In case you hadn't noticed, Sydney is big. Really getting to know the ins and outs of an area are near impossible unless you live in it. Enter Culture Scouts. Culture Scouts is all about providing local walking tours with an edge. This tour won't cover the guide book favourites; it's a curated cultural hit-list of the best arty spots in the area, from the cool, creative cats who know best. The Inner West tour focuses specifically on the art meccas of Enmore and Newtown. The guides, who are all creative professionals, will help you dive into the artistic underbelly of the neighbourhoods, showcasing the best street art, murals and graffiti. They will steer you towards the best foodie haunts and vintage stores plus you'll get to meet some of the area's most colourful residents. You will feel like a local in no time.
It’s time to fire up your barbecues and perfect your spice rub recipe, because Sydney is about to host their first ever Barbecue Festival. The one-day event — which debuted in Melbourne last year — will feature free classes and demonstrations, more barbecued meat than you can poke a skewer at, live entertainment and, of course, the great barbecue cook-off. The cook-off is sanctioned by the too-legit-to-quit Kansas City Barbeque Society, and the winner will go on to compete at the world championships in the U.S., as well receive as a sweet cash prize and — most importantly — unrivalled barbecue glory. We spoke to festival director Matt Vitale about the festival, the different styles of American barbecue, and got all the pro tips on how to barbecue like a boss. MEET THE EXPERT: MATT VITALE Matt had always been an avid backyard barbecue cook, and a few years ago he decided to try his luck at the big time by entering a barbecue competition for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Matt teamed up with his wife and they won — sending them to the World Championships of barbecuing, held at the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. "It was an amazing experience, and unexpected," he says. "I met a bunch of great people from the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), which is the largest organisation of barbecue enthusiasts in the world, and the organising body for this sport — it is a sport in the States.” The KCBS wanted to sanction a contest to Australia, and with Matt's assistance the first Yaks Barbecue Festival was brought to Melbourne. Now, it's Sydney’s turn to get a juicy slice of the action. THE FOUR TYPES OF AMERICAN BARBECUE According to Matt, there are four different regional styles of barbecue in the U.S. Texas barbecue is mostly beef-focussed; the rubs are a lot simpler, mostly salt and pepper, with not much sauce that is usually served on the side. In Memphis, they generally favour a dry rub on their ribs, and again sauce is usually on the side. North and South Carolina have more of a focus on pork where the sauce is more vinegary with a bit of chili thrown in for good measure. But it's Kansas City, Matt says, that takes the best elements from all of the regions. "They're really well known for their beef brisket and burnt ends, which are these cubes of meat taken from the point end of the brisket. They’re also known for their ribs with rich, tomato, sticky sauce, which I think a lot of people really associate American barbecue with. That’s what Kansas City barbecue is really famous for.” [caption id="attachment_555155" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Dollar Photo Club[/caption] HOW TO COOK THE PERFECT BBQ CHOOK Kansas-style barbecue may be well known for their trademark tomato-based sauce, but sometimes it's worth knowing how to perfect the basics before you go slathering on a sticky sauce left, right and centre. One never-fail barbecue recipe that Matt is happy to divulge is his cherrywood-smoked chicken. "Smoked chicken is an achievable dish to do," he says. "A lot of these things you need to cook for a long period of time, but chicken you can get done in a couple of hours." So how do we recreate this magic for ourselves? First, grab a split chicken from a good butcher or poultry and game supplier, as getting it split makes it easier to cook. You're going to need a smoker for this recipe — a very worthy investment if you're serious about your meat. Fire it up to a bit over 100 degrees celsius, and put some wood chunks in there. Matt recommends cherrywood because it's easily available in Australia. Cook the chook for about an hour and a half breast-side down, then turn it over, baste it with olive oil, and leave it for another 30 minutes. Unlike beef brisket, which can take 10-12 hours, this takes a little over two hours and you're ready to eat. Matt recommends pairing this with fresh vegetables cooked over charcoal, such as charred corn, sliced eggplant and asparagus, as they get nice and caramelised. Drink of choice? Beer, of course — either a Fat Yak or a Lazy Yak goes perfectly with any barbecue. PRO TIPS FOR BBQ NOOBS While a lot of Australians love to consume barbecued goods, not all of us are as talented at making it as we are eating it. Matt recommends starting with a solid fuel BBQ to get the most out of your meat. "Gas BBQs are great, but there's so much more that you can do on a solid fuel BBQ. Cooking with wood and charcoal, you'll always get a better result.” Another piece of advice Matt leaves us with is to not be afraid to just give it a go: “sometimes you’ll get it right, other times you’ll get it wrong, but the more you practice, the more you'll get it right." The Yaks Sydney Barbecue Festival is happening this Saturday, January 30 at The Domain, Sydney. For more information, check out the event. Top image: Dollar Photo Club
The heritage-listed Capitol Theatre has been around since 1928 and continues to host some of the best musical and theatrical productions in Sydney. The gorgeous interior will take you back to another time. Meanwhile, the theatre pulls in all of the modern Broadway favourites, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock: The Musical, which ran in early 2020. Coming up is the Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical Come from Away, which will take the stage in 2021. The venue also offers a free membership program, which offers members pre-sale tickets, access to the best seats in the house and special offers aplenty. It's one of the best ways to see this year's blockbuster Broadway hits on the cheap.
If you haven't heard about Down Under yet, you will soon. No, we're not talking about the Men at Work song that you now have stuck in your head. Instead, we mean the new Aussie film that shines a spotlight on the state of race relations across the nation by turning the 2005 Cronulla riots into a black comedy. Yes, really. In actor-turned-filmmaker Abe Forsythe's second feature, two groups of Sydneysiders drive around their beloved beachside suburb after the bulk of the battle takes place, each trying to protect their patch of turf. In one car, Jason (Damon Herriman), Ditch (Justin Rosniak), Shit Stick (Alexander England) and Evan (Chris Bunton) search for people to beat up. In another, Hassim (Lincoln Younes) looks for his missing brother with his pals Nick (Rahel Romahn) and D-Mac (Fayssal Bazzi), and his uncle Ibrahim (Michael Denkha). If you're feeling a little awkward about the above the description, that's okay — in fact, pointing out the pointlessness of prejudice in all its forms is a big part of the point of the movie. As funny as it is thought provoking, Down Under premiered at the Sydney Film Festival to considerable acclaim, and now heads to the Melbourne International Film Festival before releasing in Aussie cinemas on August 11. [competition]581868[/competition]
One of the biggest sacrifices that inner-city renting can present is not being able to have a pooch pal for a roommate. For anyone who is a dog person (but, let's be honest, who isn't?), this can be quite the adjustment to make. So, any exposure to a four-legged friend conjures serious levels of excitement that are usually only reserved for when you see the waiter bringing your food at a restaurant. As one of several off-leash dog parks in the inner city, Harmony Park in Surry Hills is a mecca for recreational dog-watching. There is something quite cathartic about sitting and watching those silly mutts expend all of their energy on a few rounds of catch. Watch a little puppy get virtually bowled over by a giant hound, to then promptly get up, shake it off and go again. Go gaga as a short-legged pooch attempts to get airborne to catch a frisbee, casually missing by over a metre. And accept all the snuggles and wet, sloppy kisses you can get, until the owner thinks you're a weirdo. It will fill that pet-shaped hole in your heart — temporarily, at least.
Vivid Sydney is really cranking it up this year. Last month they announced a truly epic program of lights, music, ideas and live events, which, in one heck of a slam dunk, included none other than Björk (BJÖRK!). As part of Carriageworks' contemporary program, she'll launch a huge virtual reality project dubbed BJÖRK DIGITAL — a collaboration with some of the world's best filmmakers and programmers. And to celebrate the opening, Björk herself will travel to Sydney to curate a one-off music event at Carriageworks, where she'll DJ with special guests. In a response that absolutely everybody expected, the opening night event sold out quick sticks. While that leaves the 12 people who actually got tickets pretty smug and happy, it leaves the rest of us sad and confused as to how we'll live a life where Björk doesn't make an appearance. Luckily, Carriageworks have today announced that they'll be adding a second BJÖRK DIGITAL party, to be held the night following the opening on Saturday, June 4. The event itself cost $110 a tickie, and will include access to the BJÖRK DIGITAL exhibition, DJ sets by special guests and a DJ set by Björk herself. As well as the two big parties, the exhibition will run from June 4-18. It will include a downright must-experience program of her extensive video, multimedia and virtual reality works. Tickets for the BJÖRK DIGITAL Party #2 go on sale this Friday, April 8 at 9am. To snap some up, visit the Carriageworks website. By Shannon Connellan and Lauren Vadnjal.
Prepare to add another activity to that growing list of summer must-dos: Merivale and Summer Bright have just announced a slew of A+ Sunday afternoon shows at two prime waterside venues. And the best part? They're all free. Yep, all 16 of 'em. Returning for a second year, the Sunday Sundown sessions will be held over 16 Sundays from November 27 to February 26. They'll once again be going down from midday at the Coogee Pavilion rooftop and The Newport, which are both top-notch places to watch the sunset, in our humble opinion. Kicking off with a performance by Aussie hip hop artist Tuka, the Pavilion will go on to host Remi, Yolanda Be Cool and Sampology, among others. Up the coast at Newport, Client Liaison will kick things off on December 4 and will be followed by Montaigne, Ngaiire Triple J Unearthed acts Middle Kids and Jack River. Jarryd James will help welcome in 2017 playing New Year's Day, and The Bamboos will help celebrate Australia Day. But here's the full lineup. SUNDAY SUNDOWN 2016-17 LINEUP COOGEE ROOFTOP 27 NOVEMBER: TUKA + BAD EZZY 11 DECEMBER: BASENJI + SWINDAIL 1 JANUARY: ACT TBA + RUNNING TOUCH 8 JANUARY: YOLANDA BE COOL + GENERIK 22 JANUARY: NINA LAS VEGAS + DOM DOLLA 26 JANUARY: LUKE MILLION + DRO CAREY 5 FEBRUARY: SAMPOLOGY + NOAH SLEE 19 FEBRUARY: REMI + KUREN THE NEWPORT 4 DECEMBER: CLIENT LIASION + CONFIDENCE MAN 18 DECEMBER: MONTAIGNE + HEIN COOPER 1 JANUARY: JARRYD JAMES + CLEOPOLD 15 JANUARY: MIDDLE KIDS + JACK RIVER 26 JANUARY: THE BAMBOOS + ACT TBA 29 JANUARY: ACT TBA + SABLE 12 FEBRUARY: NGAIIRE + ALL OUR EXES LIVE IN TEXAS 26 FEBRUARY: SKUNKHOUR + SONS OF THE EAST Sunday Sunday will run every Sunday from midday at Coogee Pavilion and The Newport from November 27 – February 26. For more info, visit merivale.com.au/sundaysundown. Image: Bodhi Liggett.
Have you been painstakingly catching Pokemon all over town, but undeniably disappointed you can't bloody well eat the damn things? Get that bib on. Sydney's Hashtag Burgers are cranking out Pokemon-inspired burgers from their Down-N-Out burger CBD pop-up for the next two weeks. And they're pretty well adorable. The crew will be be releasing a limited number every day for the next two weeks from their In-N-Out-inspired pop-up inside the Sir John Young Hotel on the corner of Liverpool Street and George Street. Each burger has been dreamt up by chef Seb (ex-Thirsty Bird and Mr Crackles) and corresponds to the different type of Pokemon it looks like. And because Pokemon are random little critters, you're not allowed to choose which Pokeburg you'll receive — it's completely by chance. Go catch 'em all from today until September 3. Hashtag Burgers' Down N' Out pop-up can be found at the Sir John Young Hotel on the corner of Liverpool Street and George Street, Sydney CBD.
When it comes to rooftop bars, Parramatta hasn't exactly had its fair share of the sky-high pie — but this year, that's all set to change. After announcing their plans to open the bar in June last year, Australian developers Crown Group have today confirmed they are putting the final touches on their new hotel, Skye Hotel Suites at Parramatta's 28-storey V by Crown complex. And that also means that the new bar — which will be Parramatta's highest by far — is getting towards completion point too. Dubbed Nick & Nora's, the bar comes from none other than the Speakeasy Group, the team behind stalwart cocktail bar Eau de Vie and the due-to-open-soon Mjolnir. Though not technically on the building's top storey, located on level 26, the openair terrace bar will apparently afford 270-degree views of Sydney's skyline, the harbour and the Blue Mountains. Apart from that, details on the bar's menu are still scant — but judging from their other venues, expect some serious cocktails. The rest of the hotel will feature 72 luxe hotel suites, some flashy facilities — which include a swish pool that's only open to residents and guests — and a retail precinct that will include an outpost of Neil Perry's popular Burger Project. The rest of the building's design is the work of Allen Jack + Cottier and Koichi Takada Architects and — if it's anything to go by, Nick & Nora's is set to rival even the best of Sydney's current rooftop bars. The hotel is set to open in May, with the bar to open soon after. Nick & Nora's is set to open later this year on level 26 of V by Crown at 45 Macquarie Street, Parramatta. Stay tuned for more details on this one.
The Head On Photo Festival brings a collection of four photographers across the three main galleries at Gaffa. In Gallery One, The Alien in Our Midst combines the work of real-life partners Belinda Allen and Christopher Lawrie. Lawrie's section combines a selection from his History of Salt — From Weavers to Wapstraws is a volume of family history caked in salt and the Insular Australia series has folio pages slowly and similarly ossifying — while The Land of Dreams series shows portraits of recent migrants juxtaposed with the skeletal ruins of bush houses. Their faces are by turns circumspect, calm, sad, cautious and confident. Allen's History Tree lets a stunning series of trees push out from the pages of maps and rough reference books, laid out over poster size grids. For The alien in our midst … series of twinned photos, she takes a similar approach to Lawrie's Land of Dreams, mixing immigrant youths literally draped in printed images of the outback, with other landscapes behind. The results are mixed: The alien in our midst (Lake Eyre) shows a sky of seagulls flattened into a broken, sandy lakebed but some of the others don't lose their three-dimensional subjects enough against the flat landscape behind. Gallery Two shows Christian Pearson's Conversations with the Land. Not all of his photo montages work, but those that do are fantastic. In We're all red in the middle, spots of rounded watermelons sit tessellated in boxes, green dots adrift on a broad, dusty red land, while The wind has been cuts together rusted shades of desert like a Pantone deck from nature: red, then milky, then bone-yellow sand. In Gallery Three, Clare Weeks' Outside In has dead animals sitting against wallpaper, nonchalant as a collection of pensioners' china cups. Almost all of the animals have their heads out of frame, as though even in death they're trying to escape this domestic scrutiny. A curl of claws and paws suggests movement that's no longer on the cards, and only a crested pigeon stares back, dead and indignant. Images We're all red in the middle and The wind has been by Christian Pearson.
"Written and directed by" is a significant phrase in Hollywood. In an industry notorious for taking a screenwriter's story and completely bastardising it during production, directors like Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen and the brothers Wachowski and Cohen have all demonstrated the virtues of controlling a film's production from its very inception right through to its, well… Inception. In essence, the words "written and directed by" offer audiences the greatest guarantee that the film they're about to see is the closest thing to the film the director actually set out to make. Which begs the question: why did Boaz Yakin set out to make this movie? Safe, starring England's best whispering frown — Jason Statham — is a violent action flick written and directed by Yakin; however, 'written' might be a touch generous. Statham has more hair than this film has plot, and with lines like "I’ve been in restaurants all night but all I've been served is lead", the dialogue is equally sparse. As an action film, Safe operates squarely within the boundaries of its genre's logic. The Chinese bad guys are Chinese, so they all know martial arts. The Russian bad guys are Russian, so they all laugh while killing people and sound exactly like Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle. Last but not least, the cops and politicians are all so corrupt, the only person who can stop them is a good cop who's not a cop any more. Throw in a young Chinese maths prodigy (Catherine Chan) whose memory is abused by the Triads as an untraceable ledger for their illegal activities and you've got all the ingredients you'll need. All the ingredients, that is, to bake yourself a pie. A pie made of lead. A death pie.
You know you're in for a night of good theatre when you're greeted with an opening scene of two people screaming and chasing each other round the set. It's the perfect opening for a play which depicts the gradual deterioration of a relationship as unspoken truths are brought to the surface. Steph (Julia Grace) is angry at Greg (Andrew Hnery) because she's found out through a friend that Greg has said something not too flattering about her face. Her reaction and his insubstantial defence of his actions cause her to leave. Gradually we're introduced to the other friends on the scene — Carly (Lucy Maunder), Steph's friend, and Kent (Stephen James King), Greg's colleague and supposed best bud — and we discover that it's not just Greg and Steph that are feeling lost in their lives and relationships. Written by Neil LaBute, known for his recurring commentary on beauty and its all-too-powerful effect on the world, this is the Australian premiere of Reasons to Be Pretty, and director James Beach has done a bang-up job. The American accents are initially jarring, as they tend to be on stage, but everyone maintains a solid American drawl, especially King, who's brutish gum-chewing and distinctive eye-blinking epitomises the stereotypical American slob. While the first act gets bogged down in the singular issue of who said what and what it meant, the second goes on to flesh out the characters into fully formed beings with whom, by the end of the play, the audience is emotionally attached. Every new revelation serves the purpose of highlighting who the bad guys really are, quite different from whom you assume at the beginning of the play. Henry, who plays Greg and co-produced this show, is a restrained but immoveable force delivering LaBute's biting one-liners with ease, while Grace's Steph, who chews up the scenery while she gradually tears it down in the first act, comes back with a powerful restraint in the second. Maunder's Carly, while she has the least inflammatory of roles, is revealed as a quiet force by the end. Whether you're familiar with LaBute's work or are interested in a simple evening of modern theatre, there are plenty of reasons to check out Reasons to be Pretty.
If one tried to chart Michael Winterbottom's films by genre, a labyrinthine map would emerge. From comedic road movie The Trip to notoriously, violently graphic The Killer Inside Me; postmodern comedy A Cock and Bull Story; meditative, quiet Genova; and absorbing war films A Mighty Heart and Welcome to Sarajevo, Winterbottom is defined by his chameleon-like ability to consistently, effortlessly shift. Loosely adapted from Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Trishna is set in contemporary India rather than late 19th-century England. If you're turned off the movie because you haven't read the book, I have one piece of advice: shelve that notion. I know only the basic plot line of Tess, and yet I was won over from the beginning. Trishna is a rich film in its own right. Starring the inimitably beautiful Freida Pinto as the titular character, the film chronicles her growing relationship with a young, wealthy British transplant in India to look after his father's hotels. Prefacing his responsibilities with a jaunt through the country with his friends from home, he meets Trishna, a poor, hardworking Indian girl living with her family on the desert fringes of Osian, an ancient town in Rajasthan. The romance develops slowly but commences with a sweeping gesture — Jay organises Trishna a job at his father's hotel in the hills around Jaipur. Her defection from the desert to the city is representative of emerging social migratory trends in the country. Indeed, the social and economic backdrop of India was ripe with adaptive potential for Winterbottom. As he has said, "Hardy was describing a similar moment in English life. A moment when, in the nineteenth century, the conservative rural communities were being transformed by the agricultural and industrial revolutions, when fewer and fewer people were being employed on the land, so people moved to the local towns or cities." The young couple's emerging relationship is fraught with external pressures and untimely occurrences. Soon, their idyllic romance, set against the backdrop of Mumbai after Jay defects from his designated role in Jaipur for business opportunities, begins to falter. Drawn back into the familial duties he so hates after his father has a stroke, the two move to another hotel where they resume their previous roles of owner and maid, but this time with devastating consequences. Shot beautifully and devoid of Bollywood kitsch, this is one to watch. https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdFiV9yDHG4
Director Netta Yashchin's stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1945 novella Animal Farm at the Australian Theatre for Young People is dedicated to the Jewish-Arabic director and peace activist Juliano Mer-Khamis. He was murdered just over a year ago in Jenin in the West Bank, close to the Freedom Theatre he ran for young people. Hearing about his production of Animal Farm inspired Yashchin to create her own production of the story, which she says is "extremely relevant today". Staging Animal Farm in Palestine has an immediate weight and relevance. Sydney's Walsh Bay doesn't have quite the same effect. Nevertheless Animal Farm is a cracker of a story and it is hard not to find it interesting wherever you are. Orwell's illustration of post-revolution reversion to the same oppression as that of the overthrown powers is a great piece to stage at the moment. Australian Labor party leadership squabbles don't qualify as a revolution, but the hypocrisy and deceit displayed by our politicians is right there in Animal Farm. More pertinent perhaps is Egypt's post-revolutionary presidential race, which has turned into a farce because of the string of disqualifications based on pedantic nationality rules. The production is highly physical while at the same time retaining much of Orwell's excellent writing as narration delivered directly to the audience. Dymphna Carew's choreography and Tom Ringberg's fight direction give the piece a physically vibrant edge that keeps the story alive. The pigs' transformation into authoritarian masters trying to walk on two legs is a particularly striking moment. The performances are generally compelling, with a strong sense of ensemble for this large cast of 18. Michael Brindley presents a delightfully eccentric characterisation of the messianic raven, Moses, with his utopian belief in Sugarcandy Mountain. Stephanie King playing the Cat has some consummate acrobatic skills on the silks, which at times distracts from the action (because she's so good). The performers seem to be enjoying themselves, which is always a pleasure to watch. If your copy of Animal Farm has been gathering dust since high school, this is an excellent opportunity to reacquaint yourself with the classic.
The Rocks has proved an unexpectedly difficult area to rejuvenate. Home to winding laneways, heel-cracking cobblestones, quaint colonial haunts, and shady histories, it should be the atmospheric epicentre of cultural life in this city. We've been waiting for the day it is. But so far, despite notable inroads by such initiatives as the Pop-Up Project and the MCA's Lights on Later, The Rocks has had a hard time shaking off its tourist-saturated image. Now the most promising sign of change yet has come with the new weekly event Village Bizarre. Happening on Friday evenings throughout November and December, it puts contortionists, comedians, music-makers, open dance classes, games, barbers' chairs, and curios at the end of every alley and under each rickety awning. You'll meet such characters as convict butcher George Cribb, underwater knitters Mrs Polly Mer and Mrs Ester, and melancholic cabaret artist Tia Juana. There are also some more sustained, very intriguing site-specific performances, including the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festival hit Ute Uber Kool Ja, in which you venture into the Holiday Inn room of an ageing rock star (you'll need to book tickets for the privilege), and Blind Date, a blindfolded one-on-one tour of The Rocks that's tailored specially to you. And don't forget to download the mp3 before you head out if you want to experience Crowds Above You. To keep you hopping from oddity to exotica, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority-presented event features three pop-up bars — the Enchanted Forest Bar, the Canopy Bar, and best of all, the White Rabbit Bar, which, in an Eyes Wide Shut meets leporine vibe, requires you to don a rabbit mask before entry. https://youtube.com/watch?v=nHIDspGbLrM
Engaging, topical, entertaining and (mostly) free. The Woollahra Festival is held over four days in November, bringing together a diverse programme of shows, talks and community events to celebrate world music and visual arts, as well as provoking intelligent discussion on contemporary ideas and global issues. For a small event that’s produced entirely by local residents, there’s a heck of a line-up; from Tai Chi and belly dancing to debating foreign policy, local architecture and iconic literature. Plus it’s family-friendly too: this year’s festival has a ‘magic’ theme for the kids, including illusionists, acrobatics, dance, hula hooping and pretty pooches. Now in its third year, some of the festival’s most popular events – like Dinner on the Village Green (a three-course dinner at $150 per person, as part of the closing event on Sunday 18 November) – will be sure to sell out quickly. But there are plenty of free and $10 events, including talks from well-known writers, journalists, architects, politicians, chefs and more – as well as free gigs from an impressive list of world musicians.
Join Cake Wines and their 'uncomplicated' approach to wine as they launch their second pop-up bar in the disused Cleveland St Theatre. Cake will host a number of events beginning at 6pm on Thursday night with the brand's Archi Bottle Prize awards. A live FBi Radio broadcast will be held on Friday night, and the bar will also be open from midday to midnight on Saturday as a part of the Surry Hills Festival in Prince Albert Park. As you sit and enjoy the Archi-Bottle Prize you can sip on your choice of Shiraz, Rosé, Chardonnay, Lucky Duck cider or Little Creatures Beer and chow down on gourmet food from Jafe Jaffles. For every bottle of Cake Wine purchased, 25 cents of the sale goes back to FBi and 4ZZZ Radio stations. And thanks to Cake, two Concrete Playgrounders will win a bottle of Pinot, redeemable at the bar. To go in the running just subscribe to Concrete Playground (if you haven't already) then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au
Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel on the Beat Generation of the 1950s was once labelled ‘the unfilmable story’, so for director Walter Salles simply getting it on screen was a feat worthy of credit. Salles obviously has a thing for classic road stories, too, having previously helmed the critically acclaimed Motorcycle Diaries (2004). And while On The Road isn’t quite as polished, it nonetheless delivers a tantalising blend of sex, drugs, friendship and disillusioned yearning. On The Road tells the story of Sal Paradise, an aspiring young writer based on Kerouac’s own early experiences after he arrived in New York and struggled to discover a unique ‘voice’. Sal meets Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund from Tron) and is immediately drawn to the handsome and charming ex-con’s carefree lifestyle. Together with Sal’s young wife Marylou (Kristen Stewart), they embark on a road trip across America, criss-crossing from state to state by any means possible, including stolen cars. Kerouac’s appealing but rambling prose works better in its written form, but Salles has done an admirable job in translating its freedom, frenzy and spirit to the big screen. The cast (which also boasts Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, Steven Buscemi and Viggo Mortensen) puts in a collection of fine performances, most notably Hedlund’s charismatic turn as Sal, and the glorious cinematography taunts you to kick the car into gear and explore your own horizon. The team behind the much-anticipated event Downtown Drive-In has announced Carriageworks in Sydney’s Eveleigh, just three kilometres from the Sydney CBD, as the location for its three-night season, which will run from November 29 to December 1, 2012. A seldom-used section of the 120-year-old heritage listed building will form the perfect backdrop for the Back Roads USA season of films. The films to be screened include On The Road, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Vanishing Point. Downtown Drive-In will also feature a custom menu with individual items designed by The Dip, Sydney’s favourite American-style diner, playfully paying tribute to the films and shared Americana settings and atmosphere. Major sponsor Audi will supply a range of luxury cars for the ultimate drive-in experience. The cars will also feature razor-sharp sound from audio partner Bang & Olufsen. Entry into Downtown Drive-In will cost $50 for vehicles of up to four people. Walk-in deck chair seating is also available near the screen, at $25 per person. For more information on the film schedule, drive-in experience and participating partners, visit www.downtowndrive.in
This little piggy went to market (crack of a knuckle), This little piggy stayed at home (that goes crunch under teeth), This little piggy had roast beef (with the rip of tendons), This little piggy had none (and a scream in vain). And this little piggy... (rivulets of blood drain from a grinning mouth). The lights go out. Kip Williams' Fallout, written by Maree Freeman, is replete with gore and psychologically disturbing human interaction contained in a disoriented and anchorless location. Intensity skyrockets as three teenagers — Alpha (Lizzie Schebesta), Bravo (Gabriel Fancourt), and Charlie (Amanda McGregor) — head full-throttle on a mission to "get better" by striking out violently at the fourth character, Delta (Michele Durman). By focusing on anger and physical expression of such emotions on her as a human punch-bag, they suppress any form of human emotion, in particular, empathy and sadness. This hideous denial of humanity seems to be well appreciated by the thousands of faceless aliens peering down through a central shaft of light above the stage. The teenagers believe that their abhorrent behaviour might well afford them escape from this underground dirt-box. When they are not roaming in a constant daze of boredom — skipping ropes, drawing animals in the soil, dreaming of the sky, and reciting nonsensical riddles — they are plotting to win the appreciation of the aliens and be granted exit. Fancourt and McGregor each perform chilling monologues for their captive audience with verisimilitude. As comic relief, McGregor exudes an infectious raw energy as she immerses herself in the character of a trapped and confused young girl, full of naive hope and premature sexuality. Pitted against this, Durman carries herself with cool calm and a natural self-possession, while Schebesta is the ultimate harsh alpha female who pulls all the puppet strings. The sharp swings between the banal and the shocking are punctuated by powerful spells of darkness, like chapters in a book. You can feel time passing them by; their youth, their memories, their pasts — all drifting away from them like clouds in the sky. What they'll do to try to escape will break some hearts or cause others to faint from the sheer violence.
The sixth annual Hola Mexico Film Festival opens on Thursday, October 25, at Event Cinemas on George Street, with nearly 20 films being shown over a one-and-a-half-week period. Showcasing real Mexico and its way of life, the festival invites you to say goodbye to cliches and hola to the land of the Aztecs, as it should be. Here are five that beckon us. 1. Mariachi Gringo Directed by Tom Gustafson and starring Martha Higareda, Mariachi Gringo sees a young man, stifled by his small-town life, run away to Mexico to be a mariachi singer. This feature, the opening night film for this year’s festival, explores the reality of following your dreams across geographical and cultural borders, depicting the beauty of Mexico and its folklore. 2. De Panzazo (Barely Passing) Barely Passing is a harsh look at the gritty truth of the Mexican school system. Directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Loret De Mola, it tells the stories of real students and what the country's future will hold if things don't change. 3. Felix: Autoficciones de un traficante (Felix: Self-Fictions of a Smuggler) Felix is a home-movie actor and human trafficker. In Felix: Self-Fictions of a Smuggler, he exposes the world around him through his own eyes and reveals the cogs of a very real machine. 4. La brujula la lleva el muerto (The Compass Is Carried by the Dead Man) Arturo Pons' The Compass Is Carried by the Dead Man sees Chencho, a 13-year old boy, goes to Chicago, following the death of his mother, to search for his older brother. On his journey he meets a man who dies right after letting him hitch a ride on his wagon. Following north on the compass held in rigor-mortic grip, he begins a surreal passage, with no real direction, and meets peculiar characters on the way. 5. Cristiada (For Greater Glory) With For Greater Glory Dean Wright asks, what price would you pay for glory? Starring Eva Longoria and Andy Garcia, this exhilarating action epic sees a passionate group of men and women risk everything for family, faith, and the future of their country during the 1920s' Cristero war, the daring people's revolt that rocked 20th-century North America. Image from Mariachi Gringo.
For those of you who find the idea of going on safari to see some artists in their natural habitat (as opposed to art gallery captivity), 107 Projects is putting on Open 107. To celebrate the opening of their new venue in Redfern, they're opening their doors to let the public have a stickybeak around. Once you're there, you'll see more cutting-edge art than you can poke a stick at. Just mind that you don't poke the artists (they don't like that kind of thing). You'll be free to wander around artists' open studios and get yourself covered in paint during workshops if you're so inclined. For others who prefer to just watch and listen while keeping their hands clean, there are poetry readings, a preview of Gareth Davies and Charlie Garber's show Masterclass, live music by Nick Casey and some BBQ action. On the day, you can also check out (yep, you guessed it) even more art with an exhibition curated by Michelle McCosker (also to be part of Art and About) that looks at modernism: Why White? Phew, so much art.
First came the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Art After Hours series. Then the City of Sydney's Late Night Library evenings, and the cavalcade of gourmet all-hours food trucks. Now it seems Sydney has a new witching hour institution. The MCA's response to the city's craving for grown-up late nights is ARTBAR, a slate of talks, installations, screenings and one-off performances programmed by guest curators on the last Friday of the month. The all-you-can-eat combo of drinks, DJs, live art and harbour views has proved a winning one: the nights continue to sell out. All these civilised small bars and intelligently curated nights are worlds away from the smokey, brawling pubs and tepid 7-Eleven meat pies of the old city's nightlife. Perhaps Sydney really is growing up. ARTBAR's guest this month is muscular and meditative video artist Shaun Gladwell. Gladwell, soon to feature at the Art Gallery of NSW, has been poached for a night to occupy one night at the MCA. Expect film, music and words as this official war artist and landscape-lover takes over your Friday evening.
It's time to get your Higgs boson on and fire up your Curiosity at the Ultimo Science Festival. Presented in association with the Powerhouse Museum, the University of Technology Sydney, ABC and Ultimo Tafe, the festival is taking place along Harris Street over 11 days and is just brimming with scientific delights. And scientific delights, it turns out, are delicious. Do you fancy yourself a bit of a Heston Blumenthal and dream of using molecular gastronomy to create the perfect chocolate souffle? Now you can! Are you an artist or scientist looking to see what happens when you meld your disciplines? You have a soiree for the occasion. Have you always wondered what it would be like to float in space or wanted to have your photo taken with a famous scientist? These activities are on offer, alongside more serious and educational ones. The huge program of exhibitions, shows, lectures, and hands-on activities has something for everyone, from the budding quantum physicist and aspiring astronaut to the merely curious, and many are free. Be you neophyte or professional, big kid or little kid, a world of science is waiting to be explored.
There is a high chance you've already heard of Chet Faker, along with his soulful, trip-hop offerings and his mega-babin' beard. The Melbourne-based artist started making waves online with his cover of Blackstreet's 'No Diggity', which spread across the blogosphere like wildfire, making him an internet superstar in a very short period of time. One EP later — Thinking in Textures — and he's already toured around globally, including stellar sets at Austin's SXSW, the UK's Great Escape Festival and our very own Splendour in the Grass. Indulge in what will surely be a night of swooning, grooving and singing to the soulful sounds of Chet Faker and his band, as he digs deep to deliver some of the most heart-melting tunes and stories of love. https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9r7KJJYkYY
Sometimes I crave the film equivalent of a McHappy Meal: something mindless, comforting, and wrongly tasty. Other times I want a kick in the tear ducts, a savage one. Rarely do I encounter a film that strikes just the right balance between these two poles, that is at once intelligent and entertaining. Bernie is this kind of rare cinematic treat. The film is inspired by a piece in the 1998 Texas Monthly by crime reporter Skip Hollandsworth, which starts, "Marjorie Nugent was the richest widow in an eccentric town full of rich widows. Bernie Tiede was an assistant funeral home director who became her companion. When she disappeared, nobody seemed alarmed. When he confessed to killing her, nobody seemed outraged." Bernie (Jack Black) is queasily sweet, universally adored by his community, and the only person who can bear the manipulative Marjorie (Shirley MacLaine), who comes to control every minute of his life. Although the reward for his endurance is monetary (he becomes the sole inheritor of her oil and banking fortune), nobody doubts his intentions. There's something improbable, but also childlike, about his generosity and his inability to say no to people. Black curbs his most irritating tendencies to give an endearing, convincing, and ultimately confounding performance. The actor is undeniably a strange little man, and he channels his eccentricities perfectly into what the townspeople of Carthage, Texas, describe as Bernie's "tutti frutti" mannerisms (they suspect he might be a "little light in the loafers"). The morality and motivations of Bernie's actions and his relationship with Marjorie is spectacularly grey, and the film reminds us of how few characters in cinema walk the entire spectrum of moral inconsistency. I was surprised at how fondly I came to feel for this curious character. MacLaine is typically solid as scowling, witchy Marjorie — it's the kind of role she's spent decades perfecting. Matthew McConaughey, who cannot be better described than as "a dude who spent most of his career Owenwilsoning his shirtless way through life", has recently embarked on a mission to prove he is A Serious Actor with roles in The Lincoln Lawyer, Killer Joe, and Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike. Here he's the cluey district attorney, hell-bent on prosecuting Bernie. It's not quite enough to shed the horrific rom-com traumas of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but he shows a deft comic timing we haven't seen before. Director Richard Linklater has dabbled in documentary with Fast Food Nation, and perhaps that's why Bernie posseses the authenticity of a doco. It's difficult to track the overarching themes of Linklater's disparate films, but Bernie goes beyond the small world of Carthage to comment on the extremes of human behaviour. His masterstroke is to cast the gossipy Carthage townspeople as the film's narrators. No Hollywood creations could ever be as entertaining, disturbing, or delightful as these chicken-fried-bacon Southerners who are eternally, sweetly, and stubbornly devoted to Bernie. Bernie is an affectionate ode to the oddity of small-town America. This is a place where obscene oil wealth, diners where "you kill it, we cook it", rabid evangelism, and shooting armadillos in the backyard are all markers of a strange, salty standard of normality. Bernie never condescends to its subjects or its audience. It's absurd, but never ludicrous. And although Bernie's crime is revealed early on, we're kept in a state of enthralled disbelief until the bitter end, and that surely is the sign of a master filmmaker. https://youtube.com/watch?v=v7fPgD3EO-E
The Festivalists have seen a cracker few years with their boutique festivals increasing in number, from the long-running Young at Heart and Access All Areas to the recent Jurassic Lounge and Sydney Film Festival Hub events. Now in its seventh edition, Possible Worlds is one of the foundational projects for the Festivalists, and you can feel the passion in artistic director Matt Ravier's selection for this festival's seven days. Take for example the bookend choice for opening and closing nights. Starbuck, directed by Ken Scott, is a comedy that follows an inept kidult who after years of irresponsibility is facing a lawsuit that'll unmask his identity as the father of 533 IVF children. At the opposite end of the calendar and the spectrum is War Witch, directed by Kim Nguyen and winner of Best Film and Best Actress at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. This heavy drama is the confession of a 14-year-old girl to her unborn baby, detailing her actions as a member of a child militia in an unnamed sub-Saharan country. Two very different films, and yet both are borne from two individuals coming to grips with the question of legacy and responsibility to a future generation. It is not only amongst the films that such strands are drawn. Inspired perhaps by their live performance events, the Festivalists are also pairing select films up with live experiences for punters. A night out to see Indie Game: The Movie will leave you wanting to play and design games for the rest of your life — what better way to start, then, than with the chance to play games at the venue right after the film? Similarly, prepare to dress in disco fetish for the spoof comedy Roller Town, and limber up to dance it off in the glamorous musical Leave It on the Floor. Created with intelligence and love, and balancing an internationally aware program with a lot of fun ideas, this seventh Possible Worlds is set to be a very special week. Definitely try to see more than one film. Concrete Playground has three double passes to the Possible Worlds Closing Night Gala. To win, just subscribe to Concrete Playground (if you haven't already) then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=BKXEh_kfPCY Films are screening at Dendy Opera Quays, Dendy Newtown and St Stephen's Church Hall, Newtown. Please see specific film listings for their venue. Image from Leave It on the Floor.
Event curators The Festivalists have a plan, it seems, to take over Sydney's nightlife. They've just pulled off an excellent bar and daily program of free events at this year's Sydney Film Festival. Their Jurassic Lounge was one of the breakout hits of the 2011 after-hours scene, and it's returning for two more seasons this year. Here's the formula: every Tuesday night, the Australian Museum is swamped with a thousand punters partaking in drinks, live music, games, and performance. The intelligently curated programs combine off-kilter stuff like slam poetry, alternative stand-up comedy, DJs from FBi Radio, palm reading, and storytelling from emerging writers. The new season line-up promises previews from the Sydney Underground Film Festival, a special queer culture night, a nerdy cosplay evening, and a sneak peek at the Sydney Fringe Festival. Jurassic Lounge is also jumping on the "diners, drive-ins and dives" bandwagon by offering a new Americana menu of hotdogs and sliders. With the expanded format, the door charge no longer includes a free drink, although it does still cover entry to the museum's Deep Oceans exhibition. When it works, Jurassic Lounge is a trip to the other side. And at its worst, it's a very trendy singles night for over-educated under-30s frolicking amidst a Gondwanaland of dinosaur skeletons, fossils, and native maritime animals. Either way, it's pretty fun.
With shows in Melbourne and Brisbane as well, round two of the Eight Miles High mini festival, a celebration of psychedelic, 60s, surf, shoegaze and garage pop, will hit Goodgod June 15th with sets from Witch Hats, Sister Jane, Grand Atlantic, Bloods, Buried Feather and Atom Bombs. Known for ferocious and engaging live shows, Witch Hats play a fusion of alternative rock, classic rock and post-punk. Described as The Pixies meets The Doors, Sister Jane blend sixties blues and seventies psychedelic rock to make their own distinctive sound. Grand Atlantic changed a bit when they released their third album, Constellations. Previously classed as power pop they moved to a deeper, darker sound. Bloods of Sydney are a frantic mess of punked-up pop. Compared to Black Angels and Dead Meadow, Buried Feather released their new single 'In The Sun' just last month. Show openers Atom Bombs are known as Syndey’s kings of surf guitar, with rolling drums and plenty of reverb.
This year's Spring Dance festival, curated by Rafael Bonachela (or "Raf" as he is affectionately introduced on the festival's home page), features several performances that can best be described as athletic. A very apt inclusion, given that this is an Olympic year, and one that is a necessary reminder of the immense physical aptitude that can be channeled into the arts as much as it is applauded in sport. Topping the podium at Spring Dance 2012 is Correria Agwa, two pieces presented by an 11-strong Brazilian ensemble under the direction of French choreographer Mourad Merzouki. You'll recognise this show from its posters depicting sweat-shining muscles under the heading of "Hip Hop 'It' Boys", which promises a vibrant mix of hip-hop, acrobatics and capoeira heat. The two sides to Correria Agwa — "running" and "water" respectively — reflect two very different athletic dynamics: the first a fierce, aerobic test of endurance, and the second, an agile precision of explosive acrobatic force. Perhaps too long a bow to draw, but it is in the combination of these two styles that we arrive at "running water", as together they are the dripping sweat that celebrates rigorous physical exertion. It is definitely recommended that you have a good shower after this show. https://youtube.com/watch?v=dvPOvJ1Jd3Q
Rainbow Chan, the quirky synth kid whose songs are as enticing as they are new, is releasing a new record. Her songs — sorry, beats — are a glorious mix of electronic and acoustic textures, married to create her glitchy sounds. Together with Outerwaves, these two are bringing us their latest stuff — a split 7" vinyl — out now through Silo Arts. And golly, we're a bit excited. Only 75 of these crystal-clear, hand-cut vinyls have been made, and you can grab yours through the Silo Arts website. Joining them on the line-up at FBi Social is Sydney's Albatross and Astral People DJs. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z9R6pP6PUTE
Sydney's been running a little short on Australian art lately. The Art Gallery of NSW's Australian collection went missing not long ago, as the art institution took advantage of these galleries' remodelling to stage its big Picasso show. Remodelling over, they're back, taking advantage of the grand reopening to stage an Open Weekend showing off its returning collection. As well as offering ongoing shows like the Archibald and the newly opened Australian Symbolism exhibition, the weekend will fill itself with art and the ideas around it. Thomas Keneally will narrow his focus to colonial Sydney, architect and acting director talk up the new space and its design, Wendy Whiteley talks about the life and work of Brett, and Delia Falconer, author of Sydney, talks about the same. Get practical skills at the free, Margaret Preston-y Saturday print-making workshop, or weaving from Vickie West. Screening downstairs, Outsiders in Australian Film collects three short features on Saturday. On Sunday, Colin Friels face off against Miles Davis in the jazz showdown that is Rolf de Heer's little-known film Dingo. Richard Gill talks music and story and Holly Throsby sings in the lobby, adding to your musical options. Does a whole weekend of such Australian artiness all leave you with a powerful opinion? The gallery plans to collect those as well. Photo credit Mark Tedeschi.
Angela's Kitchen returns to Griffin's SBW Stables Theatre after a well-received run in 2010 and will start a national tour after it's done charming Sydneysiders in June. Julian Meyrick transposed and shaped Paul Capsis's improvisations to create a guileless tribute to Surry Hills' hardest working bingo fanatic, Capsis's grandmother, Angela. Meyrick and Capsis have further refined the piece in 2012 along with associate writer Hilary Bell. A performed family history could easily stray into sentimental terrain, but in Capsis's hands it is potent and hilarious. He has the rare ability to perform without artifice. Much like a clown, he marks each exchange with the audience as if in respectful conversation with us. Similarly, his treatment of space and objects is careful and almost reverential. A section called 'Some Old Wrecked, Precious Things' includes Angela’s crocheted rug, the jumper she knitted him and a book he stole from the Surry Hills library called Paul Is a Maltese Boy. He was always "nuts about Malta" and had the feeling growing up that his family wasn't from here but from somewhere over there, very far away. His obsession translates into a fascinating and tragic history lesson on the stage. Malta was the most bombed place during World War Two, with 35,000 buildings destroyed on the tiny island. Angela's arrival in Australia in 1948 started what Capsis calls 'The Mythical Family' of second-, third- and fourth-generation Australians. The play ends with Capsis seated as Angela in a red dress, wearing lipstick and her good shoes. His ability to morph across gender lines is remarkable (and is explored well in Paola Morabito's documentary short). He is a diminutive man with a monumental amount of dignity. Angela's Kitchen honours the woman who helped him get that way.
After a year out of commission, and a successful pozible campaign for a replacement press, the Rizzeria collective is set to bring their new printing press to the Oxford Street Design Store's back room. The relaunched Rizzeria will soon be the focus of workshops and print sessions, but first they're hosting an art auction to cover the first year's maintainance. The folks at the Rizzeria are still curating the contributions (it's not too late) to complete the auction's collection funding the upcoming workshop fun. In the meantime, an evening of art awaits.
Labelled as one of the hottest young prospects to have come out of this corner of the world in quite some time, Melbourne/Cape Town synth-pop five-piece Clubfeet have been the subject of many a whispered chatter across the globe for the past year. Since emerging out of total obscurity in late 2010 with their album Gold On Gold they've been championed by the likes of Pitchfork, Spin, RCRD LBL and Discobelle, and have seen their reputation grow amongst even more respected circles like the NME, The Guardian and Dazed thanks to a series of videos and new remixes. To coincide with the double A-sided release of City Of Light / This Time the band are taking a break from recording their sophomore album to perform their first Australian shows. https://youtube.com/watch?v=FdvVJ1zTfCc
Sydney electro-pop outfit Van She have returned with their explosive sophomore, Idea Of Happiness. It's been four years since we last heard from the quartet, who dropped their highly acclaimed debut record, V, way back in 2008 — it peaked at #10 on the ARIA Album Charts. Kicking on with their signature style of electronic-infused disco-pop, their songs — which are filled with lush arrangements of trickling, arpeggiated synths and wandering vocals — ooze with a euphoric and joyous energy, as experienced in lead singles Jamaica and Idea Of Happiness. Van She will be launching their new material at the Metro Theatre this Saturday, with fellow Sydney outfits RÜFÜS, Panama and Beni all supporting, in what will surely turn into a giant discotheque featuring some of this city's finest electro-pop musos. https://youtube.com/watch?v=5OaanwN1vFQ
The Tate's new exhibition, New Ruins, embodies nature in a state of terminal decline. This ephemeral exhibition is the result of a residency at Melbourne’s Seventh Gallery. Enjoy paintings on rescued waste timber, with tonal shifts that are “distinctly unnatural”. New Ruins finds visual expression for anxiety, pertaining to global warming and human impacts on the planet. With the metaphorical use of storms, clouds of air, dust, smoke and landscapes in various forms of flux and destruction, the exhibition inspires whilst acting as a sobering reminder of our heavy footprints on Earth. Only open this weekend: enjoy it while you can.
PVT are one of Sydney's favourite local music acts, and with good reason; their experimental style borders on the ecstatic, catching the eye of Brian Eno when he was programming the Luminous festival, Vivid's precursor, back in 2009. Since then the band has gone on to be named best local release of the decade by FBi Radio. Renowned for their live performances, the trio have approached recording as an ‘opportunity to create new space on stage’ - a mentality that will be fully harnessed for Vivid LIVE. PVT will be joined by additional orchestration to re-imagine songs from their innovative catalogue and to preview a selection of previously unheard material. With visual designers creating a light show unique to this performance, the evening will be an entirely original aural and visual experience.
Our experience of the world and its events is a complex, often cacophonic relationship between a non-stop feed of information and what is immediately important to us in our daily lives. As choreographer Lucy Guerin acknowledges in her program notes, the common result of this relationship is that "the trivialities of daily life tend to overtake so easily the infuriating and heart-rending events which are reported to us everyday". How can we not let slip news of uprisings, bombings and invasions in distant countries when faced with the pressing dilemma of what to eat for dinner? Guerin's work, Human Interest Story, grows out of this tension. Six performers begin in a familiar scene: staring emptily at a giant, glowing television screen that feeds them an endless gruel of information. Their response is to parrot newsreaders, robotically articulating the gestures and vocal qualities of the sanitised news anchor, reporting atrocity and controversy without marked emotional comment. As a trigger, this is a necessary scene for Guerin's audience, and it is from here that the dancers unfold into unpacking our mutable relationship with the mediated world. As an audience, we are drawn to the lighter moments, when dancer Stephanie Lake performs a solo sequence broken up by mundane commentary about her life, her routine while on tour and her lack of definite opinion on Australian politics. In contrast, when in later sequences we see a repetition of fractured, violent events that could have been picked from footage of riots across the world, our attentions phase out. The scene has slipped away because there is no human interest for us to grip. For Sydney viewers, it is a lovely coincidence that Human Interest Story and UK company, DV8's Can We Talk About This? have opened so close together. Both pieces bring out the tensions of our current media landscape, and do so through introducing spoken word as another form of physical, rather than linguistic, expression. Whether seen together or individually, these works are effective in drawing our focus to the specific moral dilemma of how we can balance news of the world with our own routines. That Human Interest Story relates a mixed expression of this dilemma, rather than hammering a single view, makes it all the more effective in allowing you to prepare your own response to the chaos of the world.
The adaptation of a book to film is a tricky thing. There's a lot of fans that have the story replaying in their head, almost word for word, and so expect events on the screen to unfold just as they remember. Most adaptations get a bad rap, and are met only with online vitriol poured out on blogs everywhere. Good luck David Nicholls, writer of One Day: I think this might be met with a mixed response. One Day is an adaptation from an extremely popular book — so keep an eye on those fan blogs. Written in letters between the two protagonists, it's a difficult adaptation to make for film. So much nuance can come across in the context of a written letter that is much harder to subtly drop in on screen. Having said that, the film is not lacking in subtlety. There's a genuine attraction between Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess). Their growing love is played out quite quickly, across twenty years, each segment shown on the same date they'd met: their last day of university. Their characters develop realistically and slowly, as they mature and learn where their true affections lie. While it is an emotional ride, there were more than a few tears welling at the end of the film. Twenty years of growing romance is difficult to get across in 107 minutes. In the capable hands of Hathaway (despite her accent) and Sturgess, who both portray very real people in a confusing relationship, and director Lone Scherfig (also known for the brilliant An Education), a very touching, romantic story is told quite well. Its problem exist only in the limits from the length of the film, with some years of the character's lives flashing up for only a few seconds. Romantics and sentimentalists will undoubtedly like this film, and being among those ranks myself, I also did. Just be prepared for a staccato love affair.
After the success of last year's inaugural festival, the Korean Film Festival in Australia, is back again this year and promises to be even bigger. The programme includes 13 feature films and 7 shorts, chosen to showcase the best of contemporary Korean cinema and, for those keen to scratch a little deeper beneath the surface, there are industry forums, Q&As with directors, cultural performances and food tastings on offer too. With two movies picking up awards at Cannes last year, along with numerous appearances on the international festival circuit, Korean cinema has been garnering a fair bit of attention recently. A strong home grown film industry, fostered through many years of state intervention and protected by a quota system, has allowed it to compete with Hollywood. As the country has moved towards democracy over the last few years, so its creativity has evolved, allowing a national cinema which is quirky, idiosyncratic and challenging to flourish. The movies chosen for the festival programme cover themes of violence and corruption, relationships, sexuality and the nation's troubled past. https://youtube.com/watch?v=vfpy0rC67mI
Joann Sfar's debut film is less a biography of French provocateur musician Serge Gainsbourg than an irreverent, audacious tribute from one artist to his icon. Comic book artist Sfar bends the biopic genre to his will and that of Gainsbourg's seductive celebrity with a film that outwardly adheres to a linear, cradle-to-grave structure, but is in fact steeped in magical realism and entirely unconcerned about imparting truths of any kind. With no dates and barely any names given, Sfar throws us into the world of a wily Jewish boy, who manages to thumb his nose at the threatening reality of the Second World War with charm and sly obsequiousness. Sfar also brings his comic book sensibilities to life, bequeathing the future Gainsbourg with an alter ego in the form of a Jewish caricature that literally steps out of an anti-Semitic poster and into his life. Ironically, this 'ugly mug' (looking like a surrealist Guillermo del Toro character and indeed played by del Toro regular Doug Jones) has all the confidence and cocksure drive that Gainsbourg lacks, and isn't afraid to go to dastardly lengths to shape their intertwined existence. It is the 'ugly mug' that urges Gainsbourg to step away from his love of art and embrace the skills he so reluctantly learned from his lounge-musician father. Musical fame, fortune and fabulous love affairs follow, and all too soon he's being seduced by songstress Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), bombshell Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) is frolicking naked about his flat, before he settles down to marry and sing that raunchy duet with Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Eric Elmosnino's uncanny resemblance and transporting performance goes a long way to traversing many of the yawning gaps in detail (and those pesky truths) Sfar has purposefully omitted from his screenplay. But that doesn't quite prevent this willfully opaque portrait from becoming frustrating in parts. While no-one can fault the sumptuous design (Sfar's artistic eye translates superbly) Gainsbourg's staggering self-indulgence — painted with the barest scrape of context — ends up feeling stifling. It's an odd storytelling decision to be sure, but one that Sfar sticks to absolutely. Instead Gainsbourg is an impressionistic rendering, a decadent celebration and a downright sexy account of a supremely talented musician, and his ugly mug. https://youtube.com/watch?v=lQH4R2RwM1U
When most people are faced with some sort of hardship — and in Australia we're not short of a few what with bushfires, floods and drought — they band together for camaraderie and entertainment. After the 2009 Victorian bushfires, roughly 7500 people were displaced, living in temporary mass accommodation. We can't imagine how they managed to pass the time waiting to hear news, trying desperately to entertain young children. Or maybe we can? According to Bell Shakespeare, they started reciting Twelfth Night to each other. It's a very creative concept really. A group of strangers, using whatever they have around them (in this case a huge pile of donated clothing), recreating one of Shakespeare's most screwball-like comedies to pass the time and cheer them up while they wait for news. Though perhaps completely unrealistic, the connection between the real world and that of Illyria is seamless as each character gradually starts becoming their role rather than simply reading verbatim from the text. The costume changes are transparently performed in front of the audience but this only serves to add to the comedy, particularly when it comes to Brent Hill who hilariously plays three separate characters of different genders. Twelfth Night uses one of Elizabethan comedies most famous of comic devices to endless hilarity: cross-dressing. And in true Elizabethan style, two of the three main female parts in this production are played with great aplomb by men. All of the actors in this show deserve a standing ovation, particularly as each one has to perform numerous roles. Scene changes and character transitions are flawless or when they are flawed just become another funny episode as one character's plans go awry when he realises he will have to fight himself. Bell Shakespeare productions have a tendency of trying to place the text in some sort of modern setting and often this unfortunately adds very little to the production. In this case, the aftermath of some bushfire disaster is simply a device to have a mountain of clothes and other flotsam and jetsam covering the stage. In that sense then, it works. Though it is slightly jarring when we're suddenly transported back from Shakespeare to the contemporary world, it also offers a nice contrast of emotion between hilarity and drama. For a truly Australian take on a Shakespearean classic, without resorting to okka stereotypes, director Lee Lewis has produced a dynamic, inventive and completely enjoyable play.
A visual adventure awaits! Nightshifters is a video art installation of magical proportions. Under the cover of dark night eight contemporary video and new media artists will breathe new life into the postmodern industrial performance space that is CarriageWorks. CarriageWorks has commissioned Cordelia Beresford, Alexis Destoop, Sam James, Kate Murphy, Angelica Mesiti, Eugenia Raskopoulos, Dominic Redfern and John Tonkin to use their video art installations to create a hyper-real blend of architecture, space, light and sound in exploration of nocturnal visual alchemy. As part of Performace Space's Live Live series, Nightshifters explores the notion of 'liveness' through the conceptualisation of video art as a live performance. Far from our usual understanding of video imagery projected onto indifferent surfaces, these installations integrate with and transform the space around them, enlivening and infusing the beautiful architecture and its surrounds with a little visual magic. Also part of the Live Live series is Hold in which installation artist David Cross invites you to experience a gigantic inflatable fun house of co-dependence, fear and interpersonal faith in this trust-testing installation piece. Cross' work invites game punters to venture down an inflatable platform in a dark, tight space guided only by a stranger in a bid to explore our limits and fears in a truly visceral experience. Leave your trust issues at the door.
This is no laughing matter. This is work. Just because Tom Ballard of Triple J Breakfast fame and glory happens to work as someone who is paid to make people laugh, doesn't mean you should laugh at him about it. Nor should you laugh at his acquaintances (most of us would agree that the people we work with are acquaintances rather than friends, right?). They will be working with him to entertain you too. Be careful not to laugh at them either for they are Matt Okine, Michael Hing, Dave Jory, Daniel Townes, Eric Hutton and Rhys Nicholson. They take all this laughing business very seriously — so much so that they even win awards for it! Elana Stone is perhaps Tom's only acquaintance on the evening's bill that doesn't take laughing so seriously. Instead she is what he describes as 'actual talent', which is nice. She's a singer, song-writer and all-round happy lady who (it wouldn’t surprise me) might just be laughing at all the others, alongside you.
Need new drama? The New Theatre has concentrated it for you at its third annual Brand Spanking New season. A collection of authors, actors and directors have been pulled together by Stories from the 428 curator, Augusta Supple, to tell their disparate stories over a common set. This project offers seventeen different writers, each of whom is putting on a new piece especially for this production. The resulting plays, monologues and stranger devices have been arrayed for your joint delectation over twelve nights, starting Wednesday. Reuniting some authors from the 428, Brand Spanking New's writing line-up also includes four alumni of Radio National's audio-dramatic Airplay series. Alli Sebastian Wolf's work also features — whose fast-talking, fast-drinking and fish-loving Hideous Demise of Detective Slate played at the Boiler Room earlier this year in Sydney's Fringe. It shared space there with fellow Brand Spanking New scribe Alison Rooke's Combat Fatigue. With so many avenues of talent converging on the New Theatre's stage, great things should be expected from this short season. Brand Spanking New is running from October 27 until November 6, Wednesdays to Saturdays.
It's National Ride to Work Day! People, this is a joyous battle cry — a call to arms to the 10-year-old BMX-bandit inside. Remember speeding around your neighbourhood on your two-wheeler with your crew, wind in your hair, no hands? Now fast forward ten years or so as an older, less carefree you sits in stalled traffic, running late for work again, stewing in your own angry juices as you try and explode the car in front of you with your mind powers. Well the time has come to leave your car and your bad attitude at home — to get up out of that bus-seat and to not board that train. On Wednesday 13 October from 7 - 9am, National Ride to Work Day offers you the chance to recapture the exhilaration and freedom of your youth by cycling across town, whilst simultaneously lending a hand to the environment by helping to reduce pollution. And this time your bike crew is MASSIVE! More than 150,000 of your fellow Australian workers are expected to join in this annual City of Sydney event. Refreshments, maps and even massages will be provided by the City at two sites: Hyde Park South and Union Street Pyrmont. If your bike skills are a little rusty sign up for a free City of Sydney Cycling Confidence course to brush up on your skills. City of Sydney Cycling Ambassadors, Ian Roberts and Nell Schofield, will also be giving tips to new riders on the day.
Remo curates Japanese street art for western readers. His first book, called simply Graffiti Japan, was followed with a surprisingly appealing lexicon of Japanese Manhole Covers. And he does art in sanguine red, black and white. He can tell you about it. Marsha Meredith — working as 2026 — gets her art up worldwide as part of the excellent Street Art Without Borders project. She also pastes things closer to her home, in and around the Bondi postcode. Meggs mixes innocent things — like children, or super-heroes — with blood, bile and spray. And just like Banksy snuck his work into the British Museum, Adam Mclevey snuck his into a monkey cage at Banksy's Bristol Museum show. The museum rehung it as part of the exhibition. If you looked at the news in 2008, you've already seen the movement called lowbrow art, or pop surrealism. Friday evening, the Red Bull gallery will be full of it to launch M.A.R.s Attacks. All four artists will be represented — and as well as the work on the walls, Remo will be there in person to talk about his work. If you can't make the launch, the exhibition runs on until the 13th of November. Image by Toots Fontaine.
If you like documentaries, then you'll want to meet Margaret Mead ... in a manner of speaking. Mead is the late, great cultural anthropologist, who clocked some 52 years working at the American Museum for Natural History and championed the popular appeal of her profession. This commemorative festival began way back in 1976, making it America's longest running celebration of international documentaries. Now coming to Australia for the first time, a select seven documentaries will carve out their very different windows on the world, from the comfort of the Australian Museum. Kicking off the seven weeks of Tuesday night screenings is a Q&A presentation of Darlene Johnson's River of No Return, which ventures alongside 45-year-old mother Frances Daingangan as she is cast in Rolf de Heer's acclaimed Ten Canoes and into a reality vastly different from her own. In Cooking History, Peter Kerekes tests the old adage, "an army marches on its stomach," while Sergiy Bukovsky's The Living remembers Stalin's devastating starvation of Ukraine's rural population. The complexities of Hindi culture are personified by an aged medicine man in Babaji, an Indian Love Story, and the experiences of four blind couples are brought to remarkable, sensory depth in Juraj Lehotsky's Blind Loves. The Last Days of Shishmaref starkly show how global warming threatens to end 4000 years of occupation and make the world's first climate-change refugees of the Inupiaq Eskimos, whereas Hotel Sahara finds the meeting of the Saharan desert and the Atlantic Ocean a deeply symbolic setting for the precarious lives of refugees. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iO42wQ0Qr5U
Apart from the occasional jaunt on the Manly ferry, most people haven't really had the opportunity to experience Sydney Harbour from atop the waves, let alone explore the intriguing islands that dot these glistening waters. As part of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival, you can Island Hop your way around Sydney Harbour and experience the cultural, historical and gustatory delights on offer for the whole month of October. Explore Shark, Clark and Goat Island as part of the Island Hopping day-trip on Saturdays and Sundays from October 9 -24. Goat Island offers an historically rich snapshot of Sydney in the 1800's; Shark Island is a great place to lay out a picnic or explore the nature trail; while Clark Island showcases Aboriginal culture. If the culinary arts are more your thing, Fort Denison Restaurant offers a unique dining experience with incredible views over the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Dining in the middle of Sydney Harbour — who’d have thunk it? Picture yourself cruising out into the middle of the harbour and, in a setting you'd find hard to rival anywhere in the world, sampling the specially created menu inspired by Australia's culinary history and using local produce and wines. You also get a glass of sparkling and a guided tour of the island to cap it off. So go spend a day on our resplendent harbour, indulging your tastebuds and experiencing a side of Sydney that you didn't know you didn’t know about.
Studios thrive on mystery. Walt Disney's famous studio was defined by Disney the man, who strutted the public stage with a persona drawn as deliberately as his animated stars. There's no doubt that his work had character, passion and flair. There's also no doubt that the real-life Disney was more troubling than the public figure, which begs the question: should the artist have the stature of their work? The Object Gallery is giving you the chance to find out, as a select few enter elusive design studios across Sydney to get a closer look at the designers behind the designs. The Object Gallery already got you a peek into smaller workshops in its August exhibition Big: Inside Sydney’s Small Studios. This time, they’re going to get you into some of the larger spaces. Studios across the inner-city will throw open their doors on Friday afternoon — just a crack, just for a day. Sixteen studios, including Object renovators Architect Marshall, eco-furniture designers Schamburg + Alvisse and more-than-jewelry-makers Dinosaur Designs, will take guests inside their space and process. So book in quick before these studios are full to their mysterious brims.
