It's well known fact that the current image we have of Santa Claus, with a jolly red nose and big white beard, was invented by Coca Cola some time early in the 20th century. Rather than bemoaning the consumerisation of Christmas though, why not embrace the gift giving? Giving and receiving gifts gives us no end of pleasure. Shopping for them can be almost as much fun, especially when done at exciting summer night markets. So pop on down to Addison Rd, visit the Indigenous art in the gallery, rummage through the Bower, check out the sustainable items in the Make A Difference Gallery, shop among the many stalls set up by local artists and crafters, eat the array of international food on offer and listen to the sweet melodies of Gypsy band Lola Lovina. Coca Cola entirely optional.
When Bob Dylan decided that "songs can't save the world", he obviously hadn't met Oli Mistry. After an eyeopening brush with the streetchildren of Delhi in 2009, this Sydney-based UK ex-pat grabbed a beer, two friends and an idea to create change through the magic of SONG. SoundSchool is a music initiative raising funds to purchase musical instruments, teaching aids and tuition for the Salaam Baalak Trust children's shelters in India. With buds Jarrod Paul and Jay Hemsworth on board, Mistry and his visionary crew saw the joy and wonderment inherent in a child's love of music, as spontaneous street jams in Delhi brought a rare glimmer of optimism to a mere handful of the 44 million Indian children living in abject poverty. Jarrod Paul, co-founder of the project, believes empowerment of the creative kind is a skill worth funding. "We call on the music fans of Sydney to make our first SoundSchool a reality," he says. "The cost of a musical instrument in India is almost nothing in our world, so we just want to do something that matters." With 15 years of media industry experience between the three, co-founder Jay Hemsworth cites the trio's passion for "playing, listening, learning and watching" music as a crucial element to their plan, as they endeavour to nurture this creative skill in less fortunate communities. The double-edged beauty of this worthy fundraiser is the unashamedly selfish benefits for the ticketholder at Bondi's Beach Road Hotel. Hosted by Channel [V] V-J Jane Gazzo, the inaugural raucous evening heralds the likes of horse-ridin' accordion-blarin' white-boy-blues swaggerers The Delta Riggs, New Zealand alt-rockers Midnight Youth and scarily thrusting Sydney mock rock crew Bigphallica, amongst a host of Sydney DJs for kicks. With all cover charge sales funding the creative programme and facilities to be installed in Delhi in November, Sir Dylan you may kindly sup upon those words o' yours. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fr-29N4Y_M0
So let's play a word association game: Bondi. ... Bet you didn't say "boutique wine tasting," did you? Or "canapes," either. But hey, just as Freud isn't only a laddish backpacker's attempt at a local accent in describing his complexion after a day at the beach, there's more to this particular eastern suburb than Tony Abbott's attire of choice. Well-adjusted Bondi small venues the Shop and Wine Bar and The Corner House are joining forces to put on fortnightly sessions with Australian winemakers, where you get to hear about the vintages from the winemakers themselves, try a few, have some snacks and take some home. They're beach-casual sessions, with no expectation that you'll swirl your glass and talk about gooseberries and barrel maturation unless you really want to, so it's a great way for beginners to find out a bit about how wine works in terms of palate and food matching and how it's made, as well as an opportunity for wine dorks to get the lowdown on the best of local practice. The next two sessions are with Victorian winemaker, Luke Lambert (Heathcote and the Yarra) on the 16th, and Ocean8 (Mornington Peninsula) on the 30th.
Despite the potential reputational consequences to me as a researcher, I am shocked to report to you that Ken Unsworth does not have a Wikipedia page*. Yes, an Australian artist who has been showing for more than 40 years, is collected in significant public galleries and has shown at Biennales and other important art things does not merit a Wiki entry, but Googling "Unsworth" + "poo on sticks" gets a couple of pages of hits (you know about Stones Against the Sky, that sculpture in the Cross). Luckily Unsworth seems to have a pretty good sense of humour about his art, even subtitling his forthcoming collaborative performance at the Art gallery of New South Wales 'An Evening of Irreverent Entertainment.' This show sees four dancers incorporate the artist's sculpture and installation work with movement, accompanied by a score composed by Jonathan Cooper and performed by cabaret artist Natalie Gamsu, a counter-tenor and some boy sopranos. Humour and drama will be suggested by the artworks and build on them visually as images and dramatically as situations. Additional commentary on the interpretation is to be expected, too, with AGNSW allocating a set of "tweet seats" for commentators on the first night. *I was only there to check dates, okay?
William-Guillame Saussay's big, energetic, squiggle-circuits are very 80s New York. Like abstract cityscapes seen from above, their palette oscillates between energetic and virulent, and the flashes of text that are scrambled into the canvases refer to advertising and media saturated environments as well as the evident graffiti influences. Saussay, seen at the preview in a rather wonderful purple coat and on the cover of Mx the day the show opened, has some fairly Basquiat hair going on, too. The works on show are described as "maps to get lost in" — encouraging subjective exploration of the maze of pathways through them and a metaphor for this: they could well be electrical impulses travelling through the brain. There's something zippy and fizzy about the big paintings that makes them a little hard to concentrate on one at a time. They're attention-getting paintings that could do with some elbow room — all together here they're maybe a little too much for the space despite being well-hung within it. A couple of 'straighter' landscapes — smaller works on paper — manage to hold their own with some surprisingly Van Gogh-y crayon effects in amongst the bigger pieces and are very much worth keeping an eye out for.
The cheekbones! That jawline! If faces could cut diamonds, Richard Ashcroft would be useful in Sierra Leone. On the back of a coveted spot at Splendour In The Grass, the Verve frontman's inaugural tour to Australia brings his latest crew, the United Nations of Sound — a slick new project proving that change is as good as a holiday. With the help of Jay-Z's producer No I.D., RPA and the United Nations of Sound fuse orchestral epicness, hip-hop and that seminal Ashcroftian wail that cannot and should not ever be rid of its 90s pigeonhole. Verve tracks will feature beside new material on tour, with an additional promise to unearth gems from his three critically acclaimed solo albums. Since THAT song Ashcroft has garnered a rep for heartfelt anthems of sentimental grandeur — a consistent songwriting prowess that has kept him the darling of NME since Brit-pop. The man's swagger came to define moody indie Britishness circa 1990, but unlike counterparts Blur and Oasis, Ashcroft nicely shyed away from making his attitude more publicised than his music. This latest tour from Cheekbones and Co. is his chance to remind his Oz followers of his timeless worth. Despite now heralding an acrostic moniker that resembles our local hospital, RPA's return to our hearts and minds will be anything but Bittersweet. https://youtube.com/watch?v=KNnh8nszFU0
Sydney Design has quirky interests, responsible eco concerns, connections with top practitioners and an eye for up-and-comers. I basically want to date it. And borrow its outfits — hello haute photoshoot styling and straight-up street snaps. But as bitter experience has taught me that festivals are only ever a fling, this time around my money's on being all carpe diem: go find out about wallpaper, check out the Young Blood and designboom markets, drink champagne and look at jewellery — see it made out of old computers, or learn to make stuff for yourself at the workshops. Hold hands with the festival, frolic with it, listen to stories about its couch, but save the sentiment for the lace archive (it's in the Powerhouse Museum and it's lovely) and keep yourself sharp for Iron Designer — a challenge with one key ingredient and, you'd assume, a fancily dressed host.
Call me strange but I’ve always wanted to go to one of those parties where you bring a guy or girl that you once adored, in the hope that they'll hit it off with someone else fabulous. Take this idea, substitute past lovers for clothes or accessories, awkward silences for live music, and you’ve got Rethreads: a swapping event where your pre-loved clothes can find new romance. It all takes place at CarriageWorks on Saturday July 31 and it’s free to swap up to 20 of your well intended but not quite right items. Make sure you’re ready to barter your past loves, but don’t take it as an opportunity to get rid of your stained, smelly midriffs, swimwear or polar fleece, unless that’s what you’d like in return. Quality is key to the swap to ensure your wardrobe is replenished with only the most lovable items. If you’re particularly interested in picking up that special something, you can beat the crowds and drop off your goods early at designated times from 26–29 July. This will earn you a pass to start swapping 45 minutes before the masses, and more time to spend cosying up to possible lovers in the cafe or bar.
Shaking off the New Buffalo moniker after two beautiful records and years of delighting live audiences, Sally Seltmann has emerged with the first record using her own name. There's no distance between the singer and her songs anymore and no stage name, just a gem of a pop record in Heart That's Pounding. Having written Feist's hit tune '1234' — a song that had enough legs to walk itself on over to Sesame Street — it seems time that Seltmann stood her ground as the confident and lovely musician that she is. There is, sure, an ethereality to the sounds of Heart That's Pounding — a constant wash of morning sunlight filtering through the songs — but they also have that pop radio classic sensibility to them, an aim apparently of Seltmann's. Her breathy vocals and playful melodic twists are a delight on the stereo but more so in person. Having just returned from a US tour, Seltmann will launch the record in Sydney on Friday with special guests Parades and Kyu. https://youtube.com/watch?v=O_EaHPsQOJ8
If it weren't for Elefant Traks, Sydney hip hop would be screwed. They have released countless records from Sydney's rising stars and stalwarts over the last 12 years, cementing themselves as an icon of Australian music. Part of the stampede of rising stars are Horrorshow. Straight outta Sydney's inner west, MC Solo and beat man Adit dropped (that's what they say in hip hop right?) their ARIA-nominated debut The Grey Space in 2008. People went bananas. The duo keep it pretty stripped back, with Solo's laconic, intelligent flow and Adit's eclectic yet accessible production elevating them above barbecue hip hop and cringe-inducing nasal twangs. The industrious youngsters have popped out a follow-up, Inside Story, in a little over a year and they are celebrating at the Factory Theatre. First single Thoughtcrime has been getting a slamming on Triple J and Inside Story took out Mr. B. Zuel's number one spot for hip hop album of the year (that's hip hop in general, not just Australian), so I'd say they are in good spirits. https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgD1lG-Ouec
The last time I chatted to Darren Sylvester about his work, he said that the American sibling pop duo The Carpenters embodied the main sort of parable he aimed towards. Their obsessive ongoing refining and remastering of old songs to achieve the cleanest perfection possible, he said, was something he aspired to with his own practice. Certainly in the Melbourne artist’s photographic body of work, for which he is best known, there is an instantly recognisable highly polished and orchestrated artifice that runs parallel to this formulaic aesthetic of pop he so reveres; and so it made predictable sense that his debut album was a self-professed ode to The Carpenters and his other pure pop idols (like New Order and Phil Spector). Less predictable though was how good the songs actually were in their own right. Somehow both comforting and unsettling in their glossy depthlessness, they provide a perfect synth-heavy soundtrack to the rigidly controlled, self-contained worlds of his images. Entirely written, recorded and produced by Sylvester, the self-titled album was originally created on vinyl to be played non-stop for the duration of an exhibition at Queensland’s GoMA where the artist rebuilt The Carpenters’ original Japanese style backyard garden. Having since been picked up and released by Unstable Ape and Remote Control Records, it is being launched in Sydney twice this week; so you can pay double tribute to the deeply superficial sounds of this new-new-wave pop. Thursday Feb 11: GOODGOD SMALL CLUB (with Scott & Charlenes Wedding + Dominic Talarico), 55 Liverpool Street, CBD, $10 on the door, 8pm. Saturday Feb 13: THE COMMONS (with Jessica Says), 32 Burton Street, Darlinghurst, $50 with dinner/dessert or $25 performance only, strictly limited to 25 people, email rob@thecommons.com.au to register interest.
Precious was never going to be a light-hearted trip to the cinema. Harrowing to the point of being labeled "poverty porn," it is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a morbidly obese, illiterate African American teenager, who is raped by her father, beaten by her mother and pregnant with her second child of incest. Based on the novel Push, by Sapphire, it's worth noting that Precious is an amalgam, a combination and terrifying representation of Sapphire's experiences as a teacher in Harlem. This no doubt explains the sympathetic, borderline angelic characterisation of Precious' teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), whose dedication and tenacity resembles a slightly more realistic version of Michelle Pfeiffer circa Dangerous Minds. So why subject yourself to 109 minutes of horrible abuse? Surely rumours of Mariah Carey's make up free face and Glitter-salvaging performance won't quite do the trick. It's honestly a tough call, other than to say Sidibe fearlessly embodies a member of society that deserves recognition. Illiteracy, obesity and abuse are tragic and uncomfortable realities that Precious goes a long way to demystify. Mo'Nique cleaning up the awards season for her brutal performance as Precious' fatally flawed mother shines the spotlight brighter still on the vicious, generational cycle of violence. But lest this review descend into a public service announcement, suffice it to say that as much as director Lee Daniels doesn't shy away from the horrifying reality, nor does he forget the rich, soothing and supporting realm of fantasy. Every time Precious is pushed down (hence the original title), she escapes into a utopian dreamscape of wealth, fame and love. The journey of this film is the intersection of these two worlds, where Precious equips herself with the skills to carve out her own life, somewhere in the middle. https://youtube.com/watch?v=b5FYahzVU44
You like your instruments played badly, your sounds scuzzy. You are thrilled by the possibility of stage invasions and band members vomiting, and you want to have some fun. This is for you. Black Lips are a cool band. They are signed to Vice Records, they have ironic moustaches, they just collaborated with King Khan, they care more for obscure Peruvian bands than they do for anything contemporary. It all sounds a bit too cool on paper, like they are going to have a short shelf life. But they have stuck around thanks to the distinguishing fact that they write good pop songs with nods to melodic, lo-fi music by bands like The Velvet Underground or The Troggs. They have visited our shores a few times and are back for the Laneway Festivals, also stopping by to warm up the first years at Sydney Uni's Manning Bar.
Out of the supergroups and celebrity collaborations that have popped up recently, I think The Dead Weather are making the best music. They are on the other end of the scale from Them Crooked Vultures which is just an excuse for Dave Grohl and Josh Homme to be teenagers again and think they've joined Led Zeppelin, whilst sounding like a mediocre and undercooked Queens Of The Stone Age. The DW concoct rock with bits of blues and sprinkles of hip hop, with a swagger and a don't fuck with us attitude courtesy of Jack White and Alison Mosshart (The Kills). Their album Horehound and the band itself are holding their own, with bouncy yet dark tunes that don't plageurise any of their individual main projects. With Jack White once again flexing his musical muscle, this time behind the kit, the guys have drummed up some serious love in the year since they revealed their band and the songs must be flooding out, with talk of a second album already in the works. They have announced a tour of The Pacific Rim and Australia is included, meaning they will be on stage at The Enmore soon. *New club show at Oxford Art Factory on Saturday 27 March just announced! Tickets on sale 9am Friday 26 March.*
I remember listening to Wu-Tang Clan when I was a teenager in the lovely beach side suburb of Suffolk Park. I'm not quite sure if I grasped the anachronism of middle class white surfies nodding their heads along to music made by 8 members from the slums and housing projects of NYC's 5 Burroughs, but I loved the grit, the cool as fuck Kung Fu samples and the foul mouthed flows. The Wu tapped into something universal with this sound until they imploded into the debris of crack addiction, death and in fighting after a handful of albums. Founding member and head honcho RZA kept it together and has since carved out a massive career as a producer and MC, relentlessly contributing beats and rhymes to some of the biggest albums of the last fifteen years. He's also managed to squeeze in soundtracks for Tarantino and appear in Jarmusch films, as well as do some other slightly underwhelming acting. He likes to keep busy. So with this in mind you should probably snap up the chance to see him at The Metro. Oh and it's Valentine's Day too, but I doubt he will be doing love song dedications. https://youtube.com/watch?v=CE3hb__ylG4
Martin del Amo's performances are like secret gifts, curious pieces placed out of the way that thrill with their mix of play and thoughtfulness. Originally from Germany, del Amo's choreography has been informed from an eclectic itinerary of dance forms - German modern dance, Japanese Butoh and Australian-style Bodyweather - which combine with his sense of humour and gift for storytelling to create engaging performances. Originally commissioned by the Campbelltown Arts Centre, It's a Jungle Out There drops del Amo into the heart of the city, a leviathan wonderland that is just as beautiful and deadly as the objects of David Attenborough's affection. Audiences are invited to journey with del Amo, as his body and voice contort, pop, rock and whirl through multilayered urban dreamscapes. Image by Heidrun Lohr, from Unsealed (2004) It's a Jungle Out There (Trailer) from Martin del Amo on Vimeo.
I've spoken to more than just a few people recently who came out of Avatar, clutching their 3D glasses to their chest and speaking in sighs about how many goosebumps the film gave them. Given that the script appears to have been written for a Year 6 Speech Night play, the only part of the story that in any way seems capable of tweaking skin would be the "Gaia world loves savage spirituality" sequences. If that's the case, then punters seeking their soul roots would be much better off eschewing the orientalist Hollywood swill and seeing Maangamizi - The Ancient One. Produced by Gris-Gris Films, this is a Tanzanian/American film that came into being back in 2001. Shot on location throughout East Africa, Maangamizi provides an essential element to the exploration of traditional spirituality: the often catastrophic repercussions of removing people from their heritage and placing them into a culture that just doesn't quite add up. This screening is hosted by Aang Sarian, a Tanzanian NGO that is dedicated to empowering communities through education, sustainable living practices and cultural traditions. Money collected from this screening will go towards the upkeep of an Aang Sarian secondary school in Tanzania as well as to support young women who have fled from forced marriages and female genital mutilation.
At first glance, one of Australia's most anticipated films of 2010 hardly looks like a local. With Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe taking the leads, Australian twin brothers Peter and Michael Spierig are doing their bit to cash in on the current vampire craze. It's 2019 and ten years after a vampire pandemic brought about the dusk of humanity. Indeed, humans are now too rare a commodity, and with blood supplies perilously dwindling, bank runs take on a whole new meaning. Reluctant vamp and haematologist Edward Dalton (Hawke) is under the gun from his steely boss (Sam Neill), trying to manufacture a substitute (oh for some True Blood!), while a starving population starts feeding on itself, to rather gruesome ends. However a chance encounter with a band of humans leads Dalton to team up with the plucky Audrey (Love My Way's Claudia Karvan), a wry Elvis (Dafoe) and to discover a truly revolutionary opportunity. Despite this fascinating premise and the careful construction of ingeniously retrofitted world, Daybreakers fails to dazzle. Granted, it's fun to watch local talent like Karvan, Vince Colosimo (Underbelly), Isabel Lucas (Transformers 2) and Michael Dorman (Prime Mover) bandy about with crossbows and American accents, however the scripting of these underdeveloped characters render most mere plot points. But fans of the genre won't be disappointed. The Spierig brothers aren't afraid to get very bloody – and although the climactic shootout looks like it takes place on the Matrix lobby set, it (and the rest of the film) is packed with gruesome, gory goodness. Be the first to see Daybreakers on February 3rd at Popcorn Taxi's premiere Q&A screening with the Spierig Brothers. To win one of ten double passes to see Daybreakers subscribe to Concrete Playground on our homepage then email your name and address to hello@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo
It's fun to be an FBi supporter. You get to cuddle in puddles, choose your own adventure, listen to stolen records, watch bands, dance to DJs — all thanks to a series of Sydney Sounds Like fun(d)raisers in the name of 'save FBi'. But like a decent bottle of wine, all good things must come to an end, and so Sydney Sounds Like will go out with a bang on Saturday with one Final Fling. Cramming both rooms of the Metro Theatre, this stellar Aussie lineup includes a DJ set from the one-and-only Presets, rhythm and blues racket band Philadelphia Grand Jury, dreamy folk skater-boy Jonathan Boulet, Van She band member Matt Van Schie ("Schie" from which "She" was derived) along with Parades, Deep Sea Arcade, Seekae and Purple Sneaker DJs. So pry open your piggy banks and sort out a ticket — at only $20 for supporters, $25 for non-supporters and $30 on the door, it’s probably the cheapest Presets gig ever — and all proceeds go to FBi.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I never really gave Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood a chance. As a kid, a copy had sat on our bookshelf, and the cover — a watercolour of jolly milkmaids and fishermen smoking corncob pipes — stank so much of overripe whimsy that my mind had simply rejected it. But when Vanessa Hughes and Zoe Norton Lodge were kids they actually bothered to crack it open and discovered it was brilliant, labyrinthine, bawdy and dark. They have mounted an ambitious one-woman show, with a lot of video in it, down at the Sidetrack Theatre in Marrickville. The text follows the lives of 64 inhabitants in the Welsh fishing village of Llareggub, all played by Norton Lodge. She rampages around the set for the full 90 minutes, frantically switching roles and using a limited amount of props to evoke different scenes and characters. At her best moments she has the quality of a precociously gifted and slightly touched maniac retelling you her favourite story in her bedroom. The show has many wonderfully lyrical moments, including Captain Cat riding over the seas in a bathtub and a stirring performance of a song called 'Chimbly Sweep' at the end. Her performance did plateau a little toward the end, but I assume this was just opening night nerves and will improve as the season continues and her confidence grows. Vanessa Hughes' set and video installations are uniformly excellent. They're simple and understated, adding to the performance rather than overpowering it. It's a very confident and accomplished production that I'm sure will have more seasons to come. If you're a fan of Under Milk Wood, I'd recommend checking it out, and even if you're not yet a fan, I was certainly converted.
A drop of blood hits the hot California pavement and everything changes. Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), a Bowie-obsessed teen girl has hit puberty, and, as the song about her goes, hello world she's your wild girl. Across town, her future bandmates Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Sandy West (Stella Maeve) practice and prowl, having been introduced by their Svengali of a manager, Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), who pulls the band together at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco club. Floria Sigismondi's Runaways biopic opens in 1975, a precise moment in time when glam rock was exotic and girls stayed in front of the stage. The characters are infamous and so, too, are its stars, Stewart and Fanning, blowing off their vampiric Twilight roles for a brief, much-appreciated moment to embody Jett and Currie respectively. Often remembered (incorrectly) as the first manufactured all-girl band, the Runaways have a complex history, part wild teen girl mayhem, part Fowley-controlled, "genuine jailbait" image. Informed by Currie's tell-all autobiography and executive produced by Jett, The Runaways captures this tension perfectly, with the eccentric Fowley, brilliantly played by Shannon, schooling them on "thinking with their cocks" all the while pocketing profits and orchestrating controversy in the press. Sigismondi, mostly known for her music videos, follows the brief triumphs of the band and its crushing demise, rolling out all the usual rock biopic markers: first show, first tour, first international tour, first drug habits, first ego, first breakdown, first break-up. That said, to Sigismondi's credit, The Runaways keeps its initial energy throughout the lion's share of the film, and the characters are complicated and ferocious — their tale all too familiar but still one that manages to remain genuinely exciting. Runaways fans shouldn't be as nervous as I was about this film; it certainly does the band justice (despite skipping over a sizeable amount of their later history and line-up changes) and Stewart and Fanning are wholly convincing as two of the most important women in rock history. We don't have a star rating here at Concrete Playground, so instead I'll tell you this: I have seen this film three times already and I'm still excited to see it again when it hits theatres. See it first at Popcorn Taxi Wednesday, July 7, featuring a live Q&A with Cherie Currie from LA. It opens in cinemas on July 15. https://youtube.com/watch?v=OTpdXKocacQ
Nothing disappointing has ever come from a Sarah Blasko album. Her songs are sweet but never naive, and her propensity to write about personal battles with a voice as strong and frail as woven spiderwebs reveals something of her old-fashioned soul. She sadly left our shores a few months back to launch her latest album, As Day Follows Night, in the UK and leap from England to France, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and back again. New environments lead to new inspirations, so new material is something to be certain of in this upcoming Australian tour. Her tweets confirm she's interested in revealing some new material, but we've been promised a performance scattered with the diamonds of her three-album repertoire. And, considering she recently released a bonus disc of musical covers from Fame to The Sound of Music and admitted to shedding a tear or two through Billy Elliot (she saw the musical on Broadway), perhaps some show-tune styled numbers and elaborate costumes will round out the set? https://youtube.com/watch?v=QX1RgyCl1Xs
My love affair with comic books began in solitude. I read the sweet but politically incorrect Adventures of Tintin before moving into the much flashier worlds of Marvel, DC and 2000 AD. Over the years I sought out the others like me, sharing in secret our tales of masks and capes. I remember having long debates with my friends about who should play which costumed wonder in the theoretical films of our favourite comics (for some reason, Rutger Hauer was my pick for Magneto). It was a brave and exclusive world, back then. And suddenly the planet transformed. Comics spread from the sweaty palms of pre-teens and into mainstream and indie media. Film companies pumped millions into realising my childhood dreams (sans Rutger), while pretty girls with black hair revealed that they were also fluent in the secret language of frames, inks and lettering. Comic books, graphic novels, manga — these galaxies amid the universe of illustrated words had successfully wooed the zeitgeist. Now, Graphic, an inaugural celebration of comic books and related cultural media, will show Sydney just how much we need those "funnies". Filmmaker Kevin Smith and the poster boy for sophisticated comics, Neil Gaiman, head an impressive two-day schedule of talks, demonstrations, readings and screenings that will leave our city quaking from an ink-and-image overload. The program comprises both free and ticketed events, including the world premiere of Akira with a new live score by Regurgitator. Prepare to be inspired, if not surprised, by the volume that comics grant to creative voices all over our spinning orb.
Okay, so free shipping and a 0% chance of being talked into buying a bag you don't need because it would look so cute with those shoes is great, but shopping IRL has plenty of bonuses, too. You'll find pretty much all of them at Fashion's Night Out, which is probably the best idea to come out of Anna Wintour's brain since she decided Seth Meyers should wear a lacey Marc Jacobs dress to the CDFA awards. Fashion's Night Out was initiated by Wintour four years ago to pump money back into the flailing retail economy, and Sydney's own edition is now bigger and better than ever. Excuses you didn't really need to buy a whole bunch of nice new things for spring include pop-up beauty bars, free champagne, complimentary nibbles, gifts-with-purchase, and photo booths, with the majority of them taking place around Westfield and the CBD. Get a free beauty consultation and eye mask at Clinique, a hand massage at L'Occitane, head to Mulberry for an evening of prizes and Polaroids, or chill out at the pop-up Galliano bar with a tasty Ristretto cocktail. As luck would have it, this year's theme is 'Fashion Meets Music', with world-class DJs and talented classical pianists putting the remixed remixes of Carly Rae Jepsen happily to rest.
Either you had posters of them plastered all over your walls and had dreams of marrying one of these young blondies back in the day, or you were subjected to the words "mmmm bop" on high rotation by one of those people. Whether you were (or still are) a lover or a hater, the news that Hanson will be in town will certainly spike your interest and renew your ponderings on what the words in that song really meant anyway... These boys are no longer the pre-pubescents with long flowing manes (they appear to be brunette now) running around the streets in American suburbia like actors in a shampoo commercial. They now have facial hair and and gyrating hips. Expect slightly more grown up, but still wholesome songs like Give a Little — little bit more soulful and funky, rather than pure pop. Just one word of warning – the squealing, jumping-up-and-down female fans may have aged somewhat, but they can likely be just as frenetic. https://youtube.com/watch?v=TmG0DqhfDbY
Press play on some Watussi and have a scroll through the Sydney Latin American Film Festival guide online. Choose from features, docos, and short films at four different venues: Dendy Opera Quays, Bankstown Arts Centre, Mu-Meson Archives and the Addison Road Centre - Casa Latina. Opening night to this festival, now in its seventh year, kicks off with Mia, a drama about a transvestite living in a slum. The director, Argentine filmmaker Javier Van de Couter, will appear in a Q&A following the screening. Cumbiamuffin (think cumbia, ragga and reggae beats) are headlining the fiesta on the opening night, served with a side of Latino nibbles and drinks. There's also a Bankstown Arts Centre opening night fiesta (if you needed some more fiesta action), with a screening of The Rumble of the Stones, Venezuela's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film in the 84th Academy Awards. This film, directed by Alejandro Bellame looks at slums, crime, and gangs, popular themes in the festival's films. The Opera Quays closing night will take a distinctly different turn, however, with Juan of the Dead, Cuba's answer to Shaun. Image from Juan of the Dead. https://youtube.com/watch?v=EQJEgOUc00Y
The annual French Film Festival is touring the country next month and is set to be an entertaining delight for film lovers of all tastes and ages. The festival is a wing of the Alliance Française, an independent, not-for-profit organisation devoted to promoting the spread of French language and culture worldwide. With a presence in over 146 nations and over 30 Alliance Françaises in Australia alone, it is safe to say the organisation has done well in achieving these goals. The Alliance Françaises of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, and Sydney have joined forces to develop the Film Festival, now in its 24th year. And the 43 films set to screen at this year's festival will certainly not disappoint. The festival has a huge array of productions on offer, sure to sate the appetites of the soppy romantics, the arty, youngsters, those simply looking for a bit of a laugh, nostalgia-sufferers, and even thrillseekers. These films are some of most acclaimed productions to have come out of France over the last 12 months and will have you adoring both the language and the artistic creativity of the French by the time the credits roll. Opening the festival is Haute Cuisine, light fare about a successful chef who is appointed to head the President's kitchen in the Elysee Palace. During the festival you can see Renoir (pictured), a sumptuous film about the feuds of great painters; the erotic tableaux of FEU by Christian Louboutin; the Cannes closer and Audrey Tautou vehicle Therese Desqueyroux; and the pre-Freudian Augustine. The French Film Festival will tour to major capital cities during March and April. Visit their website to see the full program.
Co-founder of the controversial and tendentious Oz Magazine Richard Walsh is celebrating the publication's 50th Year Anniversary by appearing at Customs House as part of the Late Night Library initiative to give a detailed account of the magazine's comic, thrilling, and contentious past. Published in the tame and docile era of the '60s, during which heavy censorship was rife, Oz Magazine stood out starkly from other publications. Not only did the forward-thinking team cover issues others wouldn't dare broach upon, they also included shocking covers, and the editors even went to trial for 'obscenity and corrupting public morals' not once but twice. Mr Walsh said “reading is becoming a sociable activity and writers festivals and reading circles are thriving. The Late Night Library program is fulfilling this need in an exciting and innovative way.” Share Walsh's entertaining and unashamedly truthful accounts of his Oz Magazine experiences at the special late-night discussion, which will be complemented by the smooth jazzy pop tunes of Bossa Baby Duo from 7.30pm. Tickets are free yet limited and are running out fast so get in quick to ensure your spot at this unique opportunity.
Carriageworks are taking the artform of contemporary dance and giving it their own unique spin with a dynamic and diverse new show, dubbed the "dance equivalent of a concept album", featuring 12 solo performances from 12 of Australia's most exciting young dancers. Combining the individual flair of the performers with a hearty dose of nostalgia, Slow Dances for Fast Times is set to an endlessly fun soundtrack of pop and dance anthems taken from the last 50 years. Carriageworks has their sights firmly set on maximising audience satisfaction with an eclectic playlist that includes everything from a psychedelic Hendrix number and a soulful Dusty Springfield dirge to the piano-pop of Regina Spektor and the fist-pumping electronica of Portishead. There is even a Spanish torch song and a soaring classical aria thrown in for good measure. The dancers themselves have been handpicked by the show's Helpmann-nominated creator and choreographer Martin Del Amo following the sold out Sydney Opera House run of his Anatomy of an Afternoon. The performers were chosen not only based on their individual skill — and with a combined CV that boasts performances in such productions as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Indigenous spectacular Briwyant and pre-eminent dance crew The Fondue Set, the skill on show is quite considerable — but also with a deliberate focus on dancer diversity. Each dancer comes from a distinct cultural and artistic background such that each performance offers an enchanting insight into one of the many unique styles of dance that exist in Australia. With Carriageworks decked out with mirror balls and velvet curtains, Slow Dances for Fast Times looks set to be an unmissable marriage between the stylish and the retro, old-school nostalgia and new-age artistic innovation. We're giving away 10 double passes to see Slow Dances for Fast Times. To be in the running, simply subscribe to Concrete Playground (if you haven't already) then email us with your name and postal address at hello@concreteplayground.com.au.
There are two incarnations of Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: indoor and outdoor. Outdoors, he produces public art made of light and mathematics, inviting the public to touch, push and prod his work into being. Indoors, he keeps his vibe mixing the fingerprints of the crowd with the handiwork of the artist, but remixes it with even more personal moments taken from the visiting public. Taking from them fairytale things, like their shadows, their eyes or their heartbeat, he bargains their borrowings into art. It's this indoor version that Lozano-Hemmer is bringing to Sydney over the summer, with Recorders. The exhibition gives a taste of the artist's mash-up of technology, art and the audience itself, as well as a brief preview of the reconstructed MCA before the art-deco institution's interiors reopen in March. The core of Lozano-Hemmer's work are surprising moments you can touch — or that seek you out. His work is sometimes directly political, like his Voz Alta ('out loud') memorial to Mexico's 1968 massacre in Tlatelolco. But the main thing he wants is to build a brief connection with you through his art: all of you, one at a time. Before the exhibition opens Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will be giving the 2011 Lloyd Rees Memorial Lecture at the Opera House on December 5 2011 ($15/10 + BF), 'Antimonuments and Subsculptures', focusing on his outdoor artwork. Image of Lozano-Hemmer's Pulse Room by we make money not art.
Sydney’s glitterati usually prefer to buy real estate on the waterfront bays further east, but maverick filmmaker Jon Hewitt is legitimately fascinated by Kings Cross. The red-light locale has been his home for almost 12 years, and it’s also the setting for his latest film, X. X is a gritty yet captivatingly stylish thriller tracking one night in the life of two prostitutes, played by Viva Bianca and Hanna Mangan-Lawrence. One already world-weary and the other trying to get through her first night on the job, the two young women find themselves plunging into a rollercoaster ride of shootings, chases and bright neon lights. The requisite elements of eroticism and nudity are, of course, present, but all in the name of being as uncompromising and focused as Hewitt’s previous features — as the director rightfully points out, seeing people get out of bed with their clothes on after having sex is not very realistic. Hewitt’s love letter to Sydney’s sleazy underbelly will premiere on Tuesday with a special benefit screening to raise funds for The Wayside Chapel, which provides care and support for people who have fallen by the wayside in real life. So see a great film, help a good cause and develop a newfound fondness for The Cross.
Across the front of a quiet, dark stage, a strip of white. On it balance an ashtray, a cocktail (looking as exactly like a cocktail as one could hope) and a pair of sandals. The scene is set for a lonely holiday, an absurd isolation that is both cruel and ironic. Yet this is only the first of 10 seemingly disconnected scenes through which our protagonist, Lotte, travels in her search for peace, love and a little bit of understanding. Botho Strauss's play is anti-narrative at its best: episodic, disconnected, disorienting and almost Kafkaesque. Martin Crimp's translation strips back even further, disposing of much of the play's setting, cold war East Germany. Instead, Crimp uses this historical dead end as a jumping off point for a kind of any-place, no-place. It's a risk, leaving audiences even less to cling to, but this production manages to make that step a success. Cate Blanchett is surprising in her role as Lotte. Bizarre, intimidating, hilarious, pitiful and endearing, she fills the stage like some sort of crazed angel. To lose sight of Lotte in this would be to lose sight of the production itself, but Blanchett ensures this is entirely impossible. Not that her supporting cast isn't working hard creating some of the production's best moments. Belinda McClory is delightful as a woman destined for celebrity, trapped in a small town. We cross our fingers and hold our breath in the hope that Josh McConville, as a chess-loving nano-technician, might be Lotte's salvation. Johannes Schütz's minimal and intense stage design is another of the highlights. The familiar yet disconnected elements and their altered ratios feed directly into the thick sense of the uncanny that director Benedict Andrews has created. The feeling that the payoff is eternally out of sight while the details are overwhelming is difficult as an audience. We suspect this is the point. There are no answers, and barely even a sense of a question, to this production. It is, as it intends to be, the minutiae of life, frustratingly impossible to dismiss or alter, magnified into absurd proportions. Image: Chris Ryan and Cate Blanchett in Sydney Theatre Company’s Gross und Klein (Big and Small), photographer Lisa Tomasetti
The relationship between art and alcohol is a well-established one. The idea of the tortured artist has been floating around for centuries, booze-fuelled gallery openings have been taking place for decades, and in Sydney there are now at least two art galleries that share common space with drinking establishments. But even better than combining art and alcohol is combining art, alcohol, food and music. This is what White Rabbit gallery is doing every Thursday night in November, so you can get all cultured and stuff while enjoying awesome tunes and delicious dumplings, plus beer, wine and tea. This Thursday’s sounds come courtesy of Billy Burke, whose music is an equally wonderful mish-mash of things. His songs fuse traditional folk riffs with dream pop and psychedelic rock, and he even plays the harmonica. Admission to the gallery is free so stop by after work and get your visual and musical fill, then spend that change you’ve saved on some juicy dumplings.
If you missed out on the JD Set birthday bash, we commiserate - it was an epic night. Don't worry too much though, as you have another chance to attend a party thrown by these guys, who seem to be pretty damn good at it. This time around, you will be entertained by the tattooed punksters Good Charlotte, who brought you the angst-ridden head-bangers 'The Anthem', 'Little Things' and 'I Just Wanna Live'. In line with the JD set tradition, Good Charlotte will play a cover set of a band that has been a major influence on them, and this time it's none other than Weezer, whose 1994 album The Blue Album was one of the most important released in the nineties. If this band is only ringing a very faint bell through the haze of the nineties, the songs 'Undone - The Sweater Song' or 'Buddy Holly' might take you back. Good Charlotte will also be playing some of their own songs, so get your eyeliner and fingerless gloves ready for a Jack Daniels-fuelled night of music. To go in the running for one of two double passes to the JD Set, just make sure you're subscribed to Concrete Playground then email us with your preference of Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne shows. Entries close Monday, November 7 at 5pm. https://youtube.com/watch?v=lPHRJc73Jqg Sponsored post
Going to the cinema used to be an occasion. People would get dressed up, they would save up, they would take their families, and they'd line up for double bills of cinematic entertainment. These were the days when cinema amazed, delighted and shocked. Metropolis was just one of these masterpieces that amazed audiences. A dystopian, futuristic tale of a world where capitalism has isolated its workers, this early science fiction was made in the German Weimar Republic in 1927. An icon of the silent film era, the film was cut after its premiere, and for more than 80 years, there hasn't been the opportunity to see it in its original full length. Until now. In 2008, a 16mm negative turned up in Buenos Aires, complete with the missing 30 minutes of footage. If you're a film fan, or can appreciate the important position that Metropolis takes in the cinematic canon, take advantage of this opportunity to see the restored version of this classic film, complete with the live score performed by the Sydney Symphony. It's been 80 years since this film has been shown, so there are few excuses good enough to miss this chance to restore cinema to the event that it once was. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZSExdX0tds4
Believers of the adage "short and sweet" will find themselves in cinematic nirvana at this year’s Flickerfest. Australia’s only competitive international short film festival — earning BAFTA and Academy accredited status — has amassed a lineup of 108 films from the staggering 2200 entries received, representing the best shorts locally and from around the globe. Flickerfest began as a small local festival at the Balmain High School in 1991 and has now put roots down on the shore of Bondi Beach, as if that part of town needed another reason to pilfer the masses during the summer months. Freeing filmmakers from the pressures of box office and commercial concerns, the festival acts as a launch pad for emerging storytellers and their bold new perspectives on cinema. Over a course of 10 days audiences will be treated to 20 different short film programmes including International, Australian, Documentary and the new GreenFlicks category, all approximately 100 minutes long. Provided someone actually remembers to bring the warm weather this summer night sessions will be screened in the outdoor amphitheatre, so grab some tasty organic snacks from the bar and discover a way to enjoy Bondi Beach that doesn’t involve fighting for a spot to lay your towel.
People who hate Mondays must really hate Tuesdays. There’s not even any of that starting-the-week-afresh Monday feeling remaining, just the knowledge that you haven’t even hit hump day yet. So thank God for Moonshakes, The Flinders’ eclectic line-up of local bands with free entry, $5 spirits and $4 beers taking place every Tuesday. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Bjork came 15 years later and was signed to Brainfeeder then you should check out this week’s gig, headlined by young Sydney musician, composer and producer Rainbow Chan. Weaving her classical training in saxophone, piano and choral music with memories of Chinese folk songs and Grandma’s mix tapes, Rainbow Chan is always looking for innovative new ways to play with sound and narrative. Also present will be twisted dance artist SunSun (aka Joel Burrows), and new weekly residents Makeout Point — the new alias of local rock band W.I.M, described by the LA Times as “Rufus Wainwright fronting Grizzly Bear.” They’ll be making The Flinders home every Tuesday for the next month, and you should do the same.
Fourth in the Sydney Theatre Company's Next Stage 2011 lineup of bright, emerging young things, Money Shots is a collection of five 15-minute plays that relate in some way to the role and function of MAD DOLLAR$ in our human lives. The plays by Angus Cerini, Tahli Corin, Duncan Graham, Rita Kalnejais and Zoe Pepper are performed by STC's Residents with just a couple of costume changes each and no more stage-rearrangement than can be done while a placard is brought up to announce the next play. Money Shots covers a great deal of ground in exploring how money and identity and survival and love and hate and sex get all wound up together. It's kind of nice that a thematic of currency-as-in-money has been used to structure an episode of a program that is based on the consideration of currency-as-in-nowness. All the plays selected reflect possibilities that are being explored in contemporary writing for theatre, and a more financially literate panic about money post-GFC: money problems in these plays are neither accidental nor within the control of the protagonists. I did think that some of the plays were a better investment than others, but hey, it's a free market. Image: Richard Pyros and Sophie Ross in STC's Money Shots. By Brett Boardman 2011.
Noam Chomsky is coming to Australia to accept the Sydney Peace Prize, but don't expect a silent and biddable award ceremony. Chomsky is an intensely vocal critic of inequity and exploitation, covering issues such as U.S foreign policy, mass media (or, in Chomskyian, the 'bought Priesthood'), terrorism, ecology, the never-ending hoodwinks of capitalism and more. Coming to prominence during the late '50s in the field of linguistics, Chomsky's infamous proposition was that we all possess an innate gift, a natural capacity, for learning and shaping language (sometimes called 'universal grammar'). In other words, language is hard-wired into the old cerebrum. Chaired by Mary Kostakidis, Chomsky will be answering questions posed to him by the audience relating to the ‘Problems of Knowledge and Freedom’. This obviously has an elastic potential, and gives us the opportunity to see one of the most cited, noted and quoted living public intellectuals think on his feet. For early Chomsky (vs Michel Foucault) click here. For recent Chomsky on Middle East Peace click here.
Take an ordinary thing and work it into a picture of society. It's a formula that worked well with Salt: A World History, in the East Enders tea making of Britain from Above and here in Spirit of Jang In: Treasures of Korean Metal Craft at the Powerhouse Museum. There are many nooks and crannies here known only to the devoted, and this show takes place in one of its lesser known niches upstairs on level 4. 'Jang In' means 'craftsman', and this exhibition takes you from older, golden treasures to the clean lines of modern Korean design using things of crafted metal as its theme. A collection of golden artefacts dominates the first third of the exhibition. Older archaeological finds are arrayed in special glass cases: a horn-like golden ornament, a crown and a reconstructed saddle ornament decorate with only the wings of thousands of jewel beetles. Tiny figures of gold or bronze are engraved with all the delicateness of renaissance reliquaries — many are Korean reliquaries themselves. Beauty here is in the details, requiring much bending over and leaning in. But there are rewards in tiny wisps of gold which seem to have been accreted more than forged, or a seemingly art-deco metal Phoenix at rest on a flower blossom. These are joined by everyday things like dinner sets, or metal tableware whose use rotated with the seasons. At the back is a collection of modern Korean pieces. It includes the stark, sharp edged designs of Lee Kwang-sun, a collection of work by local Korean Australians and Lee Kyung-ja's vision of Nirvana, a populated sea of miniature Buddhas each stained with the designs of a different dream. Whether you're at the Powerhouse for Love Lace, or seeking things Korean directly, there's really no excuse for not searching out this show's little hideaway. Image: Cloisonné hair pin by Powerhouse Museum/National Museum of Korea.
We were already planning to spend all summer on Cockatoo Island's new Island Bar. Think striped deck chairs, croquet tournaments and some of Sydney's best cocktails, courtesy of mixologist extraordinaire Marco Faraone. Who needs ferries when you can stay the night (or the week)? Then, just when we thought things couldn't get any better, they've upped the stakes. This weekend Cockatoo Island officially transforms into Cocktail Island, a two-day long festival celebrating all the best bits of bar and cocktail culture. We hear it will be a maze of cocktail stands and tasting rooms, likely to transform into a Baccalian melee. Classics like Negronis and Martinis will be offered alongside the newest and hippest from around the globe, with only the world's leading spirits used in the mix. It's a time not only for tippling but for learning. Master classes will be held with international guest speakers, including the unmissable tequila expert Julio Bermejo. Get worded up on cocktail history, current trends and even take-home tips for the perfect guest-impressers. Unlike your favourite music festival, tickets are a mere $15 (plus booking fee) then you only pay for the bits - well, the drinks - that you like. Update: Saturday is now sold out.
Of all the things you're encouraged to do throughout the month of November (grow a moustache, write a novel, help those stuck in purgatory get into heaven, etc), getting out and experiencing some new playwriting is by far the least painful. For which we have NovemberISM to thank. NovemberISM, quite apart from being the theory that November exists, is a month-long festival being put on by Sydney writing collective ISM and run out of the Old 505 Theatre. It gives playwrights a chance to tweak their work through production and audiences a chance to see the latest accolade-scooping plays at their freshest. Two new studio productions settle into the space for half the month each, while extra forums, workshops, readings and gatherings happen alongside them. First up is One for the Ugly Girls, the new work from Tahli Corin (The Arcade at Money Shots and 2009 winner of the Philip Parsons Young Playwright's Award). It's one also for the artists and the grievers, as it follows the plights of a painter who tries to commit his dead wife's memory to canvas and the model who comes to pose for him but is not all he expected. From mid-month you can catch Kit Brookman's Heaven, a bittersweet comedy in which a boy dealing with his first experiences of death dabbles with the occult, trying to get answers from those already in the great beyond. Both of these plays were once recipients of Playwriting Australia's Kicking Down the Doors initiative. There's also I'm Not Sure I'm an Adult Yet, the result of locking seven writers in a room under the eye of Craig Ilott (Smoke and Mirrors) and getting them to think about contemporary adulthood; Applespiel's Awful Literature Is Still Literature I Guess; and plenty more.
The 15th Japanese Film Festival kicks off with a ghost story, but this is no Ringu or The Grudge. A Ghost of a Chance is the comedic masterpiece from “King of Comedy” Koki Mitani, taking place in a courtroom where defence lawyer Emi must argue the case of a man whose only alibi is a 421 year-old ghost. From there the festival leaps into 28 Australian premieres and 2 Sydney premieres of the most hilarious, thrilling, insightful, delicious and action-packed films to come out of Japan in recent years. Yoshihiro Nakamura’s A Boy and His Samurai gives a tongue-in-cheek insight to the blurring of traditional and modern Japanese culture, and the creators of Ponyo and Spirited Away return with an equally captivating animation inspired by the children’s novel series The Borrowers. Cinema meets gaming in GANTZ, which challenges the semi-deceased to hunt down aliens in order to win a choice to either be freed from GANTZ or to revive someone already dead, while death itself is explored through the moving closing feature Life Back Then. Audiences will also find plenty of special events, from spoken prologues by award-winning director Hideyuki Hirayama and superstar actor Yutaka Takenouchi, to a raucous live-action adaption comedy in the vein of Harry Potter — only better, because it’s with ninjas.
It certainly seems as though pop-ups are, quite literally, “popping up” all over the place these days and it is no bad thing. From performance and exhibition spaces to shops and restaurants, this winning formula allows us to see with fresh eyes experiences which have perhaps become banal to us in their familiarity. One such experience is Hidden Cinema, which is putting back some of the magic and excitement a trip to the pictures used to entail. The themed nights take place in unusual spaces, with the movie (and sometimes also the venue) being kept secret, with clues being revealed in the run up to the night. The next event is a Christmas special taking place at St Andrews Anglican Church in Newtown. What will it be? Register on their site or join their facebook page and see if you can guess what movie it will be
Concealed in an obscure corner in the basement of the Kings Cross Carpark lies Alaska Projects, a truly underground art gallery and one which is making innovative use of an unusual and unused space. Commandeering an empty office, the surrounding parking spaces and stairwell, the gallery has been running since October. Now showing works by Sydney-based, Newfoundland Canada native, Nick Collerson, this is the gallery's third exhibition. Paintings, ranging from sweeping landscapes reminiscent of Constable or John Singer-Sargeant, to emotive more minimalist pieces, which seem to want to escape the edges enclosing them hang in the office area. This is accompanied rather intriguingly by a wooden step-ladder, hand built by the artist himself. When he is not painting, Collerson turns his hand to framing and canvas stretching — in fact he is also a purveyor of specialist canvas and frames in any shape and size. In the coming months Alaska Projects will be putting on solo and group shows, performance and film screenings. Image: Nick Collerson, Untitled Romantic Landscape, 2011
Good King Tut knows all your secrets. He doesn't care if you've been naughty or nice, just as long as you're not in de Nile about it. He will whisper of the tombs and share Sphinx-nog and sacred wine with you this Friday when you drift with the dunes to Stinson Lane, Marrickville. There you can unravel the eighth great mystery of the world: what happens when you combine cab sav and Christmas? Perched at the top of the performance pyramid like the great Pharaohs of old are Brown Council, Kate Jinx, Kenzie Larsen, Lara Thoms, Matt Prest and Eddie Sharp. Wrapping up the night like an ancient desert mummy will be Nat Randall, Nick Coyle, Nick Sun, Pig Island, post, Pussy Moot, Whale Chorus and Zoe Coombs Marr. Scared you'll have to hawk your last scarab beetle to be part of the tinselled tomb action? Well, smile like a Sphinx with a secret, because it's only $10. With house band Swim Wear and live sets by T-Bag and Sir, you won't be able to walk (like an Egyptian or otherwise) for a week after.
Sebastian Goldspink certainly gets around. Creative producer at Art Month, curator of last week’s Full Court Press and Director of (literally) underground art space Alaska Projects. Many of the names he’s curated for the John Fries Memorial Prize feel a bit like the usual suspects, as well. But, in this exhibition, that’s turns out to be a good thing. Each artist has something special going. And there are so many to choose from. Gallery 1 has Samuel Hodge’s Tickets Still Available, which seems to have rounded up a plaid cast bearing cardboard signs that breath homophobia, bible verses and ticketing options. In it's own room to one side, Ella Barclay’s Ebb lays out a micro-scale cloudscape, complete with fog generator and passing cloud light projected on top of it. Spots of water bubble up like hot springs cast away on a high, cloudy plateau. Lurking in the corner is Sophia Egarchos’ Levels #2 redecorating its wall with abstract lines, replete with energy, and, in Keg de Souza’s living under the stars, you walk — shoeless — into a soft black cave. It pulses with glowing points of light. A relaxing, other space. In Gallery 2, Aaron Anderson’s Ruin #5 spears a piece of wall with a stark, black curtain rod harpoon, Svetlana Bailey’s beautiful, rocket-like Suburban tower half fades into the mist in 13/11and Liam O’Brian’s Whistling in the Dark cuts between a series of tiny, lo fi, pasted faces to express the epic struggle of an anthropomorphised hand as it tries cross a concrete finish line. Gallery 3 shows off Benjamin Forster’s Dysgraphia forms lexical order out of chaos and fuzzy chaos out of textual order on a disintegrating, “deconstructed” LCD screen, Serena Bonson’s Wangarra Spirits stands tall, wordless and sympathetic, like a spirit from a Miyazaki film and John A Douglas gives a rainforest the circulatory system it never really needed in the bloody the Visceral Garden. Image: Sophia Egarchos, Levels #2 (Detail) © Sophia Egarchos/Licensed by Viscopy
Lawrence Greenwood aka Whitley's last album, Go Forth, Find Mammoth, was a breezy, lightweight yet layered and complex example of why Australia is at the top of the list when it comes to folk singer-songwriters. After the success of the album, Whitley went on an indefinite hiatus that left fans wondering if they'd ever hear a new note from him again. Well, after some time away, Whitley has returned with a bunch of new songs in the form of his new album, Even the Stars Are a Mess. For this record, Whitley travelled to Mexico, Cuba, The Netherlands, Peru and Italy for inspiration. To celebrate his own return to the stage, Whitley is heading on a massive tour that will see him play most major cities and mega-festival, Splendour in the Grass. https://youtube.com/watch?v=7BOzH7EVV4s
Leaping into the spotlight this year, Jagwar Ma have been busy creating a buzz overseas and back home in Australia. Their recent Glastonbury set brought in waves of acclaim from prominent music publications like NME, who listed Jagwar Ma as the #1 Must See Act, and the Independent, who labelled the Sydney trio as "the ideal Glastonbury band". The outfit even received a nod of approval from Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, who proclaimed his love for the Australian rock band in a recent interview. With their debut album, Howlin' now unleashed to the masses, the duo continues to impress. Their trippy, blissed-out sound is a perfect marriage between pulsating dance rhythms and gritty guitar riffs. To celebrate the release of the record, Jagwar Ma will be heading out on a national album launch tour with two Sydney shows at The Standard, the first of which has already sold out, before taking a spin around Europe and The States. Supporting duties for both evenings go to solo electronic producer Guerre and DJ Angelo Cruzman. Update: Friday's show is sold out, a second show is on sale for Sunday. https://youtube.com/watch?v=K8KCPw9kYpo
America: Painting a Nation could have been pretty lame. Super broad survey shows can be antiquated and ineffective in the way they present and investigate art. Remember the recent retrospective of Australian art at the Royal Academy in London (made more famous by the art critic who said John Olsen's work looked like diarrhoea)? It was a bit of a train-wreck. However, Painting a Nation is one of those rare examples of a survey show done right. On display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until 9 February, the exhibition is a "voyage through American history, across the American landscape and into the minds of the American people". The largest survey of American art ever presented in Australia, this exploration of Americanness is as enjoyable as it is comprehensive. The works have been drawn from four major collections: the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and theTerra Foundation for American Art. Last year's summer blockbuster at the AGNSW, Francis Bacon, somewhat missed the mark. The gallery was unable to secure many of the really standout Bacons for the show and the overall effect was a little bitsy and garbled. This time around they've got loads of really wonderful works. In addition to the artists who first come to mind when you think of America: Pollock, Rothko, Whistler, Hopper, O'Keeffe and Sargent, there are some stalwarts that aren't so well known outside of the US. One such artist, Thomas Moran, is represented by several works. Hot Springs of the Yellowstone is an absolute jewel. The small, Turner-esque painting depicts geothermal areas in Yellowstone National Park. It's hard to make landscape paintings exciting, but this one has allure in spades. You can almost feel the mist rising from the springs. Despite being hung in a corner, you can't miss it. The picture possesses a preternatural glow; it's an amazing work and a reminder that even in the age of conceptual, multimedia art, sometimes you just can't beat a really masterfully executed oil painting. Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first African-American artist to receive international acclaim, is also featured. Portrait of the Artist's Mother is a haunting work. She has been captured sitting on a large chair, in profile, holding a fan. Her expression is affectingly plaintive. The room devoted to Modern art contains, among other paintings, two exceptional works by Georgia O’Keeffe. Horse's Skull with Pink Rose is one of the stars of the exhibit. O'Keeffe evokes the dusty plains of New Mexico in her exploration of a national symbol, death and beauty. Painting a Nation is the latest in Sydney's International Art Series, an initiative of Destination NSW and the NSW Government that seeks to bring world-class artists to Sydney galleries and museums. The program has been pretty stellar so far. The Anish Kapoor exhibition last summer was fabulous, and the upcoming Yoko Ono show should prove to be a hit, too. As Dr. Chris McAuliffe, curatorial consultant for Painting a Nation says, "looking at great art makes you a better person". Image: Jackson Pollock, No. 22, 1950 (detail), image courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
