FOMO — Australia's clash-free, one-day summer festival — is back for a fourth year. This year, it's making its return to Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, and bringing the full festival to Melbourne for the first time ever. Leading the program is famed American-Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj, who released her high-energy, highly acclaimed fourth album Queen just last month — which features everyone from The Weeknd to Ariana Grande, Eminem and Lil Wayne. Hot on her heels is Mississippi's Rae Sremmurd, the hip-hop trio best-known for its chart-topping hit 'Black Beatles' made in collaboration with Gucci Mane. Meanwhile, Florida's Lil Pump is heading Down Under for the first time, bringing hits 'Gucci Gang', 'Esskeetit' and songs from his yet-to-be released album Harvard Dropout, and electro music producer Mura Masa will break up the hip hop and rap with his disco tunes. Also on the schedule is Kali Uchis, making her Australian debut and performing hits off her widely acclaimed album Isolation, along with the mononymous avant-garde Sophie, Australia's own Anna Lunoe, and Dutch experimental artist San Holo, among others. FOMO will take over Parramatta Park on Saturday, January 12. $1 from every sale is going to refugee charity Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and, if you can't afford your ticket in one fell swoop, you can opt for a payment plan, which lets you pay it off via monthly instalments. FOMO 2019 LINEUP Nicki Minaj Rae Sremmurd Lil Pump Mura Masa Kali Uchis San Holo Anna Lunoe Sophie Cosha Carmouflage Rose Just A Gent MIMI triple j Unearthed winners Image: Mitch Lowe
Coinciding with National Youth Week, The Smart ARTS Festival commences on April 8, bringing with it opportunity for dozens of Sydney's talented young artists to showcase their ideas. Founded in 2001, the festival is a collaboration of ideas and community, expressed through an array of mediums such as painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography. Running throughout April, the festival will include a variety of events such as career forums, talks, workshops and exhibitions. The festival will kick off with a launch party on April 8 at the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre — a night of live art exhibitions, projections, origami, interactive art and spoken word performances. Consider yourself artistically challenged? Not to worry, the program is not just for artists — it's an opportunity to learn more about art and celebrate the people who are at the forefront of our burgeoning art scene. With so many events to try out, you may even find your inner Kahlo or Picasso. Running from the April 8-17, the Smart ARTS festival will be held in different locations around Sydney. After April 17, the Smart ARTS exhibition and Artefiction will continue until April 28 at the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre. All events are free for people aged 15-26, but some will require bookings.
FBi Radio has been on air for two decades now. The beloved Sydney community radio station has been spotlighting the best of Sydney's music, arts and culture since 2003 — and, in celebration, it's throwing a huge Marrickville block party. The part-music festival, part-station fundraiser will take over two bustling Inner West venues and the alleyway between them on Saturday, December 9. A 30-strong lineup of musicians, performers and DJs will be popping up at the Marrickville Bowlo, The Red Rattler and the outdoor stage, with a blockbuster program spanning pop, hip hop, punk, R&B and dance music. Leading the lineup is a pair of reunions. Hoops, the DJ project of trio Anna Lunoe, Bad Ezzy and Nina Las Vegas, is getting back together for the party, throwing things back to their storied sets at Sydney clubs of yesteryear like Goodgod Small Club. And, hip hop fans will be delighted to see Western Sydney duo and FBi Radio royalty Slim Set reunite for a special Slim Set + Friends performance. [caption id="attachment_929382" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Lunoe, FBi Dance Class[/caption] Some of the other names you may recognise on the lineup include 1300, Milan Ring, Party Dozen, Ninajirachi, Babitha, Marcus Whale and Becca Hatch. Plus, if you're looking to catch the next big thing, this is your chance. Dust, Friday*, Juice Webster, Teether and Zion Garcia have all released stellar projects this year, and will all hit the stage at the FBi Turns 20 Fundraiser and Block Party. Rounding out the lineup is a selection of some of the city's top tastemakers. If you missed out on Boiler Room tickets (or you went along and want to back things up), you can catch the likes of Simon Caldwell, Isa, Crescendoll and Johnny Lieu on the decks. [caption id="attachment_921971" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Friday*[/caption] Top image: Tim da-Rin
Maybe you just like hanging out in Byron Bay. Perhaps you can't get enough of every music festival there is. Or, you could love seeing music legends take to the stage. The experience that is Bluesfest ticks all of the above boxes — and more — and will notch up its 35th anniversary with a couple of stone-cold icons behind the microphone: Tom Jones and Elvis Costello. Jones is no stranger to the event, last playing in 2016. What's new pussycat? Not the Welsh 'It's Not Unusual', 'Delilah' and 'Sex Bomb' singer spending Easter performing to a crowd of thousands in Australia. Costello and his band The Imposters were on the fest's 2023 bill, but had to drop out. So, they'll make the trip in 2024 instead. If you're now making long weekend plans, Bluesfest will take over Byron Events Farm in Tyagarah from Thursday, March 28–Monday, April 1. So far, the festival has named 23 acts and events on its lineup, ranging from Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos through to RocKwiz Live. Among the big names, Jack Johnson will play an Australian-exclusive set, in what's set to be his only Aussie show in 2024. Johnson has a history with the fest as well, first taking to its stages in 2001 when his career was just starting — long before he was a household name. Also heading to northern New South Wales as part of the five-day lineup: The Teskey Brothers, Matt Corby, L.A.B, Tommy Emmanuel, The Dead South and The Paper Kites, with the list going on. [caption id="attachment_913223" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kizzy O'Neal[/caption] BLUESFEST 2024 LINEUP: Jack Johnson Tom Jones The Teskey Brothers Matt Corby L.A.B Elvis Costello & The Imposters Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos Tommy Emmanuel The Dead South The Paper Kites Drive-by Truckers Newton Faulkner Steve Poltz 19-Twenty Taj Farrant Erja Lyytinen Harry Manx Here Come The Mummies Clayton Doley's Bayou Billabong Little Quirks Hussy Hicks Blues Arcadia RocKwiz Live Tedeschi Trucks Band The Cruel Sea Taj Mahal Tim Finn Ian Moss Rickie Lee Jones Dan Sultan The Whitlams Black Stump Band Coterie Playing for Change Band Lisa Hunt's Forever Soul Jackie Venson WILSN Caravana Sun Women of Soul Collective
Ever wanted to nom on Louis XIV? Feast on Emperor Jing Zong? Connoisseur ice cream have taken some royal cues with their brand new dessert line: the Connoisseur 'Empire Collection' — and they're pairing it with an exhibition at Blank Space. An epic thematic stretch (but a tasty-sounding one we can raise a spoon to), the collection is inspired by historical figures or 'tastemakers' who supposedly "had a connection to the very origins of ice cream," according to the Connoisseur team — Emperor Nero, King Louis XIV, Emperor Jing Zong and King Cyrus of Persia. Though the historic heavyweights' connection to ice cream is somewhat vague (and annoyingly they're all dudes), we're not ones to say nay to academic dessert. Royally-inspired ice cream needs some pretty packaging, so Connoisseur have enlisted the help of Melbourne street artist Steve Cross. "It’s a tale of four men, connected by ice cream and I really wanted to bring them to life through the packaging and design to create something truly unique,” says Cross. "I was inspired both by the ingredients used and the historic figures with their rich back stories. It’s a great acknowledgment to history, bringing these legends alive today — a beautiful demonstration of the blending of two eras." The Connoisseur team are pushing the collection further, with a one-week exhibition at Blank Space in Surry Hills: The Empire Collection Pop-Up Gallery (September 17 - 22). Commissioned artwork by Cross will be on display alongside free tastings of the new collection. That's right, free ice cream. Free. Ice. Cream. There'll also be in-gallery competitions running which could land you even more freebies. Meet the historic figures who inspired the new Empire Collection here.
Don't miss your last chance to grab delicious treats and unique gifts at Carriageworks' annual Christmas Market. This special edition of the weekly market brings together local artisans, food vendors, and makers to showcase their wares in a festive atmosphere alongside the usual curated selection of fresh produce, gourmet meats, cheeses, baked goods, dips, specialty drinks, festive flowers and even a Christmas tree. The markets — taking place 8am–3pm on Saturday, December 21 — also features live entertainment, workshops, and plenty of holiday cheer, making it a perfect outing for families and friends. With its industrial-chic setting and diverse range of stalls, the Carriageworks Christmas Markets provide a fantastic opportunity to support local businesses while finding unique, thoughtful gifts for loved ones. The markets are a popular seasonal tradition, drawing crowds with their festive spirit and distinctive offerings, making it a must-visit for Sydney locals and visitors alike.
Many of us have had a first date on an old-school pedal boat, holding hands and having mundane conversations about the weather. And now you can relive that (but with better chat) when the recognisable boats return to Cockle Bay this summer. From January 4–28, you can hire one of the leg-powered vehicles from the Cockle Bay Marina for $30 a pop, which'll get you a whole 30 minutes on the water. If you think half-an-hour in the blistering Sydney sun sounds like a recipe for sunburn, you'd be right, but, thankfully, the boats come equipped with a shade to keep you cool. You can choose between the classic pedal boats — which fit up to four people (so you can bring your mates or plan a double date) — and the new swan pedal boats. And you do have to wear a life jacket while cruising on Darling Harbour. You can't book online, and have to just rock up and hope that's one free, but if you do need to wait, there are plenty of places to eat and drink on the Wharf. Cockle Bay Wharf Pedal Boats are available from 11am–7pm daily.
Here's the thing about classic musicals — you go for the showstoppers and then (unless you're a true theatre tragic) spend a fair amount of time trying not to look at your watch. Let's be honest — for every 'Defying Gravity' in Wicked or 'America' in West Side Story, there are three or four scenes of fluffy plot to sit through. Caroline O'Connor, one of Australia's most revered musical theatre talents, is cutting the fat. She's headed to the City Recital Hall for a one-night-only show, From Broadway with Love. No fluff, no Mormons and no rapping American Founding Fathers. Just a rummage through musical theatre's pool room for a night of the hits. Joined by the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir, O'Connor will be busting out back-to-back barnburners from a career which has seen her rarely step foot out of the theatre. With a hefty biography that includes Chicago, Funny Girl, A Chorus Line and a role in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! to call upon, O'Connor will also perform songs from West Side Story, Anything Goes and many more. You can leave your watch at home for this one — sailor suits and smoking jackets, though, are strongly encouraged. Tickets for Caroline O'Connor: From Broadway with Love start from $75. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the City Recital Hall website.
Sydney's favourite craft breweries are coming together on Saturday, May 25 for a celebration of all things hops at Frenchies Bistro and Brewery in Rosebery. The Fresh Harvest Beer Festival will feature a cracking lineup that includes 2Halfs, One Drop Brewing Co, Rocks Brewing Co., Seeker Brewing, The Social Brewers, and Frenchies Brewery, all pouring their best brews for Sydney beer enthusiasts. A new addition to the event will be Hop Olympics featuring a hop matching challenge where guests can pair select hops with accompanying beers, sack racing, and hopscotch. Educational panels spotlighting hop trends, releases and usages will also be a part of the occasion. Tickets start from $25 and includes access to the event, games and panels, while for $59 you can score all of that as well as lunch from a dedicated beer food menu and a 30-minute brewery tour.
The pink bag-toting cyclists travelling through Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane's streets will be no more as of August 20, with Foodora announcing today that it will cease operations in Australia. As reported by the ABC, the company released a statement saying it would be pulling out of Australia to focus on its work in other cities, saying it was "shift[ing its] focus towards other markets where the company currently sees a higher potential for growth." Foodora, which is based out of Berlin, also operates in Canada, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Foodora's operations in Australia began when it acquired local delivery company Suppertime back in 2015. In recent months, the company has been plagued by allegations of underpaying works and "sham contracting", with Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman commencing legal action against the company in mid-June. For those worried about their late-night bathrobe meals, Uber Eats and Deliveroo drivers will continue to thanklessly deliver you food — rain, hail or shine.
To celebrate the launch of the IKEA PS 2017 collection, IKEA will be hosting a free underground exhibition in Paddington. The walk-through exhibition will showcase unique insights into the IKEA design process, and will include a series of workshops and inspirational gallery walls that bring to life the stories behind the products and the creative process behind IKEA PS 2017. The collection is brought together by 17 urban designers (two Australian designers) from around the world — showcasing 50 pieces that focus on the notion of flexible, open living. It's full of furniture and textiles that fold up, pack down and roll up for small living spaces. Designers were challenged to explore new materials and production techniques perfect for a multifunctional home. Within the collection, there are innovative pieces like a chair made out of cushions and a quilt that transforms into one. Marbled vases are made from recycled glass — as environmentally friendly as they are beautiful. The collection explores the future of design as it accompanies the changing nature of the home. As part of the exhibition, held in the Eastern Chamber of Paddington Reservoir this week, Australian designers Kate and Joel Booy (of Studio Truly Truly) will be hosting a design Q&A that focuses on exploring creativity and harnessing innovation in design. Each morning of the exhibition there will be a Sunrise Mindfulness workshop, where guests are invited to morning mindfulness and meditation sessions, and a Furnishing with Light workshop will explain how light can be used as a means of design in the home. The exhibition is open from 9am - 7.30pm on Thursday February 9 and Friday February 10, and 9am - 4pm on Saturday February 11. It takes place in the Eastern Chamber of Paddington Reservoir. Register for workshops here.
British comedian Eddie Izzard once suggested humanity reaching the moon was proof that God didn't exist. "Because," Izzard says, "if you invent some creatures, put them on the blue one and they make it to the grey one, you f***ing well turn up and say well done." Well, whether it was missed by any celestial beings upstairs or not, if you're keen to commemorate all things space and reminisce about our voyage into infinity and beyond, make tracks to Sydney Festival to celebrate 50 years since the moon landing. From gravity-defying aerial performances to cosmos-themed installations, we've jotted down some of the best ways to explore the city and commemorate that time we got to "the grey one" half a century ago. And what's more, each lunar happening below is completely free.
For the past eight years, juniper spirits have been flowing everywhere from London and Hamburg to Melbourne thanks to big gin festival Junipalooza. But if you're a Sydneysider with a fondness for the tipple in question, you've probably been more than a little envious — and wondering when the fest might make the trip to this part of the globe. Now, those requests have finally been answered. Come Saturday, August 27 and Sunday, August 28, Junipalooza will finally arrive on Sydney's shores for the first time. It was originally supposed to arrive in 2020 and then again in 2021, but the pandemic happened. Set to take over Carriageworks for two wintry days, the juniper-filled festival is run by the founders of the UK's Gin Foundry, Olivier and Emile Ward — so you know you're in good gin-pouring hands. The renowned brothers live, breathe and drink gin, compiling all their knowledge onto their comprehensive online gin directory. They've also been running the OG London version of Junipalooza since way back in 2013. The Sydney event will feature sampling stations, cocktails and gin masterclasses with some of the world's best distillers. Fifty distillers from around the globe will be sharing their gins, with over 100 different types set to feature. Renowned international distillers like the UK's Warner's Distillery and Sweden's Hernö will be in attendance side-by-side with local favourites like Archie Rose, Poor Toms, Manly Spirits Co and Four Pillars. If you're eager to sip your way through the fest, you can choose between three sessions, with tickets on sale now. On the Saturday, you can start the day with drinks from 11am–3pm, or spend your evening sampling gin between 5–8pm. On Sunday, an 11am–5pm session is on the cards.
Know what's never not funny? Funny stuff. It's pretty hard to go wrong if your aim is to get people laughing. It's only robots and Bob Katter who don't like laughing at things. Working on this premise, the good people at the Standard are preparing to host their inaugural monthly alternative comedy night. And they've called it Never Not Funny, because who doesn't enjoy a double negative? Never Not Funny is the brainchild of Campfire Collective, who've organised comedy for Harvest and Peats Ridge Festivals as well as Late Night Library at Surry Hills Library. Promising to feature stand-up, theatre, sketch, music, performance art and anything else to make you giggle, the Standard is making an effort to muscle in as a serious contender on Sydney's comedy scene. And they swear never to stage bad impro, which is a blessed relief. The first people to take the comedic stage at the Standard include Applespiel, Cameron Knight, Dave Jory, Ben Ellwood, Nick Capper, Ben Jenkins and more. The lineup will be different every month, so check in with the Standard website.
A celebration of the enormous and diverse African community living right here in Sydney, Africultures is celebrating its 15th year with a bumper lineup. More than 70 stalls representing countries and communities from across the continent will descend on Cathy Freeman Olympic Park on Saturday, September 2 for this showcase of food, music, art and fashion. Head to the African Market Place to shop your way around more than 40 different stalls selling clothing, homewares, art, accessories and fabrics. Over at the Nile Food Court, you can sample the best eats that the African Australian community has to offer. And two huge stages will be set up at the park — with dancers, drummers and musicians of all kinds set to soundtrack the festival. There will also be a fashion parade on one of the stages, music workshops that you can participate in, a sports zone hosting a basketball tournament and a kids zone for any families in attendance. Tickets to the jam-packed day are available for $5. Or, if you want a nifty discount, you can nab a set of five for just $22.50.
Just after sunset on Sunday, June 21, you can live-stream a one-off performance by musical artist Ngaiire, as part of Riverside's online program, Riverside Theatres Digital. Known for her playful costuming, impressive vocals and big pop sounds, Ngaiire is a Papua New Guinea-born, Lismore-raised, Sydney-based singer and songwriter who would normally be seen on stage at festivals like Splendour in the Grass and Glastonbury. Her second album Blastoma, named in honour of her survival from cancer as a younger person, peaked at number 41 in the ARIA charts, and single 'Once' made it into the Triple J Hottest 100, making her the first Papua New Guinean to ever be included in the January countdown. Ngaiire's show is part of globally celebrated Make Music Day on Sunday, June 21, and it's just one in a series of online-only performances streamed on YouTube from 5pm on Sundays. The Riverside Theatres Digital program will feature weekly concerts, as well as digital film screenings. Joining Ngaiire will be western Sydney songwriter-producer Clarissa Mei. The 23-year-old artist has a style that sits between electronic, soul, pop and R&B. You may have seen her at The Plot, Secret Garden Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art or at local western Sydney venues. This live-stream is free to watch — or 'pay what you can' ticketing. Riverside Theatres is committed to making live performance available to as many people as possible, but for those of who can afford to make a contribution, you're encouraged to do so. Every little bit goes towards the staff and artists helping to bring art into your homes right now.
To say that Secret Garden Festival is improving with age is a deadset understatement. Next month marks the flamboyant forest party's tenth turn around the sun and it's celebrating with a music program and lineup of fun as good as any it's dished up before. Taking over its usual lush green home of NSW's Brownlow Hill Farm on February 23 and 24, the grassroots festival promises a weekend of dress-ups, dance floor antics and forest adventures to remember. Those lucky enough to snaffle one of this year's tickets (which are sold out, sorry) will find themselves in utter aural heaven, the bill sprinkled with exciting acts like Queensland dance-punk duo DZ Deathrays, powerhouse Melbourne artist Ecca Vandal, acclaimed indie rockers Holy Holy and soul-pop four-piece The Harpoons. Even more music goodness will be served up by hard-hitting hip hop artist Miss Blanks, Sydney singer-songwriter Alex The Astronaut, and Triple J's Unearthed Artist of The Year, Stella Donnelly. Of course, the live tunes and the 14 dance floors are just one part of this jam-packed weekend. Also helping Secret Garden ring in its first decade will be the Annual Feast, hosted by The Great Fatsby, appearances aplenty from the Camp Queen drag queens, the debut of the Shout Something Nice Bar, a kissing booth and a seated theatre flowing with a whole lotta Champagne. Last year a couple got married among the madness, so who knows what will happen this time round. As always, a festival-wide fancy dress theme will help kick everything off in style on opening night. This year, in homage to Secret Garden's tenth birthday, it's a throwback to your year ten formal — don your wildest old-school party duds and relive those teenage wonder years, with a little help from 11-piece Blink 182 cover band, Bris 182. Secret Garden Festival takes over Brownlow Hill Farm on February 23 and 24. Tickets are sold out, but you can find more info at secretgardenfestival.com.au. Image: Jack Toohey.
Part girl, part monster of the deep, Claudia O'Doherty is a three-dimensional being from Aquaplex, a futuristic underwater city that exploded. As the sole survivor, she has come to share her story with us by way of an informative presentation. Best known as one third of the Pig Island collective and a regular performer at Cab Sav nights, earlier this year Claudia also had her first book published, 100 Facts about Pandas, co-authored by Irish comedian and miniature electronic keyboard wiz David O'Doherty. [She met him after going to his show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival a few years ago on the assumption that they were related, given their shared surname. Turns out they weren't, but they did have a mutual fondness for ludicrous made-up facts, so they made the logical step to publish a quasi-educational illustrated book of untrue facts about pandas.] Monster of the Deep 3D is Claudia's first solo show. An ex-employee of Sydney Aquarium and a lifelong fan of sharks (one of her favourite facts being that great whites are always impregnated with a few babies, but they all fight and eat each other in utero until there is only one remaining, the one that gets born, which means that all great whites are ultimate killing machines from day one), she first set about doing research for the show by revisiting classic cinematic aquatica like The Abyss, City Under the Sea and Jaws III: The Revenge 3D. "In writing the show I had to really think about what would make a worthwhile reason for people to leave their homes," she says, "because movies and television are really good." Having already made a splash everywhere it emerges - picking up the Brisbane Comedy Festival Award and Melbourne Fringe Festival Best Comedy Award - this monster of the deep is on its way to Sydney's shores. We strongly advise you leave the dry safety of your homes and take the plunge for this opportunity to see the wonderful Claudia armed with facts, diagrams and incredible home made props.
If nothing says 'festive summer fun' for you like war, post-traumatic stress disorder, a crumbling marriage and protracted torture, then The Railway Man is shaping up to be the perfect Boxing Day release. It's also a fair indication you should seek some form of medical assistance. Based on true events, The Railway Man tells the story of Eric Lomax — a WWII British signalman forced to work upon the infamous Burma line after the Japanese overran his base. Singled out for his role in fashioning a secret transmitter inside the prison, Lomax (Colin Firth) was subjected to extraordinary brutality and torture by his captors, the effects of which continued to torment him decades after the war's end; one conflict over, another unceasing. That second war — the private, unspoken anguish of his memories — isolated Lomax from his friends and family, including his new wife, Patti (Nicole Kidman). Even his fellow veterans refused to discuss their past; a code of silence borne as much from shame as fear. Events finally came to a head in 1980 when Lomax discovered his chief tormenter was still alive and working as a tour guide in the very complex in which he had dispensed his horrors, inviting in Lomax the possibility of long-imagined vengeance. Torture, particularly waterboarding, has become a recurrent theme in movies of late — a disturbing, confronting and just occasionally uncomfortably gratifying depiction of a very intimate savagery. The Railway Man contains several examples of this, and none are easily endured. They are, however, necessary — speaking to the heart of Lomax's condition and contributing to the extraordinary emotional impact of the final scene. As far as performances go, this is Firth at his softly spoken best. That trademark mix of schoolboy awkwardness and schoolmaster wit contributes to a beautifully nuanced character whose anguish and rage boil beneath the surface and are masked by a tight, asymmetrical smile. Kidman, too, is excellent as the wife determined to see her husband released from his pain, whilst Stellan Skarsgård brings a quiet menace to his role as Lomax's wartime friend Finlay. With much of the film taking place as flashbacks, the younger Lomax is portrayed by Jeremy Irvine, whose impersonation of Firth is eerily on the mark. For a film that covers some terrifically dark elements in excruciating detail, The Railway Man remains an overwhelmingly tender offering that won't feel at all out of place for the post-Christmas period. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ksrkKXoEJbM
A quality candle can transform the mood of any room. And Hunter Candles' unique botanical beauties are no exception. Tucked away in an industrial St Peters warehouse, Hunter Candles' sizeable shop sells a lineup of hand-poured candles inspired by the grunge and eccentricity of the inner west. Best-selling scents include a pine, cedar, rosemary and leather candle called December, which evokes the earthy pine aromas of Christmas season, and the No 3 Acacia Tree which fuses sweet and spicy scents that are fitting for a relaxed evening at home. The quality candles sit around the 50-dollar mark and burn for 45-plus hours. And once you've finished one, you can take back the glass holder for a discounted refill, or make use of Hunter Candles' recycling service. If you're after something extra special, the brand also offers a bespoke candle service, whipping up custom scented candles in custom packaging.
The southern strip of King Street is known for its string of dietary requirement-friendly eateries, and Vina Vegan Restaurant has been a part of the lineup since 2009. The family-run outfit specialises in hearty plant-based Vietnamese food. The menu is predictably designed to share with meat substitutes available in everything from noodle soups and sizzling stir-fries to zesty salads and rice paper rolls. It's also incredibly affordable — every main dish (aside from the hot pots to share) are under $20. There are also two set menus on offer, both under $30 per person. The An Luc Peacefulness ($26 per person) includes four starters, plus vegan chicken red curry, vegan pork in sweet and sour sauce and combination sizzling satay hotplate. Meanwhile, the Thinh Vuong Prosperity menu ($29 per person) has five starters, including crispy vegetable fritters and steamed dumplings, plus vegan beef red curry sauce, fried tofu in lemongrass and chilli sauce and combination veggies and vegan meat.
One of the country's prime sporting events each year, the Australian Open has taken over Melbourne each summer for more than a century. It's the ideal time to road test your experimental sunhats, mix and match shorts and polos, and do some day drinking in a classy way. After much uncertainty due to COVID-19 travel and gathering restrictions, the tournament in returning for another year in 2021. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to kick off in Doha and Dubai on Sunday, January 10, with the regular rotation of tennis superstars expected to qualify and make the trip Down Under. The main event will run from Monday, February 8–Sunday, February 21; however, if you're itching for your yearly dose of tennis and you just can't wait, five lead-up events will be hosted in Melbourne Park including the ATP Cup from Sunday, January 31 right up until the start of the open. Ticket bundles start at $49, which will allow you to watch four early round matches in the same day — and go up to $370, for tickets to the finals. Browse the schedule, grab tickets and find out more at the Australian Open website. [caption id="attachment_796232" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Rob Keating via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Top image: Tourism Victoria via Wikimedia Commons.
Wubba lubba dub dub, Rick and Morty fans — the beloved animated series returns for its sixth season in early September, and is bound to serve up another schwifty dose of chaotic intergalactic mayhem. Been wondering what happened since season five's big ending? Can't wait for new episodes, which arrive Down Under via Netflix on Monday, September 5? The Back to the Future-inspired hit has also made the leap into real life, with #wormageddon scenes popping up around the world. What's #wormageddon? It's what Adult Swim, the US network behind Rick and Morty, is calling "an immersive adventure" — and it's setting up IRL Rick and Morty moments in places as varied as Mexico City, Malibu, The Netherlands, Brazil, Toronto, Cape Town and Sydney. Yes, Australia is getting in on the action, with a #wormageddon scene arriving on the Bennelong Lawn in The Royal Botanic Gardens in the Harbour City from today, Tuesday, August 30. In Sydney's pop-up, Birdperson faces #wormageddon — aka a mysterious alien worm that wants to take over earth. That's what happens in the show's narrative after the destruction of the Citadel of Ricks at the end of season five, and where season six will pick up. Australia is no stranger to pop culture-themed installations, especially lately. Everything from House of the Dragon, The Gray Man and Everything Everywhere All At Once through to Squid Game, Stranger Things and Borat has done the same, resulting in everything from dragon eggs and the Iron Throne to multidimensional laundromats and otherworldly rifts appearing on Aussie shores. Usually, they only last a day or a weekend, though, but #wormageddon is hanging around Sydney until Thursday, September 8 — on display from 7.30am–5.30pm daily. In total, 14 custom #wormageddon scenes are setting up shop on six continents, all bridging the gap between the end of the last season and the start of season six, and sending fans on a global treasure hunt to find each scene. Sydney's Birdperson-versus-worm installation marks the ninth so far, with exactly where the remaining five will surface yet to be revealed.
History is written by the victors, or at least that's what the oft-used quote contends. In the same vein, tales about cancer are frequently focused on those fortunate enough not to experience their own malignant diagnosis. These are stories of grief-stricken folks struggling with watching a loved one face the disease, and potentially losing them, rather than accounts of what it's like to hear the words that no one ever wants to have said about their health. Spoiler Alert is one such narrative, first on the page and now on-screen starring The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons as real-life TV journalist Michael Ausiello and Knock at the Cabin's Ben Aldridge as his photographer husband Kit Cowan. Ausiello penned the printed memoir, which is honest, poignant and never blissfully rose-hued — but the fact that director Michael Showalter's latest big-screen illness drama, following the authentic and sincere The Big Sick, shortens the autobiography's full outcome-revealing title says plenty about this sweet but formulaic tear-jerker. No matter how you've been touched by cancer, or haven't, it's impossible not to spot the template beneath weepies about sickness. Trading in tragedy but also hope, these flicks weather heartbreak while dreaming of a happy ending even when they know one won't come — and it's to Spoiler Alert's detriment that the film teases in that direction to tug at heartstrings. Scripted not by ex-TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly writer-turned-TVLine founder Ausiello himself, but A Million Little Things' David Marshall Grant and Savage Love columnist Dan Savage, this is a picture that keeps things largely routine and simplistic rather than deep as a result. Indeed, when it gets welcomely thorny — when it feels specific to Ausiello and Cowan's 13-year-relationship, laying bare its early awkwardness and many imperfections rather than squeezing the pair's lives into the usual cancer-tainted romantic-drama pattern — it's a richer movie. More comfortable interacting with the world by watching the small screen than physically dancing through it — or dancing at all — Michael only meets Kit because a colleague tells him to ditch the Fear Factor listicle he's been assigned to hit up jock night at a gay bar instead. And, he needs more encouraging to even contemplate flirting; busting out Knight Rider references aren't the kind of banter that love at first sight is made of. One issue here, and throughout: Parsons' casting. His presence acts as a nicely winking joke given that he's a big TV star playing a TV-obsessed writer, but the movie also feels far too reluctant to tinker with or stretch its lead's established sitcom persona. Although Parsons isn't playing Sheldon Cooper playing Michael Ausiello, the actor's most famous character to-date casts a shadow over a film it shouldn't, especially since this is Michael and Kit's true story. Spoiler Alert begins before that initial encounter, with Michael first imagining his upbringing as a laugh track-accompanied 80s comedy called The Ausiellos. These scenes recur, designed to ground Michael's personality and coping mechanisms in his childhood, when he lost his mother to cancer and escaped into soap operas — but despite Showalter's comedy pedigree, including as a co-writer and star of Wet Hot American Summer and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, they're clumsy. What the sitcom segments show, too, is that Spoiler Alert is beholden to a formula for most of its running time and yet also better when it hones in on its characters over cute quirks even while staying oh-so-standard. Being detailed will always triumph over going broad, something that Showalter demonstrated with The Big Sick; of course, his latest also plays too easily and familiarly as a companion piece to that hit. Here's a tidbit that can only be real, and is: Michael's apartment filled with more vintage Smurfs memorabilia than you're ever likely to see elsewhere, aka why he's apprehensive about bringing Kit home when things start clicking. (Ausiello's IRL collection was used.) The toys don't scare off his date like they might most, but Spoiler Alert sees the ups as well as the downs as weeks turn into months and years, Kit is dismissive of Michael's career, their differing levels of self-confidence causes distance, their varying wants cause rifts, each has their own takes on monogamy and therapy sessions become the norm. While Showalter and company don't dive particularly far into any of the above, they're still among Spoiler Alert's most resonant moments. Those, and whenever Sally Field (who led Showalter's Hello, My Name Is Doris in 2015) and Bill Irwin (The Dropout) appear as Kit's parents Marilyn and Bob, who he needs to come out to. That said, when Spoiler Alert kicks into illness mode, actively endeavouring to get the waterworks flowing, it still sparks the emotional response it's so forcefully seeking. It's also impossible not to be moved by the couple's plight, straightforward and eager to tick the predictable weepie boxes as the film clearly is. Unsurprisingly, there's greater emphasis placed on Michael's experiences by Kit's side than Kit's. Audiences are asked to empathise more with caring for and confronting a possible future without the one they love, because that's Ausiello's tale, over being the person whose existence faces its end. Even in a movie that's careful about not airbrushing away anyone's flaws — Michael's included — that's where Aldridge's charm, warmth and soul does crucial heavy lifting to make Kit more than a bystander in his own life-or-death ordeal. In addition to being a romance about a fated love, plus a drama about sickness, Spoiler Alert is a Christmas movie. When it's making star-led mainstream LGBTQIA+ films, Hollywood is currently head over heels for queer features that tie into the holidays, as Happiest Season and Bros also do. All three take a clearcut setup and attempt to make it their own, just with added Yuletide touches; spoiler alert: this life-to-page-to-screen effort is the least of the trio. The festive trimmings say plenty about Spoiler Alert as well, actually. Under the tree or stuffed in stockings, everything looks similar when packaged in jolly paper, after all. More often than not — and spanning its tinsel-decked scenes and its cancer narrative alike — Ausiello and Cowan's very real story becomes the glossily shot movie equivalent of a cookie-cutter wrapped-up gift.
There's a certain pleasure to events that might be great or that might bomb, badly. So-crazy-it-just-might-work shenanigans lend themselves to an excited trepidation. You know, as exemplified by the prospect of Regurgitator live-scoring a screening of Akira. If you like animation, it's pretty much a given that you're big on Akira. How could you not be? It's a masterpiece of hand-drawn art and excellent (also: tight wound; also: bizarre) storytelling. And explosions. By the same token, if you're an art nerd, there's also a good chance that you like you some Regurgitator. That's a venn diagram with a substantial overlap. One that you can scientifically test by cross-referencing your own movie and music collection, you big nerd. Combining the two should be an automatic winner. But what makes this exciting is it's potential to be either more or less than the sum of its parts. Akira's existing soundtrack is definitely one of its strengths. Geinoh Yamashirogumi's percussive/chanting score lends the movie much of its atmosphere and texture. While Regurgitator are willfully oddball enough for it not to come as a shock if they take a similar approach, it's thrilling to anticipate something even weirder. And potentially a giant letdown if they play it safe and "rock". Guess you'll have to find out which way that cookie crumbles — and see some amazing animation on a big screen — when the event unfolds as part of the Sydney Opera House's Graphic program.
The definition of twee is 'excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental'. Drawing their name from an independent drama film, Squid and the Whale, and its director, Noah Baumbach, if judged on name alone Noah and the Whale might come off as shallow. Fortunately any thought of this is assuaged when the first notes of their songs are played. Honest lyrics backed up with down-home melodies makes their songs as comfortable on first listen as an old shirt. Led by Laura Marling (who was in Noah and the Whale before breaking up with the lead singer) and Mumford & Sons, a resurgence in the fashionability of folk means that a new generation is experiencing the warm wash of this classic genre but with added relevance. Noah and the Whale are up to their third album and are showing no signs of slowing down, with their live shows improving with practice - proving that the right music can make the largest venue seem intimate. https://youtube.com/watch?v=mCHzicKq3W4
Quintessential Duckeggblue sells antique and industrial furniture and objects, all sourced by owner Leanne Carter-Taylor. Carter-Taylor searches high and low for coveted antique pieces from all over the world. Things like armchairs, farmhouse tables and clocks from Europe, America, Russia and the UK are sourced and carefully restored before appearing in Carter-Taylor's charming Balmain shopfront. The latest finds are always on the website, but a visit in-store will let you fully appreciate the old-timey atmosphere and discover curiosities ranging from pigeon racing clocks to handblown glass eyes hailing all the way from the Napoleonic era. Image: James Horan/Destination NSW.
Siblings Dan and Dom Angeloro spend their days laughing behind pop culture’s back in their writing, video art, installations, photo-collages and occasional curatorial gig. They currently have a new work featured in Three of a Perfect Pair, an exhibition at MOP Gallery which brings together some of the very best young artist partnerships, including Ms&Mr, Eleanor & James Avery and Jaki Middleton & David Lawrey. Somehow, they found time to chat with us about their work …

How did it all begin?

Soda_Jerk was officially born in 2002, but we like to think our artistic collaboration began at ages 12 and 14, when we got our first video camera. We got our friends together and 'sweded' late-80s teen flick Heathers. It's the only video work we've ever performed in; Dan played Heather #3 and Dominique was Betty Finn. A decade later, we were still mucking around with equipment.

What role does remixing play in your work?

As artists, we only work with found material so remixing is the underlying process of everything we do. It's a form of improvisation in that we never try to predetermine how a video project will play out. 

What’s the appeal of video as a medium?

Our overriding fascination with video has to do with the complex relationship to time that is implicit in recorded media. It's a science fiction thing; we think of sampling as a form of time travel, a concrete way of directly manipulating the space-time continuum.

What has been your favourite project to date? 

Last year, we made a 3-channel video installation 'Astro Black: A History of Hip-Hop (Epsidodes 0-2)' (2008) for Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's an episodic work that came out of our interest in the cultural theory of Afrofuturism. A key Afrofuturist figure is the cosmic jazz musician Sun Ra, who envisaged music as a portal to alternate universes. We think of remixing in a similar way so, conceptually, we wanted to create a work that drew these elements together. It also enabled us to pay respect to hip-hop innovators like Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D and Flavor Flav.

Are you informed by the work of other remix and collage artists?

Absolutely. We really believe you have to know where you're from to know where you're at. We have always been fascinated with the relationship between video sampling and hip-hop turntablism. We are also interested in the found-footage practices of visual artists like Craig Baldwin, Candice Breitz, Martin Sastre and Philip Brophy. 

What are you working on next?

We're currently finishing a video for Federation Square in Melbourne called After the Rainbow. This video is part of a wider body of work called The Dark Matter Cycle, which began in 2005 with 'The Phoenix Portal' and looks at the intersection of cinema, temporality and death.
Australia's answer to South by Southwest, the biggest music industry gathering in the southern hemisphere descends once again on Fortitude Valley — BIGSOUND. Music business meets pleasure in a boastful lineup of top notch industry speakers and next level ones-to-watch artists performing in various locations across Brisbane’s biggest cultural precinct. Delegates will flock en masse to daytime conferences to tune in about the state of our national music scene — how to succeed in the exciting realm of music management and performing, and how to best support and promote Australian artists who are proving a success on local and international stages. Triple j’s Richard Kingsmill, ARIA-winning, platinum-selling artist Megan Washington, the legendary Neil Finn of Crowded House fame and Peter Noble, the brains behind Bluesfest are just a drop in the bucket of pure steeze dishing out their insider industry knowledge in the conference component of BIGSOUND. After dark, artists will take over stages in and around Fortitude Valley for two epic nights of loud and proud performances. With a solid lineup of official and unofficial parties, gigs and showcases scheduled, the choices of how to spend your two nights in this double-header of a festival are pretty limitless. Catch the likes of Deep Sea Arcade, Kingswood, Avaberée, Thelma Plum, Holy Holy and a sizeable avalanche more, all you need is your golden ticket (otherwise known as a wristband of awesomeness) to take your pick. The go-to happening for Australian music fans and industry leaders alike, BIGSOUND is your ticket to big gigs, big rubbing shoulders ops and even bigger ideas. Check out the full BIGSOUND program of panels, events and gigs right here. If you're strapped for time or slightly unorganised, we've counted down the ten artists you must see at BIGSOUND over here.
Imagine the movie Groundhog Day, except that instead of augmenting his knowledge and skill base with each nightly reset, Bill Murray's memory simply resets with it and he spends every day like it was the first: scared, confused and trying to figure out what's going on. Not as interesting, right? Well, therein lies the critical flaw in Before I Go To Sleep, a new 'thriller' starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. Kidman plays Christine, an amnesiac whose memory wipes itself clear every 24 hours, meaning with each new morning she must relearn who she is, what's happened to her and who that man lying next to her is — aka her husband, Ben (Firth). Helping her attempt to break the cycle is neuropsychiatrist Dr Nash (Strong), who compels Christine to leave a video message to herself each night so that she can slowly build upon her own memories the following day. Slowly, the memories begin to linger beyond the nightly reset and with them come growing suspicions that neither man in her life is being completely honest about the source of her condition. The film is based upon S.J. Watson's 2011 bestseller, but its slow-burn plot and predictable twists are far less forgiving on screen, where no amount of Kidman's trademark harrowed stares can engender the kind of tension it purports to have. The closest you come to frights in this film are courtesy of tactless incidental surprises like the sudden horn of a passing truck, and the lack of characters (with a suspects list of two) means the ultimate revelation is far from the scale a true climax deserves. Between the cast and the conceit, Before I Go To Sleep had the potential to explore some genuinely compelling ideas and offer a fresh spin on the Groundhog / Memento / Edge of Tomorrow premise, but instead it flounders in tawdry melodrama and leaves you largely unsatisfied. https://youtube.com/watch?v=L6ckwpaFbBM
I Know There's a Lot of Noise Outside but You Have to Close Your Eyes is a provocative nugget of a show — compact, elusive and funny. Performers Zoey Dawson and Anna McCarthy devised the piece in collaboration with writer and director Allison Wiltshire, and NIDA Independent has joined Melbourne performance collective I'm Trying to Kiss You to bring the piece to Sydney following its premier at the Melbourne Fringe in 2011. The piece is a deconstruction of standard theatre and the formulaic representations of women. Its abandon is refreshing, but the chaos, however organised, is perplexing. Two childhood friends are meeting each other for a girls' night out after a long time apart to compare their respective success in life. Like a 10-year school reunion, it's a cloak-and-dagger battle of egos presented as cattiness with a smile. McCarthy compliments her friend with a side insult, "I love your dress, it’s hilarious", whilst Dawson patronises, "You're still single? That's OK." This premise, which could easily follow the narrative of drunken admissions of childhood resentments followed by a sentimental reconciliation, unravels instead into a beat poetry dream sequence revealing their inner rage, desire and boredom. The show targets the ideal of women as having to simultaneously beautiful, polished and smart, and to this end Dawson's parody of Cate Blanchett's Oscar acceptance speech for The Aviator is hilarious and accurate. Standing in the spotlight atop a messy pile of chairs, draped in some old netting, she finishes the acceptance speech with, “Sorry, what was I saying?” This empty sentence becomes a repeated motif throughout the show, as the pair drift in and out of comprehensible thought and mindless chatter. The noise they create with their babble does make you want to close your eyes (and ears), as the show's title recommends, but the irritation is an effective way of exposing the banality of everyday conversation. The accuracy of their middle class, twenty-something, Australian vernacular is excruciatingly good. Their dialogue shatters into mechanical units of speech and each performer flies off on tangential monologues. We quickly farewell any notion of narrative continuity and try our best to follow their thoughts. At times we're on board, at others we're squinting at the dimly lit edge of some woman's reality. The intangible nature of the show is a challenge to the audience to make head or tail of the two women's identities and motives. It's radically non-dramatic and radically non-didactic. This elusiveness means that the creative team can be equally commended for their innovation and criticised for their lack of clarity. But this isn't entertainment; it's an upright middle finger to conventional theatre and its representation of women. The show is as interesting as it is frustrating.
There's no one-size-fits-all rule that defines cinematic excellence, but the very best movies don't tend to tell straightforward stories. They can be complicated and layered, and filled with intrigue and complexity — and chart everything from twisty romances to thrilling encounters. If these are the kinds of films that pique your interest, then you'll want to make a date with Golden Age Cinema's next curated season. Called Date with Fate, it boasts a 15-movie lineup of movies about mysterious rendezvous and memorable interactions. It's quite the program, in fact. Screening on weekends between Sunday, March 27–Sunday, March 30 — so, for the remainder of autumn — the Date with Fate selection kicks off with the Coen brothers' exceptional debut Blood Simple, then follows it up with everything from Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Other highlights: both Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet by the inimitable David Lynch, the Tilda Swinton-starring I Am Love, Adam Sander teaming up with director Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk Love, and Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece North by Northwest. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Casablanca, An Affair to Remember and L'eclisse are on the bill, too — and the list goes on. The films screen at 8pm on Saturdays and 1pm on Sundays, with dates varying across the season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_BybDB_phY
When COVID-19 began to spread around the globe, travel was in no one's immediate plans. Australia's borders closed to international travel and, domestically, the Aussie airline industry drastically scaled down the number of local flights. Now that coronavirus restrictions are gradually easing, the opposite is happening. While Australians are still unable to leave the country, domestic travel is starting up again — and Qantas and Jetstar are putting on more flights as a result. Since the end of March, both airlines have been operating at five percent of their pre-pandemic capacity. By the end of June, the two airlines will boost that number to 15 percent, equating to more than 300 more return flights per week. Yes, that's obviously still significantly less than normal; however if the demand is there and the remaining state border restrictions are removed — such as in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia — flight numbers could return to 40 percent of pre-coronavirus levels by the end of July. Announcing the increase in domestic flights, Qantas and Jetstar revealed that some routes that have still been operating will begin flying more frequently, while some others that stopped completely back in March will resume. Intrastate flights will also increase within New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. That's great news for folks eager to travel between Melbourne and Sydney, with 67 flights available per week by the end of this month across the two airlines — up from 12 per week at present. Flights to-and-from Brisbane and Sydney will increase from 12 to 30, while Brisbane–Melbourne routes will go up from seven to 19. Flights to Canberra will also rise, from five per city weekly to 19 from Sydney, 16 from Melbourne and 10 from Brisbane. Over in Perth, flights to Sydney and Melbourne will remain the same, with seven heading to each city every week. Regionally within NSW and Victoria, a bunch of routes are upping their numbers, including from Sydney to Albury, Armidale, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Moree, Port Macquarie, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga, and from Melbourne to Mildura, Newcastle and Ballina. Also, as first announced early in 2020 but then postponed due to COVID-19, Qantas will start direct flights to-and-from Sydney and Ballina. Jetstar already flies that route, but if you're a Sydneysider looking to head to Byron Bay and don't feel like a road trip, you now have another option. In Brisbane, flights will increase to Cairns, Townsville, Emerald, Gladstone, Hervey Bay, Mackay, Moranbah, Mt Isa, Rockhampton and the Whitsunday Coast. And in Perth, flights will ramp up to Newman, Karratha, Port Hedland, Broome, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton and Exmouth. Qantas and Jetstar are also allowing domestic customers to change the date of their flight once without paying a change fee — if you book before June 30, and plan to fly between June 12–October 31, 2020. The two airlines will be changing a number of their procedures, too, to adapt to social distancing and hygiene requirements. That includes encouraging contactless check-in and self-serve bag drop, placing hand-sanitising stations at departure gates, providing masks and sanitising wipes to passengers on all flights, making everyone board and disembark in sequence, and undertaking extra cleaning. For further details about Qantas and Jetstar's plans, visit the company's website. 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.
It's an annual event of the deliciously boozy variety. As the name suggests, World Whisky Day gives this beloved dark spirit its own global day of festivities. Sydney's Japanese-inspired laneway bar Tokyo Bird is renowned for their selection of over 80 whisky varieties, making it the perfect venue to celebrate the nectar of the gods, with a whisky-focused celebration on Saturday, May 20. From 1pm, let bar manager Yoshi Onishi take you on a two-hour whisky flight, using whiskies from around the world. Book in for a session and you'll be given four whiskies to try, along with tasting notes (and top-notch banter, we're sure). The standard session costs $30, but you can upgrade your flight on the day — go for a selection of the world's best for $40 or slap down your credit card for a selection of old and rare Japanese drams for $160. Food will be available to purchase separately. Tokyo Bird is one of our favourite whisky bars in Sydney. Read the whole list.
No Jews were harmed during the making of this film.Left to the end of the credits, this little disclaimer speaks volumes about both the subject matter and tone of A Serious Man. Indeed the Coen brothers’ latest film feels like an elaborate in-joke, born of their own Jewish upbringing and therefore fairly exclusive for any gentiles in the audience. From the opening bizarre, Yiddish fable, A Serious Man unfolds into a damning morality play. It’s 1976 in Midwest USA and physics professor Larry Gopnik’s (Michael Stuhlbarg) life is about to implode. His dogmatic wife Judith (Sari Lennick) is leaving him for Sy Albeman (Fred Melamed), a man who sounds like the slimiest of talkback radio hosts. Larry’s teenage kids are apathetic to the point of tyrannical, and his useless brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is epitomised by the constant draining of his sebaceous cyst. Meanwhile Larry is on tenterhooks waiting to receive tenure, with university life further stressed by a disgruntled South Korean student seeking a passing grade. Just how Larry survives such a systematic undoing makes the film in equal parts unsettling, pointed and hilarious. The Coen brothers’ precision â€" written and visual â€" is remarkable, and yet the film is so unapologetically self-reflexive and autobiographical that it tends towards indulgent. Moreover the Coens are infamous for their physical and psychological (mis)treatment of characters. And this combination makes for an almost alienating viewing experience, though one that will probably develop further resonance (like most Coen brothers’ films) upon repeated viewing. Nothing is sacred in A Serious Man: the Coen brothers gleefully dismantle the institutions of marriage, religion and even a Bah Mitzvah. However, all serve to illustrate the profound and pervasive impact of their Jewish childhood…so perhaps the Coens didn’t quite come through unscathed after all.https://youtube.com/watch?v=tcUTv3LH3ss
Usually, IKEA's food game is as unmistakably Scandinavian as its hard-to-pronounce furniture names — headlined, of course, by those iconic Swedish meatballs. But come Thursday, February 11 in Tempe and Rhodes, the retailer is shaking things up and taking a jaunt to the other side of the globe, dishing up an Asian-inspired feast in celebration of the Lunar New Year. The dinner is set to run at different times — at 5pm in Rhodes, and at 5.30pm and 7pm in Tempe — and arriving hungry is recommended. On the menu, you'll find classic dishes like dumplings, spring rolls, and deep-fried eggs in sweet and sour sauce. There's both beef and vegetarian hot pot, tofu salad with chilli and sesame, hokkien noodles and honey soy chicken wings, and even sweet offerings like fruit salad, chocolate wafers and coconut rice pudding with mango sauce. Adult tickets to the buffet feast are $29.95, though IKEA Family members can nab theirs for just $24.95. And, you could even squeeze in a spot of pre- or post-dinner flatpack shopping while you're there. [caption id="attachment_757260" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Maksym Kozlenko via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Images: Maksym Kozlenko via Wikimedia Commons.
No longer just the realms of Monica Trapaga yazz residencies and kiddie-aimed pantomimes, the Twilight at Taronga series is taking it up a huge, cred-worthy notch. Kicking off a frankly kickass lineup set to play mega concerts at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, Bright Eyes' soul-searching dreamboat Conor Oberst, twee monarchs Belle and Sebastian, the one and only Rufus Wainwright and Powderfinger's legendary nice guy Bernard Fanning are just the tip of Taronga's genuinely killer program — spanning each Friday and Saturday night from Friday, January 30 through Saturday, March 21 after hours at the zoo. Being one of Australia's most high-fiveworthy zoos, Taronga's drummed up an Australian contingent worth crossing seas for: Paul Kelly presenting Merri Soul Sessions, You Am I, Sarah Blasko, Dan Sultan, Something For Kate, Little May, Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, Hiatus Kaiyote and more are all confirmed to front that top notch Sydney Harbour backdrop. And Ken Done's designing the marketing collateral, because 'straya. One of the most contemporary lineups the Twilight at Taronga series has seen in its 19 years running, the feathered, furred and finned will have plenty to choose from this summer. Whether the giraffes are Conor Oberst fans or the bilbies get into some sweet Belle and Sebastian remains to be seen. And you should see the also-announced Melbourne Zoo program — they get the motherflippin' Village People. TWILIGHT AT TARONGA 2015 PROGRAM: Friday 30 January – BERNARD FANNING, supported by Little May Saturday 31 January – BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, supported by Special Guests Friday 6 January – PAUL KELLY PRESENTS THE MERRI SOUL SESSIONS featuring Clairy Browne, Kira Puru, & Vika and Linda Bull, supported by Hiatus Kaiyote Saturday 7 February - YOU AM I, supported by Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders Friday 13 February - SARAH BLASKO, supported by Luluc Saturday 14 February - ANTHONY CALLEA presents Ladies & Gentlemen, The Songs of George Michael, supported by Caterina Torres Friday 20 February - THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, supported by Caravana Sun Saturday 21 February – THE BAMBOOS, supported by Katalyst with special guests (Original beats set) Friday 27 February - BOYS IN THE BAND – 50 years of hits! Saturday 28 February - BJORN AGAIN Friday 6 March – CONOR OBERST, supported by The Felice Brothers Saturday 7 March - RUFUS WAINWRIGHT performing The Best of Rufus Wainwright, supported by Lucy Wainwright Roche Friday 13 March – DAN SULTAN, supported by Benny Walker and Pierce Brothers Saturday 14 March - JAMES MORRISON BIG BAND Friday 20 March – SOMETHING FOR KATE, supported by Jen Cloher Saturday 21 March - ROSS WILSON and Mental As Anything Tickets for Twilight at Taronga's full program go on sale 9am, Friday, October 31 over here.
Dust off your best flapper dress or pinstriped suit, because a monthly prohibition party is headed to Sydney shores. The Blind Barber is a speakeasy-style pop-up by the Beyond Cinema folk — who also brought The Greatest Showman circus soirée to a secret Sydney location, an extravagant Great Gatsby party to a mansion in northern Sydney, the Mad Hatter's tea party to the Botanic Gardens and recreated Titanic on Sydney Harbour. Now, the group will throw its first non-film-inspired party, and it'll go down every month starting on Saturday, October 19. There will be casino tables to gamble at, bootleg cocktails to sip on and dancing all night long — with live bands playing jazz and throwback 1920s hits. And you can expect to bump into some of the period's most notorious characters, gangsters and crooks while you're at it. [caption id="attachment_711479" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Beyond Cinema's Great Gatsby event.[/caption] As with all Beyond Cinema events, lavish dress-ups are a must — for this one, think flapper dresses, bob hairdos, feather boas, pinstriped suits and suspenders. While the party's exact location will be kept under wraps (as usual), we do know that it'll be near North Sydney in an underground space, with plenty of secret rooms and tunnels to explore. Entry is $30 per person, or you can nab one of two packages on offer: canapés and cocktails for $65 per person, or the VIP dining experience, which takes place in a secret underground chamber and includes a three course feast for $90. The October edition of the Blind Barber will be the first in a monthly series of these secret parties. To be the first in the know and to purchase tickets, sign up here. The first Blind Barber pop-up will take place on Saturday, October 19. General admission tickets with go on sale at 9am on Friday, June 7 via the website.
In 1973, Columbia University behavioural psychologist Herb Terrace embarked upon a radical scientific experiment: to raise a chimpanzee as a human child in an attempt to teach it sign language. The possibility that man might be able to communicate with another species was as exciting as it was unsettling, potentially redefining what it was to be human and directly challenging the prevailing theory that language was unique to homo sapiens. So began Project Nim, named after its baby chimpanzee subject: 'Nim Chimpsky' (in a none-too-subtle jab at Noam Chomsky, the face of the linguistics establishment). In what would become a tragically recurrent and traumatising event in Nim's life, the newborn chimp was wrested from his mother's arms and given to bohemian grad student Stephanie LaFarge, a former pupil (and sexual partner) of Terrace. From day one LaFarge lovingly and enthusiastically raised Nim as one of her own children, even breastfeeding him for the first few months of his life. The footage from these early days of the project is utterly absorbing, with Nim's curiosity and playfulness as endearing as it is conspicuously 'human'. Add to that his rapid adoption and use of American sign language and you begin to feel like Terrace was indeed onto something absolutely remarkable. Working against him, however, were numerous methodological failings and — more importantly — irrepressible animal instinct. For all her affection, LaFarge's permissive and unregulated approach to Nim's education proved too unscientific for Terrace, compelling him to again extract Nim and relocate the entire project to a sprawling country estate. Yet nothing could suppress Nim's unavoidable maturation into an adult chimpanzee. With the strength of five men, he became increasingly dangerous, eventually attacking one of his teachers with terrifying ferocity. Believing the research had faltered, Terrace immediately cancelled the project and returned Nim to captivity, where he was then sold into animal experimentation. Directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire), Project Nim explores mankind's enduring fascination with our closest animal relatives and the ethically murky area of animal testing. If it all sounds terribly familiar, that's because it is. The recent critical acclaim for Rise of the Planet of the Apes lay not with the action-packed rebellion during the film's climax but rather with the compelling and intimate relationship between James Franco's character and Caesar, the chimpanzee he'd raised from birth in his home away from the laboratory. Both their friendship and Caesar's education rang eerily true, so much so that when Caesar ultimately spoke (redundant spoiler alert), it almost seemed plausible. These chimps, fictional and real, brought out the best and worst of mankind, demonstrating the undeniable and unsettling distinction between human and humane. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yxQap9AAPOs
With talk of building a utopia and working on the basis of 'doing everything', Bababa International cannot fairly be accused of lacking ambition. Thankfully, there seems to be an engine of thoughtful multi-tasking and active generosity behind the collective's drive. Ticked off from the 'everything' list of things to do so far are: - Set up a temporary site in Hong Kong offering free manicures and pedicures to anyone. - Replace stolen public sculpture with handmade replica. - Invite the Older Women's Network Theatre Group to perform their songs at the MCA. - Build domestic lodging into the ground of a public park. - Establish an impromptu kitchen and deliver free curry via bicycles to anywhere in Sydney. - Continue becoming everyone's new best friends via their stomachs by hosting free public breakfasts every Saturday for the duration of their residency at Firstdraft. Next up is Soap City, a project involving the production of bars of soap inscribed with maps leading visitors to an off-site shower on the rooftop above a doggy day care centre. While bathing was historically always a public and social domain, after the idea of showering was introduced washing has come to exist as a private act, and this sort of public/private intersection is what Bababa are drawn to. When asked about their reliance of the ideas of the Situationist International, Bababa say they engage with some of the theory "without dragging them into it". They are more interested in the hypothetical and fanciful proposals of the movement than the slogans and rhetorical critiques. In an age when being subversive is rarely subversive any more, their brand of city vandalism is one which strives to be useful rather than rebellious, encouraging active engagement, imaginative reuse of urban space, and advanced social interaction. Soap City opens at Firstdraft Gallery on Wednesday night at 6pm and runs until September 26. Go clean yourself up and make friends with Bababa.
The words "indie pop" have in many circles become synonymous with hipster pretentiousness. Last Dinosaurs ain't that kind of indie pop. Coupled with their taste for button-up shirts and primary coloured jeans, the Brisbane quartet have taken the template supplied by such indie darlings as Vampire Weekend and Bombay Bicycle Club, cranked up the guitar histrionics and added some shout-along choruses plus a bunch of irresistibly funky, off-kilter grooves to give us a sound that has had critics salivating and brought them sold-out concerts across Australia and Europe. Then of course there is the Brisbane quartet's insatiable taste for causing havoc on stage. The boys' growing reputation for putting on unforgettable, dance-till-your-feet-hurt shows has set them apart from the glut of indie pop outfits that seem to clog every other bar and venue in Sydney. In honour of their debut album In A Million Years celebrating its first birthday this month - an album that The Guardian described as a "possible contender" for best Australian album to reach British shores in the last twenty years - Last Dinosaurs are bringing their guitar-powered pop to UNSW's Roundhouse. Book online before tickets become extinct. https://youtube.com/watch?v=EqGs36oPpLQ
Pyrmont will score a lavish new restaurant this July when two culinary heavy hitters of Australia's most exciting chefs join forces for the first time. Sydney's lauded chef Chase Kojima (Sokyo, Gojima) and Melbourne's acclaimed Lee Ho Fook chef Victor Liong are coming together to open Chuuka, a new Chinese-Japanese fine diner at Jones Bay Wharf. In the space that used to be home to Flying Fish (which has just moved across the road to The Star), the two chefs will combine their respective specialties and techniques (Chase in Japanese cuisine and Liong in Chinese) to create a cross-cuisine menu that goes well beyond your standard Asian fusion. "We're finding links between the two cuisines and seeing that the similarities marry quite seamlessly," says Liong. "Japanese cuisine is considered quite refined and Chinese cuisine has a reputation of being flavourful but quite heavy. So, we're trying to showcase both cuisines in a different way by bringing more flavour into Japanese and more refined elegance into Chinese food, for example." The restaurant's name plays to this cultural exchange and nods to the historic culinary influence of the late-1800s Chinese immigrants in Japan. This menu will feature an amalgamation of flavours and traditional cooking techniques, all while using fresh Aussie produce. While the menu is still being finalised, Sydneysiders can expect it to be seafood heavy. "We're looking at using a lot of large fish and shellfish like lobster and mussels, as well as local vegetables like king oyster mushrooms that you just can't get in Melbourne," says Liong. Dishes that are in the works include pickled mussels with daikon and edible flowers; thinly-sliced cuttlefish with ginger; and a crispy eggplant dish adapted from Lee Ho Fook's spiced red vinegar version. An "interactive" course with a whole duck is also on the cards. "We found some dishes pop up in both cultures — but where they originate from is almost complete different," says Liong. The two chefs will be looking to "balance the bold Szechuan flavour with the elegant look of the Japanese" with dishes like the bang bang (or bon bon) chicken, which will see strips of pounded chicken topped with spicy Szechuan sauce, chopped peanuts and spring onions. The two-level interior is set to be pretty luxurious, too. The ground floor will have a 60-seat restaurant, wine room and outdoor bar — all of which are arranged to amplify the venue's encompassing views across Darling Harbour — while a 70-seat private dining space will take up the upstairs floor. Chuuka is the first off-property restaurant for The Star Sydney, which plans to continue to expand as a luxury entertainment group beyond its Pyrmont casino and hotel. We'll update you with more details closer to the date. Chuuka will open this July at Jones Bay Wharf, 26-32 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont.
What happens when you get rare approval for extended, late-night trading hours? Well, if you're anything like 70s-inspired enoteca Alberto Lounge, you celebrate by throwing a big ol' party. That party's taking over the bar on Sunday, November 24, promising eats, beats and boozy treats right through until midnight. From 4pm, you'll catch DJs spinning a soundtrack of throwback Euro grooves, drink specials including a $10 negroni and complimentary serves of Alberto's signature mortadella sandwiches. There'll be 'Nature Morte' t-shirts by Sydney-based print-maker Allie Webb up for grabs, while the kitchen dishes up its full food menu all night long. Alberto Lounge is now open an extra hour until 1am Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and an extra two hours until midnight on Sundays. To match, a refreshed DJ program is set to kick on until late every weekend. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights will remain the same, with the venue open until about midnight. The bar was opened late last year by the folks behind Restaurant Hubert, Frankie's and Shady Pines Saloon. Its new hours are another small win for Sydney's nightlife and live music scene, with tough lockout laws on track to be rolled back right across the CBD by the end of the year. Venue images: Kitti Gould.
While some people insist on reading the book before they see the movie and then espousing the benefits of the literary word over that of the cinematic creation, others prefer to just go and see the film. Well, in the case of Tolstoy, the books are fairly heavy going. Particularly when every character insists on having twelve different Russian names with which they are referred to throughout the narrative, leaving you a bit lost as to who actually is going to get the girl. While The Last Station is based not on one of Tolstoy's books but instead on the last weeks of his life, it does occasionally play like some good Russian melodrama. Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy) has been selected to act as the great Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer) secretary, heading to live with the commune subscribing to the great author's philosophy. Meanwhile Tolstoy's wife Sofya (Helen Mirren in a fantastically over-the-top role) is worried that her family will no longer be provided for after Tolstoy's works are given back to the people, as proposed by the commune. Amongst the scheming machinations between the wife, the friend (Vladimir Chertkov, Paul Giamatti) and the bewildered secretary, Tolstoy is slowing down, giving up on the rich life of an aristocrat. The film manages to make Russia look luscious and green (though it was filmed in Germany) and posits an idyllic, pre-Revolution Russian countryside. It also is just a spectacular film. Helen Mirren is thoroughly enjoyable as the highly strung and larger-than-life Sofya, and McAvoy's Valentin is boyish and reserved. This movie is lovely; it feels that it belongs in a symbiotic relationship with a nice cup of tea and a scone. It's that kind of film. Everyone puts in their best performances (as evidenced by the many Oscar nods), and you strongly get the sense from Tolstoy's dying days, Russia, and indeed the world, lost a talented soul. https://youtube.com/watch?v=nkQK7gjre8Y
Never underestimate the importance of casting, or its influence. When a famous name barely appears at the beginning of a film, you can bet they'll turn up again later. When someone notable doesn't seem to have all that much to do, they'll likely become not just noticeable, but crucial. And when two actors best known for recent memorable roles are cast opposite each other, bringing some baggage with them might just be part of the plan. The latter proves the case with Angel of Mine, which pits The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Lisbeth Salander against The Handmaid's Tale's Serena Joy. Kim Farrant's film isn't related to either the Swedish crime franchise or the huge dystopian TV hit, so that's not what literally happens— however with Noomi Rapace playing an unstable woman called Lisbeth, and Yvonne Strahovski portraying someone fighting for her family, the obvious springs to mind. Such comparisons aren't to Angel of Mine's detriment. While the Melbourne-shot movie is actually an English-language remake of 2008 French picture L'Empreinte de L'Ange, which is based on a wild true tale, both stars remain in their element. Rapace's career hasn't ever soared beyond the heights of her Dragon Tattoo days, but she's always been at her best playing complicated characters who are driven to exorcise their internal demons. Strahovski's fame took off when she became a resident of Gilead, and grappling with the complexities of womanhood and motherhood definitely suits her. Unsurprisingly, the two make a formidable duo, which is exactly what the story calls for. Adapted into English by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Luke Davies (Lion) and seasoned TV scribe David Regal (Rugrats), the psychological thriller not only unravels the ties that bind women and their children, but also explores how societal expectations can be a stumbling block for the fairer sex. When Angel of Mine introduces Rapace's Lizzie Manning, she's hardly anyone's ideal mum. Still grieving the loss of her infant daughter, she's separated from her husband Mike (Luke Evans) and shares custody of the primary school-aged Thomas (Finn Little), although her son would rather spend all of his time with his father. Things don't improve when, following a birthday party for one of Thomas' friends, Lizzie becomes obsessed with seven-year-old Lola (Annika Whiteley). Haunted by the girl, who looks just like her own daughter might if she had survived, Lizzie tries to befriend Lola's well-off parents (Strahovski, as well as Richard Roxburgh) to immerse herself in their lives. Just a few decades ago, the thriller genre was filled with tales about feverish fixations: by one-night stands (Fatal Attraction), vengeful nannies (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) and over-enthusiastic friends (Single White Female), to name a few examples. Angel of Mine fits the same mould, to a point. Just how it deviates from that trend is part of the film's twists and turns, and therefore best discovered by watching — but as she demonstrated with her debut movie Strangerland, Farrant doesn't trade in standard narratives. Instead, the Australian filmmaker is fascinated by women's reactions to traumatic situations, how the world wants them to act during their most upsetting moments, and what happens when they stick to their guns. While saying anything more about the storyline is saying too much, how this idea ties into Angel of Mine proves one of its strongest elements. That said, the movie's ending is saddled with a hard task. Before its revelatory finale, the film sometimes struggles, relying so heavily on its leading ladies that it can miss the mark elsewhere. There's an uneasy air about Angel of Mine, which is wholly by design, however there's a difference between framing that's purposefully tense and unsettling, and scenes that become clumsy rather than disquieting. Still, given that Rapace and Strahovski turn in such stellar performances, no one can blame Farrant for pushing the pair, the characters' thorny friendship and their differing responses to a difficult situation firmly to the fore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hui0KpDzAwY
If you like your live tunes just as much as you enjoy sipping vino and tucking into top-notch eats, then here's one for the calendar: a brand-new festival combining food, drink and entertainment set against the picturesque backdrop of Albury. From the minds that gave us BeerFest Australia, Sip & Savour Albury is set to make its debut from Saturday, February 4–Sunday, February 5. Headlining the musical side of things, you've got renowned acts like Kate Miller-Heidke, Josh Pyke, Lisa Mitchell and Telenova, treating audiences to tunes both new and classic. Enjoy the sounds from the comfort of your picnic rug or while kicking back in one of the al fresco lounge zones. [caption id="attachment_884250" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Josh Pyke[/caption] There's a whole lotta sipping to be done, too, with producers like Bridge Road Brewers, Michelini Wines, Bright Brewery and Brown Brothers showcasing their finest, and even pouring complimentary tastings. Adult tickets to the QEII Square fest start from $55.35, including three hours of tastings — and you'll savour the region's diverse food scene, too, as you graze your way through an array of local produce and restaurant fare. There'll also be plenty of take-home goodies for those keen to stock their pantries. MasterChef Australia alum Hayden Quinn will be making a special guest appearance, hosting a series of demos and masterclasses heroing some of those top local ingredients. And if you want to get even more hands on, check out the program of workshops and classes led by local experts. Top Image: Jo Duck
If you've ever spent hours falling down the wildlife and nature video rabbit hole online late at night, this one's for you. National Geographic's Symphony for Our World will combine the best of the footage from the organisation's 130-year archives with a live orchestral performance, synchronising the triumphant moments of both music and nature under one spectacle. And, that soundtrack will feature a Hans Zimmer-flavoured score and feature a live choir as well. The natural history footage will be drawn from years of past images, drawing from Nat Geo's shots from all over the world. The accompanying symphony will be created by Bleeding Fingers Music, featuring the work of composers such as the legendary Hans Zimmer, as well as Austin Fray and Andrew Christie. Just like the recent Planet Earth II Live in Concert, Zimmer's score especially will make you feel things you didn't know you could about animals you'll never meet. A five-part composition that'll tour Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Symphony for Our World will take the audience on a journey from the sea, along the coastlines, across the land, through the mountains and then finally into the sky, with differing orchestral movements for each world environment. It's the story of our planet, but brought to life in a different way — so why not get out of the house and off YouTube and go see some fully immersive nature.
