be a bubbly character like all of us. We all go through these experiences and we're not just ruined for life as a film often shows it. So it's meant to show the resilience of young women. It's not that she's not affected by it, because of course she's going to be affected by it, but that she's resilient like people are. They carry on with all of their experiences." On Approaching the Film's Characters and Friendships Without Judgement "I guess they all have their own little stories going on, and the main thing for me was that we never looked down on them, and we never judged them — especially the boys. We want men to recognise themselves in them, in order to open the conversation up. We want it to be fun and for people to want to be on that holiday, but also to question what they're up to. So it was it was complex, for sure. The main thing for me was not to judge them, even though they're all going through their own stuff. But we've all been in those situations." On Starting Conversations with How to Have Sex — and the Reactions to the Film "We didn't really know to what extent people had been affected by this topic. Like, we knew that we wanted to talk about it, but we didn't really know how big the the impact would be. So many young women are coming out of screenings saying 'thank you for making this film, I feel seen'. I guess the quantity was unknown, but we were always hoping to to start a conversation for sure. I think one of the most powerful experiences was, it was like a 65–70-year-old guy pacing after the one of the screenings, and one of the distributors went up to him and said 'are you okay?'. And he said 'I've just realised that I've been that guy. I've been Paddy before.' That sort of blew my brain open because if we can do that for one person, then the film's done its job." How to Have Sex opens in Australian and New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, March 7, 2024. Read our review. How to Have Sex images: Nikolopoulos Nikos.
The eye and the brain are incredibly powerful organs through which humans receive and process a large proportion of their sensory information. What we see every second of everyday helps shapes our understanding of almost every aspect of our lives. And our brains develop certain expectations about objects based on a long history of experience. However, sometimes optical illusions can challenge our pre-conceived ideas of structures and confound both our eyes and brains. Through clever deceptive techniques, artists and architects can create buildings that elude our basic understanding of how constructions are made and what they include. Here are nine bewildering optical illusions sure to confuse and amaze and challenge your conceptions of architecture. Warped Building This apartment building is your average apartment block...with a twist. A fairly large, warped twist. The unique structure is situated in the Czech Republic's capital city, Prague, and has picturesque views overlooking the River Vitara. El Grifo Magico Appearing to defy gravity and perform some magical feat, this 'floating tap' seems to be pouring an endless supply of water from its vantage point of mid-air suspension. Even though a magician should never reveal their secrets (and stop reading now if you would like the magic to remain), it has been revealed that a pipe hidden by the water actually holds the structure up. Upside Down House Spider-man? Gravity-defying shoes? Talented acrobats? No, it's another awe-inspiring architectural design that tricks and boggles the mind. This unorthodox house has everything upside down and back to front - literally. Trompe-l'eoil Ever after looking at this image several times, it is still impossible to fathom the appearance of this melting building, closer resembling a time warp than an apartment block. In actual fact, this image actually depicts a painting, but even then it succeeds in confounding the brain.The image uses the french art technique of tromp-l'eoil, which attempts to make 2D images appear like 3D optical illusions that really exist. One-walled House History has taught us to understand a house as a building comprising of at least four walls, a roof and a door. However, in Odessa, Ukraine, they have challenges this perception by creating a disconcerting house, which from the front appears orthodox, but when viewed from the side reveals only a single walled-building. Cafe Wall Illusion In 1979 a cafe was erected in Bristol, England, with a perplexing exterior that confused and bemused, and which continues to do so into the present day. A variant of the Münsterberg shifted chessboard illusion, this tessellating pattern uses light and alternating bricks of black and white to make the parallel and even lines appear to be sloped. All the line are actually horizontal and all the levels of the building perfectly equal in size. Bâtiment Another building which seems to flout all logical laws of gravity is the artist Leandro Ehrlich's mirrored art installation for the 'In Perceptions' exhibition in Paris. Whilst people appear to be casually hanging from 3-storey balconies or chilling whilst suspended horizontally to the wall, this trickery is actually a result of a mirrored painting of a building on the ground. 3D Lichtenstein House The top image gives the impression of a quaint and colourful little house that would be fitting within the setting of a fairytale story. The second picture, however, reveals its highly deceptive nature. Cleverly using only two walls placed at specific angles, when viewed at from a particular viewpoint, this house appears to be a complete 4-walled building. Sinking House Another sneaky illusion using angles, the top picture of this house depicts a building seemingly falling into the depths of the Earth. Yet when righted, the correct angle of the house demonstrates a perfectly average home located on the slope of a hill.
These days it can feel like we are constantly waiting for something — the next news update, knock-off time, that elusive weekend — but it's never been more important to make sure we're taking advantage of every joyful moment we can. Long-haul holidays and sweaty festivals are off limits for a while, but not to worry, Sydney is bursting with fresh and affordable post-work pick-me-ups. With the help of Oporto, we've scoped out the best after-work activities this city has to offer to help you speed through to the weekend. From retro roller-dancing to the classic picnic dinner by the beach, here are five activities to help you get the most out of every weekday evening. MONDAY: JOIN A POTTERY CLASS Soothe those Monday blues with a hands-on class. The Pottery Shed, in Surry Hills, has a beautiful space run by a team of very zen clay experts to help you realise your pottery-based dreams. Its Monday night throwing class is designed for beginners who want to get messy and creative. It's the perfect activity to shut off your work brain and shed the day. Each $60 class will have you skilled up and ready to throw clay on a wheel, plus you get to take home all your ceramic handiwork (eventually). Can't make it on a Monday? There are heaps of class times throughout the week. TUESDAY: SIGN UP FOR A CHEAP BINGO NIGHT The good people at The Soda Factory believe the Cheap Tuesday tradition should be sacrosanct. Its $6 mimosas are just the opening act to one of the the greatest Tuesday night events in the city: musical bingo. Book a table with some mates and test your musical knowledge for a chance to win weekly prizes, and if the happy hour drinks tempt you, this is also the perfect place to belt out as many bangers as you can. It's musical bingo after all. WEDNESDAY: TRY THIS 'FROMAGE IN A BOX' Hump day is for indulgence. To beat the Wednesday slump, we recommend the gluttonous 'fromage in a box' from Darlinghurst's Black Bottle. You get your own baked wheel of cheese accompanied by thick slices of fresh bread and selection of sides, such as bresaola and buttery potatoes, all for less than $40 per person. You can also order to your door for a quiet evening in, or make a night of it at the bistro bar. It's worth a midweek visit just for the $15 carafes of wine. THURSDAY: TAKE A ROLLERSKATING DANCE CLASS Challenge yourself and your mates with a beginners' roller-skating class from Rollerfit. It's an amusing way to work up a good sweat (unless you happen to be a pro of course). Rollerfit's peppy Thursday night class is best sampled at the Tempe location, but thanks to Instagram Live you can also bring your roller-dance moves to the comfort of your living room. All the live-streamed classes are by donation, and it's unlike any exercise class you've likely experienced before. [caption id="attachment_653475" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption] FRIDAY: RIDE THE ICONIC MANLY FERRY For the perfect picnic dinner — and a stellar finale to the week — grab a quick bite to eat with Oporto's new Rappas, which you can pick up from Oporto's Circular Quay location, then hop on the best ride in town: the Manly Ferry. Let the workweek blur to nothing and set your sights on the ultimate Friday night spot for a dinner feast of tender chicken and punchy flavours like Oporto's original chilli sauce tucked in a fluffy pita wrap. It's a meal practically custom made to be enjoyed over the famed Northern Beaches wharf (assuming you haven't consumed it on the ride over), and if you time it right, you can make it an extra special end to the week by catching the sunset over the hills as you watch from the ferry deck. Check out Oporto's full Rappa Range here, then make tracks to your closest store — or order online. Top image: Rollerfit by Susie Yang
At a press conference in Brisbane during his first trip to Australia to see the Down Under production of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda said that the Aussie stars of his hit Tony-, Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning show had been "stacking up against the originals in a very tangible way" ever since casting took place three years back. That isn't the only time the acclaimed theatre talent has been chatting during his Australian visit, however, taking part in a live public Q&A session for fans in the Sunshine State capital. Missed out on being in the room where that happened? Thankfully, you'll have a shot to watch the results in your own room — and soon. Given that Leigh Sales hosted the discussion, which took place on Sunday, March 5, it should hardly come as a surprise that the talk is heading to the ABC and ABC iView. It'll air on TV twice: at 6pm on Saturday, March 18 and 10pm on Tuesday, March 21, as well as joining the iView catalogue. Viewers can watch Miranda step through the smash-hit musical that's had the whole world talking since it first debuted off-Broadway in 2015. His chat with Sales came the day after he saw the Aussie version of Hamilton at the QPAC Lyric Theatre — the same stage he took to discuss it, in fact. Viewers can expect to hear about everything from the process Miranda went through to make the musical to begin with, behind-the-scenes details and the Aussie production's impressive talents. [caption id="attachment_870525" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] The biggest show in musical theatre this century, this game-changing, award-winning, rightly raved-about take on 18th-century American politics is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book for the critically acclaimed hip hop musical. The Broadway hit's Aussie production features a cast that currently includes Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Martha Berhane as Eliza Hamilton, Callan Purcell as Aaron Burr, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, Matu Ngaropo as George Washington, and Victory Ndukwe as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. Sami Afuni plays Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, Wern Mak does double duty as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, Elandrah Eramiha plays Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, and Brent Hill steps into King George III's robes. [caption id="attachment_870526" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Daniel Boud[/caption] When it finishes its Brisbane season at QPAC's Lyric Theatre on Sunday, April 23, the show will leave the country for a New Zealand run. That'll mean that Aussie fans will then need to be content with watching the filmed version of Hamilton's Broadway production, which started streaming via Disney+ in 2020, again. (And yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard). Brisbanites keen to see Hamilton for cheap in-person can also try the $10 ticket lottery, which offers tickets for less than the cost of lunch. Lin-Manuel Miranda's chat with Leigh Sales at QPAC's Lyric Theatre will hit the ABC and ABC iView at 6pm on Saturday, March 18, and air again on the ABC at 10pm on Tuesday, March 21. Hamilton's Brisbane season runs until Sunday, April 23 at QPAC's Lyric Theatre, South Bank, with tickets available via the musical's website. You can also read our rundown of what Lin-Manuel Miranda had to say at his Brisbane press conference. Top image: Joan Marcus.
Alas, the Banksy 'residency' in New York City has come to its end. For the entire month of October, the elusive British street artist has been sprinkling graffiti and mobile art sculptures throughout the city — and making viral news while at it. His stint has undoubtedly caused a sensation and received a wide range of reactions. Fans have been able to find his works throughout the city from clues posted on his Instagram feed and hear what they're about from an audio guide that could be accessed from a toll-free number. In honour of Banksy's month-long reign, we've rounded up some of its top works and stunts. October 5: Mobile Garden One of the earliest of a series of 'mobile sculptures' was a delivery truck housing a replicated rainforest. Complete with a digitally remastered sunset that never set, a 100L-per-minute-pumping waterfall and plastic butterflies taped to a fan, this little, roaming garden was delivering 'calm' to city dwellers. Starting in the East Village, the truck made its rounds at dusk for a couple of weeks. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WDIz7mEJOeA Oct 11: Sirens of the Lambs Another delivery truck/sculpture made its way around the city the following week. This one, however, had less placid cargo. Labelled 'Farm Fresh Meats', a livestock delivery truck crammed with the heads of 60 bleating, unblinking stuffed animals began its two-week tour in none other than the Meat Packing District. The artist dubbed his creation Sirens of the Lambs. Clever, isn't he? The audio guide begins with the line, "This is a piece of sculpture art. And I know what you're thinking; isn't it a bit, subtle?" All of Banksy's works come with a message, this one being an, "attempt on something vague and pretentious about the loss of childhood innocence". The artist also apparently worked in a butcher shop mincing meat so this could be a "comment on the casual cruelty of the food industry". Whatever he's getting at, viewers found this stunt to be horrifying, hilarious or both. Running children and a screaming baby add to the hysteria. https://youtube.com/watch?v=zX54DIpacNE October 13: Central Park Art Sale In one of his most publicised stunts, Banksy showed us what a prankster he really is. When a nondescript elderly man sold Banksy's artworks in Central Park, clueless passers-by picked up 100 percent legit canvas pieces worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mere 60 bucks. He announced this on his website the following day, having sold a only a total of eight sensationally undervalued canvases. Following all the media flurry, a couple of independently operating artists extended the hoax with their own stall, selling out their clearly labelled fakes in under an hour. Oct 16: Shoe Shine Could this stunt be enough to forever taint the image of Ronald McDonald? Banksy constructed a fibreglass replica of the corporate clown frowning down upon a "real live boy" who shined one of his obnoxiously elongated shoes atop a crate. The audio guide claims that Ronald is "arguably the most sculptured figure in history after Christ", so the clown's regal pose further affirms his commercial kingship. The Maccas poster boy and his slave appeared outside of various McDonald's location everyday for a week during lunchtime. This couldn't have been a more obvious stab at greedy corporations and their use of heavy labour to maintain their 'polished' image. Banksy truly does have a gift of making these taboo issues unavoidably apparent in weird but amusing ways. Oct 18: West 24th Street 'Art Gallery' "Are you the sort of person who enjoys going to art galleries but wished they had more gravel in them?" asks the audio guide for this outdoor exhibition. Uh, no. But with a viewing bench, carpet and water cooler of cheap wine, it doesn't sound half-bad. Inspired by the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement of 2011, Banksy collaborated with the Brazilian artist-twin duo Os Gêmeos to create two paintings. What better place is there to contemplate the struggle of the 99% than beneath the High Line in Chelsea? Oct 23: 23rd Street Oil Painting This repurposed thrift store painting just went up in value. Banksy found a regular oil painting of a scenic landscape and inserted a contemplative Nazi officer, renaming it The Banality of the Banality of Evil, a takeoff of the book by political theorist Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Crowds had gathered in front of the painting, which was on display at the Housing Works Gramercy thrift shop in New York. The painting is up for auction and the proceeds will go towards homeless New Yorkers affected by HIV/AIDS. Sure to suit in any living room. Oct 25: Bowery Grim Reaper Bowery's Houston Street got a spooky surprise just in time for Halloween: a grim reaper zooming around on a bumper car to Blue Öyster Cult's 'Don't Fear the Reaper'. It seems totally capricious but as the audio guide explains, "This sculpture perfectly represents death in that it's a bit random." Uh, yeah. But the narrator further philosophises that "the role of art is to remind us of our mortality" and warned that one of the audience members would die that evening. Oh, sorry, he meant one of their mobile phones would die. Oct 31: Inflatable Throw-Up in Queens What seemed like an anti-climactic piece to conclude Banksy's residency turned out to cause the most pandemonium. Giant balloon letters spelling 'BANKSY' were strung along the top of a building in Queens. This was Banksy's homage to the ubiquitous graffiti bubble-letter style that began in New York. However, two men attempted to steal the balloon sculpture, and a crowd quickly gathered to stop them. Police arrived just in time to break up the scene and arrest the two thieves. It's been a crazy month for New York, as the whole city has stood by waiting to see what Banksy will come up with everyday. In the final auditory guide, the cohesive message of his experiment is revealed. The artist is clearly a champion of outdoor art — as he so crudely named his residency, it's 'Better Out Than In'. He feels that "Art's right place is on the cave wall of our communities … to provoke debate and voice concerns," asking the question, "Don't we want to live in a world made of art, not just decorated by it?" Others aren't on the same page, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others who consider graffiti to be vandalism and urban degeneration. Good or bad, Banksy doesn't care. His final message: "And that's it. Thanks for your patience. It's been fun. Save 5pointz. Bye." Bye-Bye, Banksy. We wonder where you'll strike next. Shoe Shine image by Dennis Van Tine/Newscom/SIPA Press. Inflatable image by Hrag Vartanian for Hyperallergenic. All other images from www.banksy.co.uk.
For five years now, the Sydney Modern Project has been on its way: the multimillion-dollar expansion and renovation project that's set to transform the Art Gallery of NSW, that is. Originally announced in 2017, officially given a green light in 2018 and revealing its first commissioned artworks in March 2022, it'll turn the Sydney institution into a two-building art museum — and almost double its space in the process — with the revamp costing $344 million to bring to fruition. That's the old news surrounding the Sydney Modern Project. The new news: it'll open its doors on Saturday, December 3 this year. So, Sydneysiders, you now have a summer date with a brand new gallery. And if you reside elsewhere in Australia, you now have an excuse to head to the New South Wales capital to close out 2022. Here's what's in store: a new standalone building that sprawls across 7830 square metres, as designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architects SANAA (with Australia's Architectus as the executive architect). Set to be light, airy and open to its surroundings, it'll feature a dedicated gallery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at entrance level. Venture downstairs, however, and Sydney Modern Project will also be home to a huge underground art space that'll be used for special commissions and performances, and happens to be repurposed from a decommissioned World War II naval oil tank. Funded by $244 million from the NSW Government and $100 million raised by private donations, the project also includes a new public art garden, plus a revamp of AGNSW's original historic building. Expect new pools, greenery and public spaces to join the cultural institution's longstanding gallery forecourt — and its entire collection will be reinstalled as well. Art-wise, nine artists have been enlisted to create works for Sydney Modern Project's opening: Yayoi Kusama, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Karla Dickens, Simryn Gill, Jonathan Jones, Richard Lewer, Lee Mingwei, Lisa Reihana and Francis Upritchard. Spanning huge artworks from First Nations artists through to intricate installations worked into the building's architecture, the creations will be displayed across the site both indoors and outdoors, with some viewable to the public day and night. Announcing the opening date, Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Dr Michael Brand said that "all eyes will be on Sydney when our new building opens on our magnificent site on Gadigal Country overlooking Sydney Harbour. Our new art museum campus brings together art, architecture and landscape in spectacular new ways, providing visitors with art and cultural experiences only possible here. This is truly the world seen from Sydney." "We can't wait to share our dazzling new stage for art. It will be a place of generosity and inclusion where contemporary art is shown in context with historical art — a place where everyone is welcome," Brand added. A big focus of the new spot: allowing the gallery to "engage our audiences and work with our artists in thrilling new ways," explained AGNSW Deputy Director and Director of Collections Maud Page. "When we open in December, visitors will experience art right across our campus — indoor and outdoor — from the inaugural installations in our new building to the completely re-installed galleries in our existing building. Our collection will be accentuated by bold and compelling new art commissions that contribute to important global conversations of our time from our place here in the Asia Pacific," Page said. The Sydney Modern Project will open its doors on December 3, 2022 at Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney. For more information about the project, head to the AGNSW website. Images: Sydney Modern Project render as produced by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA. © Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2021. Top image featuring Taloi Havini Habitat 2017 © Taloi Havini.
There's nothing small about Territory — not the concept, the setting, the cast or the themes. The premise: mixing the heir battles that've thrummed at the heart of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and Succession across more than a decade, and to great success, with Yellowstone-esque dramas on a sprawling cattle station in Australia's Northern Territory. The show's fictional Marianne Station is the largest in the world, has been in the Lawson family since its foundation and is the source of a stampede of power struggles, not just among the complicated array of relatives with blood and marital ties to the dynasty, but also across everyone else keen to carve out their own stake. The Netflix series opens with a death, robbing the Marianne hierarchy of its named successor and leaving Lawson patriarch Colin (Robert Taylor, Kid Snow) with the dilemma of picking who should take the place of his dearly departed second son Daniel (Jake Ryan, My Melbourne). His elder offspring Graham (Michael Dorman, Joe Pickett) is an alcoholic married to the ambitious Emily (Anna Torv, Force of Nature: The Dry 2), who hails from a rival family with a cattle-stealing reputation. Then there's the next generation: Graham and Emily's daughter Susie (Philippa Northeast, Paper Dolls), who has big dreams for taking over, plus the smarts to turn the property's flailing fortunes around; and her half-brother Marshall (Sam Corlett, Vikings: Valhalla), who has long left the Lawson chaos behind and isn't overly keen about being drawn back in. Throw in the fact that Susie is getting friendly with Lachie (Joe Klocek, My Lady Jane), the son of mining magnate Sandra Kirby (Sara Wiseman, High Country), who has her own designs on Marianne — plus another competing cattle baron in Campbell Miller (Jay Ryan, Scrublands), Indigenous station owner Nolan Brannock's (Clarence Ryan, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) endeavours to make his own way, and the antics of Marshall's best friends Rich Petrakis (Sam Delich, Last Days of the Space Age) and Sharnie Kennedy (Kylah Day, also Scrublands) — and Territory isn't short on clashes for control. It hasn't been lacking in viewers, either, since it first hit the streaming platform on Thursday, October 24, 2024, becoming Australia's most-watched series on the service and the third globally on the English-language TV list in the week after its launch. Territory's six-episode first season heartily musters up those feuds and quests for supremacy, that cast of well-known and up-and-coming homegrown names, and stunning backdrops galore — filming on Tipperary Station, where more than 200 cast and crew also lived for the program's first four weeks of shooting, as well as at Kakadu National Park and across South Australia. It also digs just as ardently into the weight of expectations passed down through families and the ongoing fight to be one's own person, alongside exploring the history and colonisation of land with Traditional Owners dating back tens of thousands of years. [caption id="attachment_978092" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for Netflix[/caption] While spotting how Territory takes its cues from succession- and western-centric dramas elsewhere, plus the popular trend they've each spawned, isn't hard, this isn't kind of Australian show that graces screens often. It also isn't the type of project that comes across Dorman, Northeast and Corlett's paths frequently. For the New Zealand-born, Queensland-raised Dorman, it's the latest return Down Under on a career that's jumped between The Secret Life of Us as a big break, fellow local roles in everything from Suburban Mayhem and Daybreakers to Wild Boys and Goldstone, and also US alternative-history space-race series For All Mankind. For Northeast, it follows 341 episodes of Home and Away, then Standing Up for Sunny, In Limbo and The Newsreader. And for Corlett, it joins a resume that also boasts The Dry, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and He Ain't Heavy. All three revelled in many of the same things about Territory that audiences have been, including the layered character dynamics, the weighty notions beating at the heart of the series and the spectacular backdrop. That said, those watching at home don't get the full IRL Tipperary experience, which Dorman describes as being "pretty much transplanted into isolation", Northeast notes was "like nothing that I'd ever seen before" and Corlett saw as a place where "there was so much memory that you could build" in constructing character, they told Concrete Playground. We also chatted with Dorman, Northeast and Corlett about their initial reactions to Territory's concept, what they drew upon to play their parts, the research that goes into playing potential heirs to a cattle empire in the NT and more — including diving into Dorman's acting dreams when he was starting out and now, and the joy of returning home as well. On Dorman, Northeast and Corlett's First Reactions to Territory's Concept — and What Excited Them About Being Involved Michael: "My first reaction was 'how does this play out?'. When you read the script, okay, what's the vision? How are you going to capture the script? The excitement came when we first arrived on Tipperary station. So everyone's flying over. We're all coming together. I didn't know everyone. I hadn't spent a lot of time. I think Anna [Torv] was probably the one that I knew the most. I had old friends, Graham Ware, who's the horse master, is a friend of mine and we've worked together a bunch. So I knew that in terms of the horse riding, I was in good hands — and he knows what I'm capable of, what I'm not capable of. But the excitement really took off when he first landed, all of us arriving, first time taking in the scale of the station. So you walk onto a station that is 4000 square kilometres. And when you think about how big that is there, and there's no one there, and the nearest place to get something, bread, whatever, you name it, is three-and-a-half hours away. So you're pretty much transplanted into isolation. And for me, I found that very exciting, because that just tapped straight into the story and what these people are experiencing every day, and where they come from. That's the heart of the show. So for us to get to go there and spend the first part of the shoot there really informed the rest of it, and so that first initial moment in the show was the most exciting for me. And then from there, we all we all bonded, and the chemistry between all of us just started to make all the colours in the rainbow." Sam: "When I first read the pilot and I got the deck for the series bible, I was just so invigorated that they were going to do something so unapologetically us — so unapologetically Australian. And I think the grit that it had, as well as knowing how epic the shots were going to be up north, especially with Simon Duggan, who shot Furiosa and The Great Gatsby, knowing that we were going to be captured by him, it was like 'ooh, this seems like a cool project'." Philippa: "For me, exactly what Sam said. Just the scale, the epicness, the complexity of the storylines, and the multiple storylines crossing in and out of each other — and all the characters that were going to be shown on-screen from the Top End. What really was striking when I read the script was that for Susie's journey, this was a young female character that wanted to run a cattle station. And I don't see that often when I read scripts. That's not the motive of a lot of the young female characters that I read. So that just that made me so excited that whoever was going to play this part was going to learn to muster and drive a ute and do butchery and ride horses and shoot guns. And it was just incredibly exciting as a female artist." On What Dorman Initially Made of Graham and Saw That He Could Bring to the Role Michael: "I resonate with stories about fractured humans, and I love redemption. I love it if the character is flawed in so many ways and can find their way to see hope again. And so the thing with Graham is he's down and out, hopeless. Doesn't want to be there, doesn't want to breathe. And I think there's so many people like that in life that just lose the will to breathe. And I love that he had this moment where he's forced to step up, so they say in the show, and believe in himself, which is a really challenging thing for so many people to believe in themselves. So it's these finer elements for me that excite me in terms of storytelling, because I get an opportunity to speak to maybe one person — if it's one person, you get to speak to them in a way that they would understand because they're in similar circumstance. And then there's the other side of it, the entertainment factor, who doesn't love to be entertained? But that was the thing about Graham, that character, that I really, really liked." On Northeast's Task Stepping Into the Shoes of a Character with Ambition, Determination and Smarts, But Discovering the Complexities That Await Philippa: "I think for me, the challenge was to — she's left left ag college and she's coming in from Sydney, and so she's fairly naive when we meet her. And this is a multimillion-dollar business that she wants to run. I don't think she fully understands the gravitas of that, let alone the gender challenges that she's going to come up against. And I think you see Emily, her mother, beautifully try to impart some of those challenges to her, but also let her learn them and figure them out and make mistakes along the way. And that causes conflict between the two women, but ultimately it's the greatest form of love that they share — the honesty that this is not going be a walk in the park for a woman — and that's definitely explored. And for me, it was just trying to tell the truth of that, and not shy away from the truth of that through Susie's naiveté." On What Corlett Drew Upon with Marshall Constantly Caught Between His Friends and Family, Father and Grandfather, and Past and Future Sam: "There was a lot that was pretty accessible. Alcoholism runs in my family, and I never really met my granddad because of alcohol, and didn't have too much to do with my uncle even though he was a beautiful soul. I didn't get to interact with him a whole lot. I think observing my mum's experience with that, there's such a desire for Marshall, he really wants his dad to be a stand-up guy. And I think Michael plays it so beautifully — like how limp he is, how weak he is. Really, it's quite frustrating for Marshall to watch and to see his father being so belittled by his grandfather. I don't think he particularly sees a role model in either of those characters. In my own thoughts, I projected that Dan could have been that for Marshall, a sense of 'oh, that's what a man is'. But it wasn't enough for him to stay around, so he ended up leaving the station and seeking his path elsewhere, and ran into Rich and Sharnie, and started, kind of like Henry IV, he finds connection in the kind of outcasts of the society." [caption id="attachment_978104" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tony Mott[/caption] On the Research That Goes Into Playing Potential Heirs to a Cattle Empire in the Northern Territory Michael: "It's interesting because, to me, every character is human and there's elements like the horse riding — which is fine, I've worked with Graham [Ware] a bunch, so I'm fine with horse riding — but for me, it was more that I look at it like you can play in any realm or any stage, as long as you know who that human is and understand that emotional cocktail. The landscape does what the landscape does — that's its own character. My job is to make sure I understand who this human is and why they do the things they do. And then you put them together and it works out just fine, in my experience. So I guess it's more you study what it is to be human, and then you can go and play." [caption id="attachment_978107" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tony Mott[/caption] Philippa: "I think it was a great opportunity. I spend a lot of time in rural NS, as it is, on a property, a cattle property, out there. It's much smaller to the scale of the station at Marianne, but it was great for me to be able to watch the staff interact with each other, watch the day-to-day requirements, go to a couple of bull sales in in the real life, learn how to drive a ute properly — I picked the worst ute and tried to make it go, because I feel like Susie probably would do the same thing. So for me, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to spend time out there. And then when we got to the station for filming, I just had to, whatever I had learned, I had to put on steroids. The grand scale of the station up there, the way that they muster with helicopters and not just horses, it's like nothing that I'd ever seen before. It's just totally epic. So there's a level of training that you can do, but then to actually be on set was a different story." [caption id="attachment_978106" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tony Mott[/caption] Sam: "My dad was a jackaroo, and so I had so many stories of when he was younger, purposely rolling cars with his mates and all this stuff. So there's the kind of the cheeky rebellious streak, and then there's also the very practical streak. And I think always in my head, I called Marshall 'the practical rascal', and so needed to be very pragmatic. And I just tried to get my hands dirty as much as possible and all the things that we were learning, whether it be horses, motorbikes, cars, guns, the whole lot." On Digging Into a Storyline About Being Your Own Person and Breaking Free of Expectations Michael: "I think you have to dive as deep as you can to really understand what that character is going through. And then, once you've done all your prep in terms of diving into the idea of their psyche, then you just let it go. Then you're relying on the people that you're playing with. Then it becomes a like a dance, that's the waltz. I look at it like it's lightning in a bottle: if you're not capturing it as it's happening, you've missed it and it's never going to be the same again when you run a take. You run a take, you've done all your research diving internally and then you're there. That's the part of the playing that I love, when you have someone great with you and you're just bouncing off each other. You know when you're onto something good when the crew becomes silent — and there was so many times in this one where I'd be shooting a scene with Robert [Taylor] or Anna where the crew would become silent, and then you know you're making something special." Sam: "Seemingly it's a key theme for every person — to seek one's full self, I think. I find the more personal you get, the more universal it tends to reflect on the world. And so as much as I could find Marshall's experience of life within me, that's kind of the seed. And then it grows from there with your imagination. And as Pip said, working on the station, we were able to imbue the area with so many memories. Whether it was walking past the house that they built — you could imagine what the barbecues would have been like when we were kids, and what drama might have occurred there. There was so much memory that you could build. But definitely it all starts on a personal level." Philippa: "And I think our show is particularly interesting as well because it really explores what do you get handed down from generation to generation, and how to be your own person when you're loaded with this baggage of history — whether that be the challenges of being a male in that space or the challenges of being a female in that space. And so we take a very detailed look into family baggage and trauma." On What Gets Dorman Excited About Returning to Australia for a Role Michael: "You get to go home. There's nothing like going home. Any of us, when we go home, there's a release, you can feel calm and free. When you're in a space that you don't really understand, it gets slightly tense because you don't understand how everything works. But when you go home, you don't have to think. So that's what I love about coming home, because I don't have to think about all that stuff. It's just like a duck to water — you understand all of it. And even in terms of the elements, I understand the elements out there. Yeah, it was really, really hot, but I grew up and I spent a long time in Bundaberg in Queensland. It got warm. And I feel like there's a correlation between Bundaberg as a teen and the idea of what a man looks like, and then going on and doing a show like this and the idea of what a man looks like. So I had an understanding there. But going home, there's nothing on going home." On Dorman's Acting Dream When The Secret Life of Us Was One of His First Major Roles, and Now Two Decades Later Michael: "It was never about what story to tell, it was more about telling stories and it still is. When I did Secret Life, I was just happy to be there, to be part of the process, to be telling a story. And I'm still the same. So many people have ideas about what story they want to tell. I'm still in that space where I just love telling stories. If you gave me an opportunity to tell one, I'll jump onboard. So yeah, I haven't really changed in that sense. I just love being in the boots. When I work with characters, for some reason it always starts with the boots. Whatever boots they're wearing, you put on these boots and you're walking around, and whatever shoes they are — and whenever I put those boots on, and then I walk around with that character playing, and then you take the boots off and let them go. I guess everyone has their own way of doing things. But these were fun boots to wear." Territory streams via Netflix. Images: courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
A weekend escape to the Blue Mountains automatically means views for days. At the Hydro Majestic, that view also comes with a decadent high tea. The historic hotel boasts panoramic views across the Megalong Valley, and its Wintergarden Room offers plush seating, a fireplace and a daily high tea — which is literally served on a silver platter, no less. Its signature high tea ($55–65), which can be made gluten free or vegetarian, comes with a delicate selection of finger sandwiches, petite pastries and freshly baked scones accompanied by clotted cream and homemade jam. A wide range of bottomless teas and coffee are on offer, too. Think classic cuppas, macchiatos, mochas and the requisite English breakfast served alongside lemon-ginger and Darjeeling. Plus, for five bucks extra you can add a tea blossom to your pot — with options like black tea rolled with jasmine, globe amaranth and peppermint; or white tea rolled with marigold and jasmine. If you'd like to add a bit of classy boozing to the mix, there's the deluxe and luxurious options ($69–85), which come with all of the above plus a glass of sparkling wine or Champagne, respectively. To really change it up, try the Eastern high tea ($60–75) — instead of your typical English scones and pastries, you'll be served steamed dumplings, crab claw and prawn rice paper rolls, pork belly tacos and a selection of Asian-style desserts. The Wintergarden High Tea is available Monday through Friday from 11am to 3.30pm and Saturday through Sunday from 10.30am to 3.30pm. Prices vary from weekday to weekend. Images: The Hydro Majestic
When you think of Bathurst, you might think of rally cars and farms, and while yes, there is that, it has evolved in recent years to become a region of fine artisan producers. A destination in its own right, this corner of NSW is also an epic stopover for a trip to Orange, Mudgee or even Warrumbungles if you're feeling ambitious. If you need a break from the hustle and bustle of city life, pack up your car, head two hours west and spend a weekend recharging your batteries in the fresh country air. Friday: Arrive and Settle in Just outside the main town of Bathurst is the luxury and eco-friendly cabin retreat Rest at Boxgrove. It is set on a picturesque 170-acre working family farm and vineyard that blends rural serenity and modern luxury. Flick on the turntable, relax on the bed or grab the bottle of vino or mini bottle of local gin from Boxgrove's welcome basket, fill up the twin outdoor tubs, and take a dip in the warm water as the sun starts to dip behind the hills. If you'd prefer to head out for a bite and a tipple, make your way into Bathurst proper. Enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail at Dogwood, BX, a saloon-style bar, before heading around the block to Vine & Tap on Keppel Street for dinner. This charming restaurant, set in a leafy cobblestone courtyard, offers a menu of contemporary Italian dishes like house-made gnocchi, woodfired pizzas and arancini. Decompress as you sip on some local vino under the canopy of vines and fairy lights. [caption id="attachment_807252" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Renzaglia Wines[/caption] Saturday: Explore Central West Region's Produce Wake up to stunning views of the surrounding countryside at Rest at Boxgrove. Fire up the outdoor barbecue and make yourself breakfast with all the fixings from the welcome basket: bacon, freshly baked bread, fresh veggies and eggs. Once you've had your fill, it's time to explore the area's offerings. The first stop on your itinerary must be the local farmer's markets, held on the fourth Saturday of each month from January to November. Check out what the Central West region has to offer. Stop by to meet the farmers and stock up on local honey, sweet treats and organic veg. If the dates don't line up, you could make your way down to Berry Park to the Riverside Markets on the first Saturday of the month. Browse through stalls selling plants, jewellery, clothes, and handmade trinkets. If you love your artisan spirits, you'd best pay a visit to the family-run, sustainability-minded, award-winning Bathurst Grange Distillery, set on a heritage estate and working farm. Book a tour to learn about its whisky and gin made with botanicals grown on site. Settle in for a tasting and pair with a cheeseboard loaded with local cheese. The Blue Mountain Gin, inspired by the view from the distillery and infused with mint and rosemary grown on-site and native Australian pepperberry, is an eye-catching must-try. You shouldn't leave before sampling the luscious Bourbon Cask Release Single Malt Whisky distilled with locally sourced heirloom malt barley, which won Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Awards 2023. If you're a vinophile, head to Renzaglia Wines, overlooking the O'Connell Valley. Make an appointment for a tasting and discover why it was named Dark Horse Winery of the Year in the 2022 Halliday Wine Companion. The spot is headed up by the award-winning winemaker and viticulturist Mark Renzaglia, who emigrated from Illinois in the 1980s. Known for its small-batch wines that always bring something new and special to the table, the winery is now a family affair with Mark's son Sam on board crafting lighter-style reds, field blends and funkier drops. Return to your cabin and enjoy a quiet evening with a barbecue dinner on the covered deck, enjoying the serene countryside views. Elevate your evening more by lighting the private firepit, tucking into the goodies from the markets and cheers the stars and neighbouring cows with wine or a G&T. Sunday: Bathurst's Artistic and Historical Treasures Before you say goodbye to Rest at Boxgrove, take a peaceful early morning stroll around the 170-acre property and through the burgeoning vineyard. Breathe in the fresh country air before heading into the town for some grub. The Hub is a popular brunch spot slinging locally roasted coffee from Fish River Roasters and generous breakfast portions. For something savoury, opt for the shakshuka, but if you love a sweet breakfast, you shouldn't go past the buttermilk pancakes with caramel creme patisserie and gingerbread crumble — it's basically dessert for breakfast. A short stroll away is the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, or BRAG for short, where you can check out the latest exciting exhibitions for free. Artworks don't just reside inside its doors. BRAG hosts public art projects and works that can be found throughout Bathurst. When you're exploring the town, be sure to keep a look out for sculptures, posters and more. Your next stop should be to step back into history at the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum. It is home to the Somerville Collection of over 5000 fossils, minerals, and dinosaurs. The museum is housed in the 19th-century Bathurst Public School House and offers a fascinating glimpse into the development of life on Earth and a disconcerting insight into the impacts of climate change. Take a load off with a pit stop at Reckless Brewing Co., co-founded by award-winning brewer Grace Fowler. This project started as a travelling brewery until the trio founded their permanent digs in a heritage-listed flour mill that formally housed Two Heads Brewing. Take a seat on the leather Chesterfield sofa in front of the roaring fireplace and enjoy a tasting paddle (or two). Be sure to sample some of the limited-release beers, which have included collabs with Renzaglia Wines (a zesty chardonnay sour) or the Matilda XPA, inspired by the Australian women's national soccer team. If you're hungry for lunch, Reckless has an on-site restaurant, Roadhouse by Reckless, slinging share plates, cheeseboards and burgers galore. Alternatively, head to Church Bar, tucked down an alleyway in an old Anglican Church Schoolhouse. This unassuming spot offers woodfired pizzas with inventive toppings, great cocktails and a considered wine list with drops from NSW and beyond. Recharge with a slice of pizza out in the leafy courtyard before heading back on the road to reality. Concrete Playground was a guest of Rest at Boxgrove. Top Image: Rest at Boxgrove
Come 2021, you'll have one very convincing reason to book a trip to Sydney (or a Sydney staycation) — the city will be home to the first very Australian outpost of trendy US chain Ace Hotel. Founded in 1999, the boutique chain currently has its signature luxe-vintage hotels in Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Pittsburgh, Portland and Seattle. Its first international location opened in London in 2013, and its next is slated to open in Kyoto in spring next year. Known for their great bars, pools, cool branding and merch, and quirky locations — such as a converted Denny's and a historic YMCA building — each Ace Hotel is individually designed to reflect its surroundings. The Ace Hotel in Downtown LA is in a 13-storey 1920s former movie theatre, and has art deco furnishings, a rooftop pool and three bars, while the Palm Springs outpost is swathed in white, and has swim club and an attached diner. For the local outpost, Ace's in-house design team — Atelier Ace — will be working alongside an Australian firm to design the hyper-local hotel. While exactly what that will look like both inside and out is still under wraps, it'll take inspiration from the food, art, architecture, design and culture of Surry Hills when it opens in an 18-storey building (formerly Tyne House) on Wentworth Avenue. [caption id="attachment_745633" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Render of Ace Hotel's proposed Surry Hills facade.[/caption] The Ace Hotel site was purchased two years ago by Australian property development group, Golden Age Group, who will also have a hand in the hotel. As well as 264 rooms, guests can look forward to a ground-floor lobby bar, a gym, restaurant, cafe, and rooftop bar and eatery. We'll keep our fingers crossed for a potential rooftop pool, too. It's just the latest boutique hotel to open in Surry Hills, which has seen the hyper-local Paramount House Hotel — complete with rooftop wellness centre — launch in March last year, and the 35-room Little Albion House (which you can book through Airbnb) follow in July. Real estate developer Cienna Group also has plans in the works to open a 12-storey laneway hotel on the corner of Riley and Campbell Streets. The Ace Hotel Sydney is slated to open at 49–53 Wentworth Avenue, Sydney in 2021. We'll update you with a specific launch date when one is announced. Top images: Ace Hotel London / Ace Hotel Downtown LA.
One of Sydney's favourite outdoor cinema spots is back for summer — with a new name. What was St George Openair Cinema, is now Westpac Openair, but, don't fret — it still has the same spectacular panoramic views of the city, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Every movie that graces the cinema's big screen has to hold its own against these stunning sights glittering away behind it. Thankfully, boasting everything from a highly anticipated Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie flick to a British crime thriller with Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Grant, the 2020 program achieves that feat. And the whole lineup hasn't even dropped. Kicking off on January 9 and running until February 21, the Mrs Macquaries Point cinema's new season commences with a gala preview of Bombshell. Based on a real story about the takedown of a Fox News CEO for sexual harassment, the star-studded drama sees Theron, Kidman and Robbie portray some of the real (and fictionalised) women that brought him down. While you're waiting for the film to hit this stunning big screen, you can watch The Loudest Voice on Stan — a TV series starring Russell Crowe and Naomi Watts based on the same story. It's just one of the movies making sure it'll be starry not only in the sky above, but on the 350-square-metre screen rising from the harbour. Also on the first lineup announcement is Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen, which sees McConaughey portray the head of a marijuana empire, and the star-studded Little Women — Greta Gerwig's adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel features Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep and Timothée Chalamet. Off-screen, expect culinary stars to join the fold as well. While this year's food and booze partners have not yet been announced, we've been told there'll be an "array snacks, share plates, meals, fine desserts cocktails, wine, beer and spirits " available each and every night during the cinema's 2020 run. When tickets become available on Tuesday, December 10, they're likely to go quick. Last summer, more than 40,000 tickets sold within the first two days of pre-sale — so put it in your diary ASAP. Westpac Openair 2020 runs from January 9 to February 21, 2020. Tickets are on sale from 9am on Tuesday, December 10, with pre-sale tickets available for Westpac and St George customers from 9am on Friday, December 6. We'll update you when the full lineup drops on November 29. Image: Fiora Sacco
Remember that one glorious day in February of last year when your favourite pig-meat dispensary, Mr Crackles, was selling crispy southern fried chicken for $5 bucks a serve and it sold out before you could get in the car and tear down the freeway screaming “I’m coming sweet chicken! I wrote you every day for a year!”? Well, Mr Crackles giveth chicken and Mr Crackles taketh away chicken, but now you can taketh away your own chicken from their new takeaway spin-off Thirsty Bird. Thirsty Bird has been open for a few weeks, but only peeped its head out to officially say hi to the world earlier this week. It’s taken the team two years of planning, but they’re finally up and running. Like its predecessor, Mr Crackles, Thirsty Bird is a mono-meat venue. On the menu you’ll find chicken — and not much else. But rest assured it’ll be some of the best chicken of your life. Chef and co-owner of both businesses, Sam Horowitz, says it took him a long time to perfect the recipe. "It’s similar to KFC in that we offer four or eight pieces, burgers and sides, but my recipe only has about ten herbs and spices," he says. The menu is has a classic American diner vibe, with buffalo wings, chicken piece meals and four chicken burgers to choose from with waffle fries, chicken crackling and mac and cheese on the side. Sam also says they'll be introducing waffles onto the menu before long — and it doesn’t get more American than that. The blueprint for Thirsty Bird originally involved more space and more booze. They wanted to open a bar with a kitchen and a chicken-only menu (beer and chicken, is there anything else in life?). But thanks to licensing difficulties, the current iteration of Thirsty Bird is a tiny takeaway joint with seating for five people. Watch this tiny space though, as they have plans to expand the empire in coming years. In the meantime, we’ve got a whole new menu to keep us very, very happy. Thirsty Bird is located at shop 3, 2-14 Bayswater Road, Potts Point. It's currently open 5.30pm till late Tuesday through Sunday, but will be opening for lunch soon. Image: Dollar Photo Club
UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 6, 2020: Event Cinemas is now taking bookings for private screening packages for September at the same rate of $500 for up to 20 people. Bookings must be made before September 25, and a number of movies are on offer — including Bill & Ted Face the Music, The New Mutants, Tenet, Peninsula, The Broken Hearts Gallery and La Belle Epoque. If you're a film fan, there's nothing worse than being stuck in a cinema with anyone who doesn't observe social etiquette, including greedy armrest hogs and patrons who decide to bring along an entire three-course meal. Until the end of August, however, you won't need to worry about dealing with these frustrating behaviours and the pesky strangers behind them — because Event Cinemas is now offering private screening packages in its theatres. The promotion is available at Event Cinemas locations nationally, which means that you can book out your very own big screen until Monday, August 31, with reservations required by Friday, August 14 — and you'll pay just $500. You can bring along 19 of your mates, too, so that works out to just $25 per person. That's more than a regular movie ticket, of course. But, again, you won't have any annoying company. Each private booking package includes exclusive cinema use in the Event multiplex of your choice, in one of the chain's original cinemas (sorry, you won't be lapping it up in VMax, Gold Class, 4DX or Event's Boutique cinemas). You'll also be able to watch the movie of your choice, at the time and date of your choice (subject to availability). Plus, each booking includes unlimited medium-sized salted popcorn and medium-sized soft drinks. Films on offer include new releases such as Judd Apatow's latest comedy The King of Staten Island, the Dev Patel-starring The Personal History of David Copperfield, and top-notch dramas Waves and Babyteeth — as well as soon-to-open titles like zombie thriller Peninsula and superhero horror flick The New Mutants. Or, you can go retro with classics like like 10 Things I Hate About You, Fight Club, Grease and the original Mad Max, plus Moulin Rouge, Joker, Bohemian Rhapsody and The Matrix. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVucSRLLeIM Event Cinemas' private booking packages are available until Monday, August 31, with reservations required by Friday, August 14. To make a booking, visit the Event Cinemas website.
If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then could it also be the gateway to a conscience? Cilla Madden of Collaborate believes so, and this forms the premise of her Eat Green Design project, a sure highlight of Sydney Design 09. As the assumption that there will always be more fish in the sea starts to wear thin, and we begin to realise that we may have bitten off more than we can chew (or replenish), ‘you are what you eat’ begins to acquire new meaning. This project focuses on providing food for thought on sustainability in a purpose-built exhibition space, which doubles as a restaurant. The idea is to encourage reflection and discussion on ethical and sustainable practices and products at every level of our everyday consumption. Madden has involved the cream of the designer crop, as well as a huge range of professionals, all working in line with the sustainable brief. Architect Hannah Tribe has designed and built the space, which is filled with furniture, lighting and objects from a range of local designers, including the NEW TO YOU range, which recycles and recreates objects for use as tableware. Chef Jared Ingersoll, of Danks Street Depot, has created a menu of local organic and seasonal food, and Fair Trade coffee will be available during talks from numerous guest speakers on the sustainability topic.
The Bear's third season won't arrive till winter 2024 Down Under, but you can get your Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri fix in Sydney before then. Dishing up the goods: the returning Inner West Film Fest. This cinema showcase that's also a love letter to its setting debuted in 2023 as a three-day event. Now it's back for 2024 for 11 days, from Thursday, April 11–Sunday, April 21 — and with plenty of highlights on its lineup. White (The Iron Claw) pops up in Fremont, which is about an Afghan woman (debutant Anaita Wali Zada) who moves to the titular spot, and marks the latest feature by Iranian British filmmaker Babak Jalali (Land). For not only Edebiri (Bottoms) but Australia's own Jacob Elordi (Priscilla), you'll want to make a date with The Sweet East. Hailing from cinematographer Sean Price Williams (Good Time) in his directorial debut, it focuses on a high schooler (Talia Ryder, Dumb Money) on a class trip from South Carolina to Washington, DC. The fest's official opening night is on Friday, April 12, taking place at Steel Park Marrickville — one of three screening venues, alongside Palace Norton Street and Dendy Cinemas Newtown. Twenty years since it initially premiered, complete with awkward teen antics, ligers, making shapes to Qwon's Dance Grooves and voting for Pedro, Napoleon Dynamite is doing the honours to launch Inner West Film Fest. Not only can you catch it under the stars, but you can head along for free. Also bringing film fun to one specific part of the city, and to autumn — because winter is Sydney Film Festival's time to shine — is a 24-title bill that includes Luc Besson's (Anna) DogMan, as starring Caleb Landry Jones (Nitram); The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, the final effort by iconic director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer); I Used to Be Funny, with Rachel Sennott (another Bottoms alum) playing a wannabe stand-up comedian; and I Like Movies, a feature that, yes, is about being obsessed with cinema. Among the flicks with homegrown links, Housekeeping for Beginners is the third film from Australian director Goran Stolevski's (You Won't Be Alone, Of an Age); the Parramatta-set Sahela is executive produced by Dev Patel (Monkey Man); and 2000's Angst, about a video store worker in Kings Cross, gets some retro love. Boxing drama Heart of the Man is the first movie from Indigenous writer, director, actor and producer David Cook, while documentary Fight to Live is about Australian mixed martial artist Bec Rawlings. Around the fest's screenings — which also spans short films as well — movie trivia, a gin-mixing workshop, premieres of new music videos and a photo exhibition are on the program. So is a secret screening, complete with a feature that'll be seen by an audience for the first time ever, if you like your film fests with a dash of mystery.
In an exhibition that traverses video, installation and drawing, Campbelltown Arts Centre puts long-standing friends and Perth-based artists Brendan Van Hek and Rebecca Baumann side by side. A collaborative commission (shown alongside existing works) explores a shared intent to approach colour, light, surrealism, dreams, illusions and social experiences in a decisive manner. What happens when these artists combine practices? We're keen to see. Opening night is Friday, March 20, at 6pm.
You've read the books, you've watched the flicks, you've sat through both parts of the theatre production and you've devoured your fair share of pop-up potion bars and themed experiences. But if you're yet to get your fill of Harry Potter-related goodness (I mean, not possible, right?), then you're in luck. This spring, a series of immersive, HP-themed high tea events is coming your way, popping up in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. The Harry Potter High Tea will grace all three cities with a run of multiple sessions each, held at top-secret locations. It all kicks off in Sydney from September 23–26, before visiting Brisbane from October 15–17 and heading down to Melbourne from October 21–24. So what sort of magical shenanigans are guests in for, you ask? Well, each session will host between 200 to 300 people (COVID depending), with daytime sessions open to all ages (11am–12.30pm, 2.30–4pm) and the night events reserved for adults only (7–9pm). There'll be butterbeer, polyjuice cocktails and appearances from some of the franchise's hit characters, as well as immersive activities including potion-making classes. Of course, the high tea spread will have a distinct HP lean to it, though exactly what's on the menu is being kept under wraps for now. Ticket-holders will be sent clues to the location of their high tea 30 days before the event, with the exact address revealed one week out. Tickets to the 'daybreak' sessions are $60, with 'twilight' passes coming in at $85. You can also nab a family ticket to any day session for $220 (two adults and two kids). The Harry Potter High Tea will hit Sydney (September 23–26), Brisbane (October 15–17) and Melbourne (October 21–24) this spring. Tickets are on sale now.
If you've got the itch for a bit of outdoor adventure, you're in for a treat. Last year, we reached out to you, dear readers, to share your favourite camping spots, and after a year of exploring, we were due for some fresh ideas. So, in partnership with The Bottle-O, we've pulled together a whole new list of standout camping spots that were submitted by Concrete Playground readers. Whether you're into beachfront bliss, rainforest retreats, or bushland beauty, there's something for everyone. Grab your mates, pack up the car, stock up on good-value booze from The Bottle-O and get set for your next adventure in the great outdoors. [caption id="attachment_943842" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Millstream Chichester National Park, Canva[/caption] Miliyanha Campground, Millstream Chichester National Park, WA Our first suggestion takes us to the wild west, where the red dirt meets clear blue skies. Miliyanha Campground in Millstream Chichester National Park is an absolute gem. Reader Bruce reckons it's the ideal spot for some 'twitching' aka bird-watching. "Miliyanha is a perfect spot for a bit of twitching. There are lots of raptors, rainbow bee-eaters, blue-winged kookaburras, and the local hills kangaroos, and if you're lucky, you might spot a quoll!" It's a fairly remote campsite so don't check in without swinging by The Bottle-O first. Because what's a camping trip without a well-stocked cooler and some primo local vino? Closest The Bottle-O: Karratha [caption id="attachment_943841" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Freycinet Beach Landscape, Chris Putnam[/caption] Friendly Beaches, Freycinet National Park, TAS Let's head south to the Apple Isle where the beaches are as pristine as they come. Freycinet National Park boasts not one, not two, but several top-notch camping spots. From Friendly Beaches (Isaacs Point) and Richardsons Beach to Honeymoon Bay and Ranger Creek, you're well and truly spoilt for choice. Reader Sarah swears by the beachfront camping experience: "Nothing beats falling asleep to the soothing sound of waves crashing against the shore at Friendly Beaches. It's my go-to campground all year round." Swing by The Bottle-O on your way to grab a bottle of Tasmanian-made whisky for a special seaside nightcap. Closest The Bottle-O: St Helens [caption id="attachment_943836" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cape Tribulation, Emil Rasmussen[/caption] Noah Beach, Cape Tribulation QLD Head north to the tropics where the world's oldest rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef. The Daintree Rainforest is the largest in Australia and is home to flora and fauna you can't find anywhere else on earth. Tucked beneath the canopy of Daintree National Park, it provides the ultimate escape from the rat race of city life. Our reader Gavan recommends Noah Beach camping area in Cape Tribulations as the best spot for a digital detox: "Just you, the wildlife, and the sounds of the rainforest". How good. For all your beverage-in-paradise needs, The Bottle-O has you covered so stop into the Mossman store before you head into the Daintree National Park. Closest The Bottle-O: Mossman [caption id="attachment_943840" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jervis-Bay, Cyril Cayssalie[/caption] Honeymoon Bay, Jervis Bay, NSW In New South Wales, about three hours south of Sydney, we find ourselves in stunning Jervis Bay. With crystal-clear waters and famous white sands, it's a cracking location for swimming, snorkelling or just lazing about in the sun. The choice is yours, and they're all good. Our Instagram follower Kylie is a sucker for Honeymoon Bay campground: "All of the beaches around Jervis Bay are fab, but Honeymoon is my favourite. Cheap, cheerful and ideal for snorkelling." You'll need to bring everything with you (and take it all when you go to keep this spot so awesome), and that includes all your drinking water and cooking supplies. Hit up The Bottle-O to fill your esky with ice and all your go-to drinks for evenings around the campfire as the sun sets across the beach. Closest The Bottle-O: Oak Flats [caption id="attachment_943839" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Grampians, Halls Gal Drive, David Burke[/caption] Smith's Mill Campground, The Grampians, VIC Last but not least, we head to the heart of Victoria's Grampians National Park. Smith's Mill Campground near Halls Gap is the perfect base for exploring everything that this amazing Aussie destination offers — just be mindful of the local emus. Our reader Mike places this campground above all others: "Smith's Mill is right around the corner from Mackenzie Falls, an ideal spot for a splash on a hot day after trekking up Pinnacle Walk for the epic views. There's a bush shower at the campground if you miss out." Again, make sure your esky is fully loaded by making a pit stop at The Bottle-O for all your beverage needs as this is a remote spot. Closest The Bottle-O: Sebastopol Wherever the road leads you on your weekend adventuring, find your nearest The Bottle-O and stock up on some standout bevs. Ready to start planning? Head to the website. Top image: Canva
At both the OG North Sydney outpost and the newly minted UrbnSurf venue, RAFI is laying on an extended happy hour from 3–6pm, Monday–Saturday. Prices are slashed on several of the restaurant and bar's most popular dishes, including sourdough pizzas for just $12, golden fried calamari for $13, and juicy cheeseburgers for $16. Punters can also enjoy discounted drops by the glass from Rafi's wine club selection, The Drop, for just $7, as well as Aperol and Fragola spritzes for $10 and classic margaritas for $14. Whether you're grabbing a bite after catching some waves in Homebush or you're relaxing on the al fresco terrace in North Sydney, this is a wallet-saving deal that's hard to beat. [caption id="attachment_965986" align="alignnone" width="1920"] RAFI UrbnSurf[/caption] Images: Steven Woodburn
