The Central Coast may be known for its picturesque beaches, but it's also home to some of the best (and busiest) lakes and waterways in the country. And this November, you can explore the very best of them, and the aquatic recreational activities they afford, at the annual Lakes Festival. Running for the fourth time, the festival will see more than 20 community, art, music, culture and food pop-up events occur across November 9–18. The festivities will stretch between event hubs at Gosford Waterfront, renowned fishing destination Budgewoi and Long Jetty plus many places in between. Throughout the ten-day festival, there'll be stand-up paddleboarding yoga, boat tours and Paddle to Pedal, a free full-day tour exploration of Tuggerah Lake via kayak and bike. Other highlights include Park Feast, held at Gosford Waterfront across November 8–9, featuring 20 food trucks, carnival rides and great live music. The Light Up The Lakes music festival on November 10 will feature some great talent — ARC and The Delta Riggs are headlining the festival — and a fireworks display. You can also head along to moonlight cinema at the Norah Head lighthouse on November 15 and 16. There'll also be creative workshops, craft festivals and much more to enjoy while soaking up one of Australia's most scenic locations. For more info and to check out the full list of events, head to The Lakes Festival website.
It's always fascinating to see what happens when two seemingly disparate cultures collide, and that's exactly what director Nick Powers is looking to explore with Two Crews, his show that brings together a pair of very different hip-hop dance groups. France's Lady Rocks are known for their sharpness and combative approach whereas Sydney's own Riddim Nation take a more fluid approach to the discipline of hip hop. Powers has had the opportunity to work with the crews collectively and individually, an approach he'll replicate with the audience, first allowing them to see each crew in isolation before bringing everyone together for an exciting and intimate experience. Image: Timothee Lejolivet.
After two years of scrolling online shopping sites from our couches, proper in-store retail sessions in brick-and-mortar spaces are sweeter than ever. If you're looking for an elevated retail experience with a difference this winter, head to Chatswood Chase's The Edit Collection pop-up, which is currently showcasing local lifestyle clothing brand ESSE Studios. ESSE's new Edition No.7 collection designed by award-winning designer Charlotte Hicks will be available in-store from July 26 - September 18, 2022. And if you're keen to elevate your wardrobe and shop more sustainably, Hicks is here to help. On Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21, she'll be in-store for a limited time offering stylising sessions — free of charge. These sessions will give guests insights into how to maximise their wardrobe while minimising their impact on the planet. There will also be light refreshments so you can stay fed and watered while you shop. That's the VIP treatment baby. If you haven't checked out the Edit Collection retail space yet, it's the perfect time to do so. Dubbed "the store of the future" this concept store is more like a wild shopping experience — it has shoppable change room mirrors, gesture-controlled screens and a digital assistant to shoot and share selfies. A different Australian brand is featured every eight weeks, celebrating the amazing fashion and culture in this country. Get in to check it out and receive some styling tips from one of our most fashionable queens while you're there — a win, win. If you're keen to lock in a session with Hicks, bookings are essential so head to Eventbrite.
Two Australian music legends, one must-attend 2022 tour: now there's some news to come sail your ships around. In November and December this year, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis will bring their Carnage tour home — although if you subscribe to Cave's perfectly named The Red Hand Files emails, you should already know that. An official announcement is bound to arrive sooner rather than later with crucial details such as cities, exact dates and venues, but for now, Cave has shared the tour news himself. "I can see, glowing lovely, glowing redly, a Nick and Warren Australian Carnage tour that has been recently added. This has not yet been announced — and I will no doubt be reprimanded for doing so here on The Red Hand Files — but I can see it there, that bright, red block, beginning mid-November and ending mid-December. This new addition makes me very happy. In fact, quite literally, it brings tears of joy," Cave wrote in the fan email's 184th issue. [caption id="attachment_716220" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matthew Thorne[/caption] The upcoming Australian Carnage run earned a mention amid musings on Cave's other tour dates this year — first overseas on the American Carnage tour with Ellis, and then with the Bad Seeds in Europe. "I am sitting here looking at this year's calendar. My assistant, Rachel, has helpfully laid it out in various child-friendly, primary-coloured blocks. A red block means touring, a blue block means other extracurricular creative stuff, and a yellow block means time off. The year is largely big, red blocks, with some sudden moments of blue, and a little lonely threadbare patch of yellow," Cave explained. Bandmates across several projects since the 90s — including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Grinderman — Cave and Ellis are Aussie icons, with careers spanning back decades. Together, they also boast more than a few phenomenal film scores to their names, including for The Proposition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Road, West of Memphis, Far From Men, Hell or High Water and Wind River. When Carnage released back in early 2021, it actually marked Cave and Ellis' first studio album as a duo — and picked them up an ARIA nomination, naturally. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' Australian Carnage tour will run throughout November and December 2022, with cities, exact dates and venues still to be announced — we'll update you when more details are revealed. Top image: Kerry Brown.
When it comes to Australia's best food and drink regions, the Sunshine Coast punches well above its weight. It boasts rainforests, farms and the ocean all within extremely close proximity to one another, making for a unique ecosystem — and an interesting culinary landscape. And you can celebrate all of the goodness that this coastal pocket has to offer when The Curated Plate kicks off its inaugural season in August. Across four days, the region's best chefs and producers will be joined by Australian and international heavy-hitters for a series of long lunches, degustations, food markets, tours and much more. Events will take place in venues across the region's hinterlands, rainforests and beaches with a beachside pop-up restaurant acting as the festival hub. The Sunshine Coast's organic and sustainable produce, grown in the hinterland's rich volcanic soil, will be on display. The program includes long lunches and degustations that'll highlight the latest trends in fine dining. Top chefs from around the country, including Peter Gilmore (Quay, Bennelong), Clayton Wells (Automata, A1 Canteen) and Alejandro Cancino (ex-Urbane), will be taking over some of the region's best eateries alongside international heavy-hitters like Japanese chef Zaiyu Hasegawa. Hasegawa runs Den, a two-Michelin starred restaurant in Tokyo that was awarded the number two spot on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2018, and is celebrated for his creative spin on kaiseki (Japanese multi-course haute cuisine). He will be teaming up with head chef of Spicers Tamarind Retreat for Spicers Den — a special five-course degustation dinner on Saturday, August 10. Meanwhile, Black Swan Park in Maroochydore will host a three-day food fair, featuring a bunch of local eateries, stalls and live entertainment, and Caloundra's Moffat Beach will be running a beach cinema, with burgers, beers and limited-edition treats supplied by Gelato Messina. So, if you're looking for an excuse to head up north (besides escaping the inevitable winter blues), this may just be it. The Curated Place will take place across the Sunshine Coast from Thursday, August 8 to Sunday, August 11. You can book a festival accommodation package — including the Regional Evolution four-course dinner, with wine pairings, from Australian chef Clayton Wells and two nights accommodation at Mantra Zanzibar in a two bedroom apartment — here.
Neuroscience, metanarrative and some embarrassing memories walk into a bar... no, wait, an academic conference? No, actually a bar. Not only is Best We Forget, presented by Tamarama Rock Surfers and created by isthisyours? on the stage at the Old Fitz, the start of the piece sees the audience's attention drawn to a couple of boxes of wine at one end of the tables at which the three performers are seated, and an invitation is issued for people to help themselves at any time during the show. The show launches in symposium style with Jude Henshall moderating and Nadia Rossi and Ellen Steele as guest panellists. Each of the three introduces some facts about memory and forgetting, and their interest in the area, and the science is sound. The three neatly coiffed performers sit behind nameplates and exchange scripted banter along with their increasingly subjective and absurd views on memory and cognition, and they return to this stage format at intervals throughout the play, intercutting with individual scenes. Steele, who introduces her interest in memory as being focussed on Hollywood depictions of memory loss, undertakes an action-hero quest to get a personal photographic record after an opening monologue in which she finds herself absent from all her own mementos of her uni years. Rossi, an avowed rememberer of faces and forgetter of names, reveals stories of the ways people have reacted to her forgetting, and takes the audience through images and objects from her childhood and teenage years and provides graphs mapping her memories and preoccupations. Henshall, meanwhile, does a comic torch song silhouetted by a fog machine, and performs the start of a Dictionary of Memory that segues into a demonstration of how the show might be remembered by the audience in accordance with the operation of the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. This chopped-up recap of the 'most memorable' parts of the show is particularly interesting in that it not only shows highlights of what has already been performed but also includes bits of action that are yet to occurr, underlining these in advance and making them more memorable because they're expected. It also makes for great physical comedy, in that the performances are exaggerated and sped up and acquire extra significance through being repeated. The idea of just how meta this all is is literalised in the set, with the trio retiring to an identical-but-smaller set to the one in which they started that is above it, in which is revealed a picture of the three in the same sort of setting but at yet another remove. Like memories, Best We Forget happens in pieces and things change as they get played out over and over again. If, as the show contends, things are still happening as long as they are still being thought about, then Best We Forget is much longer than the hour its billed as.
Ah, the humble food truck. Hallmark of the most sophisticated civilisations. Naturally, that world-class institution, Cambridge University, has its own local food truck, known fondly as the Trailer of Life. And for good reason — because everyone knows that a food truck is a comfort to drunken stomachs everywhere, a great alternative to stuffy restaurants and a justification for casual dining en plein air. Plus, where else can you go at midnight, other than Maccas? In recognition of this fact, and following a successful trial this October, Sydney's food trucks are celebrating their own popularity by getting together in one spot to feed you, one Friday every month, following a successful trial run in October and November. There's probably no better way to kick off (or conclude) your TGIF festivities. StreetFest Food Trucks United, as the monthly event is known, will open from 5pm at Belmore Park near Central Station. What tasty nomz will be available there? Are we talking pulled pork banh mi on crispy baguettes? Are we talking caramelised onion and aioli slathered on organic beef burgers? Veggie Patch Van, Tsuru, Cantina Mobil? All your digestive tract's fevered questions are answered on the Sydney Food Trucks website. There's even a smartphone app so you can align yourself yet more closely with this noble enterprise. Lord Mayor Clover Moore, that crafty cookie, says that the event is "part of our ongoing work to create a world-class night-time economy across Sydney". This is an initiative we can certainly get behind, and it mirrors public demand: a recent survey of food truck customers confirmed what we all know deep in our waters to be true, that (a) food trucks create new business in the city, (b) food trucks are the go-to destination between 9pm and midnight, and (c) food trucks tend to generate a devoted following, attracting customers who will happily travel up to 2km just to partake of their goodies. Not only that; the presence of a food truck also enhances a public space, helping to populate it, with all the benefits for a buzzy community that brings.
Saturday is the undisputed party day of the week, so all you Francophiles out there would be forgiven for thinking Baron Samedi (French for Saturday) is some kind of noble, beret-wearing party god. And although you wouldn't be correct, you wouldn't be entirely off the money. Let us explain: Baron Samedi is a Haitian voudou spirit and a guardian of the afterlife. But he's no mopey Grim Reaper kind of dude. Rather, he thrives on the creativity and spontaneity that emerges once the sun has set and is known for all things debauchery — with a particular love of rum, cigars and filthy swear words. So, if there's anywhere Baron Samedi's special brand of depravity would feel at home in the Harbour City it would be the dark and mysterious winding laneways of The Rocks. Between Wednesday, June 20 and Sunday, July 15, Baron Samedi spiced rum will be hosting a pop-up bar at The Argyle. Throughout the month, light and video projections will also take place in the forecourt outside the venue to summon the spirit of the Baron. As you're lured inside, head to the pop-up bar swathed in red lighting and smoke to grab a Baron cocktail. There'll be the Summon the Baron (rum with ginger beer and fresh lime), as well as special Baron Samedi spiced espresso martinis and daiquiris on offer. The takeover officially kicks off with a winter solstice party held over two nights on Wednesday, June 20 and Thursday, June 21. Martini Club will be providing the entertainment on Wednesday with a yet-to-be-announced band taking to the stage the following night. Live artist Megan Hales will also be there, using ultraviolet paint to create an art installation over the two nights. The Baron Samedi pop-up runs from Wednesday, June 20 till Sunday, July 15.
Forget acting ambitions, humanitarian causes or inventing an app that cures cancer and keeps track of the Sydney public transport system better than TripView. Have you ever wanted to be famous for something good? That was the pertinent question asked by the Oxford Tavern as they announced their First Annual Oxford Tavern Jelly Wrestle. If you can grapple another human to the ground in the most gelatinous of circumstances, and do it in character, this is your chance at glory. Back in the day, before it was fancied up by Drink N Dine last year, the Tav was a little seedier — well known for its topless barmaids and, yes, regular jelly wrestling comps. Up until now, that legacy has only lived on in their singular, extravagant, gloves-but-no-cutlery-provided dessert: the Jelly Wrestle. Perhaps by popular demand, or simply as a nod to their questionable past, they're bringing back the fleshy, messy real deal that is its namesake. The competition is open to both men and women (competing on a strictly man vs. man, woman vs. woman basis). If you want to brave the pit, pick up an application form and check out the rules, which range from the obvious (no punching, no biting) to the should-be-obvious (no finger probing), and the inexplicable (no bleeding) to the twee (entrants wear magic socks, and the removal of your opponent's magic sock means YOU WIN!). One pit. Twenty wrestlers. Who will win the pride of the Inner Wild West?
Thinking about UK cinema's biggest names brings a wealth of famous talents to mind. Odds are that they're on the 2023 British Film Festival program in one way or another. When the Australia-wide cinema celebration returns for its latest tour, it'll do so with Olivia Colman's latest movie, Ian McKellen's as well, what might be Michael Caine's final role and an Alfred Hitchcock documentary. Ken Loach, Liam Neeson, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Richard E Grant, Timothy Spall, Helena Bonham Carter, Gemma Arterton, Maggie Smith: they're all covered, too. In total, 28 films are on the British Film Festival's 2023 lineup, including both brand-new flicks and retrospective screenings. Audiences can see the results throughout November, with the festival kicking off on Wednesday, November 1 in Sydney — at Palace Norton St, Palace Verona, Chauvel Cinema and Palace Central — and keeping its projectors whirring for four weeks until Wednesday, November 29. Opening night's One Life will begin the 2023 fest, with the Hopkins (The Son)-starring biopic coming to Australia after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. It tells the tale of Sir Nicholas Winton, whose World War II story includes assisting in the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children, earning him the label of the 'British Schindler'. Johnny Flynn (Operation Mincemeat) plays the humanitarian in his younger years, with Bonham Carter (Nolly) also co-starring. Still on BFF's big festival slots, the Colman- (Heartstopper) and Jessie Buckley (Women Talking)-led Wicked Little Letters will close out the 2023 event. The two actors reunite after both featuring in The Lost Daughter, although this time they aren't playing the same character. Instead, they're in a mystery-comedy that's based on a real-life scandal dating back 100 years And, playing as BFF's centrepiece is The Critic, which is where McKellan (Cats) and Arterton (Funny Woman) come in, and Mark Strong (Tár), Lesley Manville (The Crown) and Nikesh Patel (Starstruck) as well. As the name makes plain, it does involve a critic — a theatre specialist, in a whodunnit that's based on the novel Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn. Also a huge inclusion: My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, the new documentary from The Story of Film's Mark Cousins. This time, the filmmaker turns his meticulous attention to a director like no other, and to plenty of suspense, including featuring footage from the bulk of Hitchcock's classic films. Among the other highlights, war veteran tale The Great Escaper could be Caine's (Best Sellers) last performance; The Old Oak marks the latest from iconic filmmaker Loach (I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You); The Lesson features Grant (Persuasion), Julie Delpy (On the Verge) and Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters) in a literary thriller; and musical Greatest Days features Take That's songs. Or, there's Sweet Sue from Leo Leigh, son of Peterloo and Mr Turner director Mike Leigh; the Irish village-set In the Land of Saints and Sinners, which features Neeson (Retribution), Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones, and also Sex Education); Samuel Beckett biopic Dance First, with Gabriel Byrne (War of the Worlds) as the playwright; Golda, starring Mirren (Barbie) as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir; Mad About the Boy, a doco about Noël Coward; and Pretty Red Dress, which is set to the songs of Tina Turner. Plus, fans of movies about music can add Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), which hails from Control's Anton Corbijn and hones in on the titular photo-design company and its contribution to record cover art, to their BFF schedule. And, among the retrospective titles, the Mirren-starring Caligula, rock opera Tommy and drama Howard's End are all playing in 4K restorations — with Smith's (The Miracle Club) Oscar-winning performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, plus The Remains of the Day, Women in Love and Morgan — A Suitable Case for Treatment also on the classics list.
If brutal honesty, passionate angst and extraordinarily affecting personal songwriting is your jam, rejoice the return of Martha Wainwright to Australia for a massive, 12-date national tour. Part of a large, fractured musical family, it was perhaps fitting that Martha made her first big splash with 'Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole', a song at once heartbreaking and defiant, laying bare her difficult relationship with her father in an extraordinarily public way. And her forthcoming album, Come Home to Mama, continues this deeply personal approach to music, inspired by the six-month period in which she gave birth to her first child and lost her mother — legendary Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle — to cancer. But it's not all doom and gloom. Over the years Wainwright has established herself as a compelling and engaging performer with an extraordinary voice, one that will have you in tears one moment and tapping your feet the next. It won't be an easy night, but it could be an amazing one. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pX-bIr8dr6U
When the New South Wales Government made masks mandatory again indoors just before Christmas, it also served up a big dose of déjà vu. When it advised that the one person per two-square-metres rule would come back into effect in indoor hospitality venues from after Christmas, it did the same. Here's another: banning dancing and singing in hospitality venues, which'll kick in on Saturday, January 8 — and run through until at least Thursday, January 27. At a press conference today, Friday, January 7, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announced that the restrictions were returning in an effort to help stop the state's rising case numbers. "Today we are making some sensible and proportionate changes as we move through this next period as the peak of Omicron comes through," the Premier said. The Footloose-style rules will apply at all hospitality venues — including pubs, bars and nightclubs. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant provided a further explanation regarding the change, advising that "when people are in those environments and dancing, you're actually encountering and bringing together people from very different social networks... When you're actually dancing on a dance floor, when you're energised and singing in a group and moving around, then you're actually risking exposing people that you would normally day-to-day not come into contact with." Dr Chant continued: "so this time, we're really just trying to slow the spread, reduce the introduction to new social networks as a mechanism of slowing the spread to remove that peak [in COVID-19 case numbers]". Those aforementioned mask rules are still in effect, too — and the density limits as well — but no other restrictions are being introduced at present. That said, the NSW Government also advised that while major events can currently continue as planned, there might be changes or postponements on an event-by-event basis if an event or venue is deemed high-risk. Also recommended by the Premier: rethinking social plans to cut down on time with others. "We'll continue to encourage people to minimise mingling with possible," said Perrottet. Also, while vertical consumption — yes, that awkward term — is still permitted at present, "if you're in a hospitality venue, if you can sit down while drinking, please do so," said the Premier. "And with household visitations, please where you can, minimise those household visitations — and as well, when you're having events inside, if you can those events outdoors, we highly recommend it," he continued. NSW reported 38,625 new COVID-19 cases today, Friday, January 7. For more information about the status of COVID-19 and the current restrictions, head over to the NSW Health website. Top image: Ivy, Jordan K Munns.
Championing emerging and established Australian fashion talent since 2009, Fashion Palette will host a group showcase of ten Aussie designers at the Art Galley of NSW on April 4 — and you don't need to be a fashion editor or buyer to attend. Open to the public, the runway show will feature local favourites including Akira and sass & bide, eveningwear and bridal designers Nicola Finetti, Danielle Aridi, Alin Le' Kal and Lena Kasparian, swimwear labels Wild Pony Swimwear and Heaven Swimwear, and up-and-comers Haus of Song, Zerryn and Eliya The Label. Taking the stage at the AGNSW, each label will present its Spring/Summer 2018 collection, marking the only SS18 showing to hit Sydney in 2017. Fashion Palette is renowned for nurturing Aussie talent the world over, with its annual designer showcase at NYFW in September and this year's showcase launch in Dubai. Tickets are available now for the Fashion Palette SS18 Showcase on April 4, 2017 at AGNSW. Get your front row seat here.
When a major arts festival drops its latest program, as Sydney Festival just has for its massive 2023 event, it's easy to start playing the numbers game. The figures are impressive, with the event's second year under Artistic Director Olivia Ansell boasting 748 performances across 54 venues. The lineup also spans more than 100 unique events, 26 of which won't cost attendees a thing. And, there'll be 18 world premieres and 14 Australian exclusives — aka shows that you'll need to travel to Sydney to see if you don't live there, because they won't pop up elsewhere. All of these stats do indeed tell a story, conveying how widely the festival crew has scoured for top-notch shows; how jam-packed the resulting calendar of performances, gigs and exhibitions is; and how busy the 25 days from Thursday, January 5–Sunday, January 29 are going to prove. And, they help express the most important message there is for audiences: if you're looking for not just a culture fix but to bathe in art, theatre, music and all-round exciting festivities for weeks on end all around Sydney at the start of 2023, then you'd best block out your diary now. There's no shortage of highlights in the program, no matter what kind of cultural experience take your fancy. Here's perhaps the most surprising one: turning Sydney Town Hall into a beach courtesy of 26 tonnes of sand. No, you won't be able to swim there — but you can watch Lithuanian opera Sun & Sea, which won the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion in 2019, stage its sandy work in the round. The end result explores the climate emergency, is certain to make for a memorable show, and is one of Sydney Festival's Australian exclusives. Also unlikely to be forgotten quickly: the Australian premiere of Frida Kahlo: Life of an Icon, a multi-sensory art experience dedicated to the iconic Mexican painter. Think: the immersive Vincent van Gogh showcase that's being doing the rounds, or the new Monet one headed to Melbourne, but all about the one and only Kahlo. Hailing from Spanish digital arts company Layers of Reality, alongside the Frida Kahlo Corporation, it'll take over the Cutaway with holography, 360-degree projections and live performances of traditional Mexican music, as well as a virtual-reality system that'll let you step inside the artist's iconic pieces. [caption id="attachment_874188" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacquie Manning[/caption] Other standouts include Bonobo hitting the decks at the Masonic Centre, and turning its banquet hall into a unique dance party; performance piece In Chamber, which literally takes place in a safe in the basement of the Margot Kimpton Hotel; ROOM, the latest surreal theatre piece by James Thiérrée; and Tracker, which sees choreographer-director Daniel Riley combine dance, ceremony and text. Or, there's also 16 days of live music inside the 70s-era underground bar beneath Martin Place's Harry Seidler-designed Commercial Travellers' Association building (yes, the mushroom building). That subterranean space remains unrenovated, so expect The Weary Traveller, as the fest-within-the-fest is called, to serve up a huge blast from the past (plus tunes by Alice Skye, Astral People, Automatic, June Jones, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Lil Silva, Party Dozen, Tom Snowdon, Moktar, Two Birds with Bayand, Coloured Stone, HTRK and Potion). In the same structure, the 28-room hotel itself is being taken over by American artist Kelsey Lu. You'll want to check in for this one, and stay the evening — because In The Lucid: A Dream Portal to Awakening is an eight-hour audio journey. [caption id="attachment_874185" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peter Wallis[/caption] Heartbreak High fans will want to catch Blue, and fans of homegrown theatre as well — it stars and has been written by Thomas Weatherall, and will enjoy its world premiere at Sydney Festival. Or, for something completely different, a Shinjuku-inspired magic bar will pop up at Darling Harbour, transporting you to Tokyo if you haven't already made Japan holiday plans now that the country has reopened its borders. The list goes on, including Bloodlines, an exhibition paying tribute to artists lost to HIV/AIDS; The Party, which'll celebrate Sydney's LGBTQIA+ nightlife and party culture between 1973–2002; and Retrosweat hosting a big 80s pool party that, yes, will involve aqua aerobics. Or, there's flamenco dancer Sara Bara in Alma at the Sydney Opera House; Dead Puppet Society and Legs On The Wall's take on the Trojan war in Holding Achilles; drag brunch show Smashed: The Brunch Party hosted by Victoria Falcone; and Prinnie Stevens singing tunes by superstars like Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Whitney Houston and Beyoncé. Plus, Sydney Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Lunar New Year outdoors at Parramatta Park; Polar Force at Carriageworks explores the extremes of ice and wind by pairing Antarctic field recordings with live industrial percussion; and Restless Dance Theatre's dance piece Guttered is set in a real-life bowling alley. And, Lego lovers can check out a new Brickwrecks exhibition, which recreates shipwrecks with the plastic bricks. Also, ENESS, who was behind the 2022 fest's Airship Orchestra, is back with Cupid's Koi Garden — which'll give Tumbalong Park a six-metre-tall immersive water-play park right in the middle of summer. [caption id="attachment_874184" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sam Roberts Photography[/caption] Sydney Festival 2023 runs from Thursday, January 5–Sunday, January 29 at venues across the city. For further details and to buy tickets, visit the Sydney Festival website. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Wednesday, October 19. Top image: Andrej Vasilenko.
The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) has some pretty notable alumni. Among the famous names who have kicked off their careers following a stint at Australia's oldest and largest youth theatre company are Nicole Kidman, Toni Collette and Aden Young. So the risk of walking away from one of its dynamic stage performances without having your mind blown is slim-to-none. You can find out for yourself by nabbing tickets to its latest performance, Past the Shallows. Scheduled for a four-week stint at Walsh Bay's beautiful harbourside playhouse — The Rebel Theatre — between Wednesday, October 12 and Wednesday, November 9, it is a run that promises to be both brief and brilliant. A poetic and poignant stage adaptation of the award-winning Favel Parrett novel by the same name, Past the Shallows follows the heartfelt yet often harrowing dynamics between three Tasmanian brothers and their alcoholic father. Equal parts confronting and compelling, this lyrical production is a story of uncovered family secrets, unbreakable brotherly bonds and unlikely friendships. And packs a powerful emotional punch that is sure to stay with you long after the lights come up. Performances of Past the Shallows run from Wednesday to Sunday. For more information and to snap up a seat, head to the ATYP website.
Alt-rockers Beach Slang and Spring King are travelling our way from either side of the Atlantic for this punk-rock, post-punk, double bill, Splendour sideshow Beach Slang, who hail from Philadelphia, smashed through ten high-powered shows at this year's SXSW, off the back of launching full-length album The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us. This will be their Australian debut, so let's show 'em a good time. Meanwhile, Spring King, from Manchester, caught the attention of Zane Lowe with 2014 single 'City'. Their debut album, Tell Me If You Like To, came out in June. There's more Splendour sideshow action where this came from. Check out our list of sideshows with tickets still available.
With a little over a week to go before Tropfest turns 25, festival organisers have announced another big change. As well as moving out to Parramatta Park, the world's biggest short film festival is now putting the best seats in the house up for sale. For $49, the new Pick Your Patch option allows attendees to pre-book a strip of grass and a chair at the otherwise free event. Exorbitant? Perhaps. But Tropfest promises these premium sections are elevated to provide an excellent view of the screen. Pick Your Patch ticketholders are also granted exclusive access to certain bars and the opportunity to purchase gourmet hampers or merchandise. So how does this affect those who aren't willing to fork out for a patch of grass in a public park? Really not at all. Sure, there'll be more grumbling at the gates about how some animals are more equal than others — but for anyone who's ever donated a few dollars to their favourite podcast or blog, the logic should be clear. In 2015, Tropfest was pulled back from the financial brink after a series of management shenanigans left it with a funding deficit of several hundred thousand dollars. Since that time, organisers have been looking for a more sustainable business model which has included changing venues and appointing a new board. As far as making sure that the festival survives to foster up-and-coming film talent, surrendering a few hundred front-row seats to Louis XVI and his court doesn't seem that steep a price. Plus, it's a chance for some to support an event that's given more than a couple of Australian filmmakers and actors a leg-up in the past. Tropfest 2017 will take place on Saturday, February 11 at Parramatta Park. For more info, visit tropfest.org.au. Image: Attila Szilvasi/Tropfest.
2020 has been a devastating year to cap off a tough decade for arts and entertainment in Australia. The global pandemic that has decimated the industry comes after years of overbearing lockout laws and strict licensing regimes for festivals in NSW. Now, as the industry begins to emerge from the rubble, it's getting some much-needed support from the Federal Government. The Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund is a government initiative that will invest $75 million into supporting the arts and entertainment sector across the next 12 months. One recipient of the funding is Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival organiser Secret Sounds, who has received funding to put towards launching a new festival in 2021. Secret Sounds Group Co-CEO Jessica Ducrou didn't give much away about the new venture, telling Concrete Playground, "Secret Sounds is thrilled to receive financial support and recognition for an exciting innovative project we look forward to launching in 2021." The new festival will sit alongside the 2021 edition of Splendour in the Grass, which is currently planned for July with headliners Gorillaz, The Strokes and Tyler, the Creator pending mass gathering and border restrictions. The festival was postponed to 2021 in June due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal Minister for the Arts Paul Fletcher announced the Victorian recipients of RISE grants on Monday, November 23. Among the Victorian recipients are the Melbourne Theatre Company, which received just over a million for three new Australian works, as well as the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne Fringe and Grande Experiences who recently worked on Sydney's Van Gogh Alive. [caption id="attachment_636254" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bec Taylor[/caption] The full list of recipients is expected next month, but according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald, 28 NSW organisations will receive funding. Some of those include Byron Bay's Bluesfest, which is forging ahead with its Easter long weekend event for 2021, the Darlinghurst Theatre Company and the Australian Theatre for Young People. A new Secret Sounds-run festival will be a welcome addition to 2021 after a year void of major events and music festivals. Summer festival announcements have begun to roll, however, following the easing of gathering restrictions across the country in recent months. So far This That, Untitled Day Party, the newly funded Byron Bay Bluesfest and Yours & Owls have all announced 2021 dates with all-Australian lineups. A full list of recipients of the RISE grant will be announced mid-December. You can stay up to date at arts.gov.au. Top image: Justin Ma
We've all heard of art provenance, but what about food provenance? Beerenberg, a family farm, believes that it is just as important that we know where our food comes from and that it's locally sourced. Their exhibition, The Honesty Box, is at the intersection of food and art. It's a tribute to farmers across the country, featuring photographs of 12 Australian farms that provide fresh produce. The farms involved range from a Brisbane camel dairy to a sugarcane farm in northern NSW. The Honesty Box exhibition goes on display at a very appropriate home, The Atrium in The Grounds of Alexandria.
A year after Queensland finally introduced a container refund scheme, and 16 months after scrapping disposable plastic bags, the Sunshine State is set to ramp up its war on waste once again. As part of the just-released Plastic Pollution Reduction Plan, the government is proposing a ban on single-use plastics — and while it's just an idea at this stage, legislation could be introduced as early as next year. In the crosshairs are plastic straws, cutlery, plates and stirrers, with the Qld Government also committing to investigate banning coffee cups, plastic cups and heavy-weight plastic shopping bags as well. Crucial to the plan is the existence of already-available alternatives — whether they're reusable, in the case of cutlery and plates, or 100-percent compostable, as seen with paper straws and stirrers. Before anything official is put in place, the state will undertake consultation with the community and various stakeholders, including people with disability. For the latter group, some alternative products to plastic — such as bamboo, paper and metal straws — aren't always a viable option. From 2020, the Qld Government will start by banning the products from their own events; however an exact timeline from there hasn't been revealed. Also on the state's agenda: developing facilities to process and repurpose plastic, mandating the use of recycled plastics, and expanding the Plastic Free Places program, which works with retailers, events and markets at the community level to wipe out single-use water bottles, straws, coffee cups and lids, takeaway containers, food ware (such as cutlery, plates and cups) and bags. In Noosa, more than 200 businesses have signed up to the scheme. While Qld's powers-that-be are calling their proposal an Australian first, they're not the only authority figures looking to tackle the growing waste problem. Similar laws are being drafted in South Australia, Hobart is progressing down the same track and, as a nation, Australia is working towards banning all non-recyclable packaging by 2025. That's on top of plenty of smaller-scale initiatives, not only including bag bans and container schemes, but the phasing out of single-use plastics in various guises at the company level, with McDonald's, IKEA, Coca-Cola Amatil and Qantas among those making steps in the plastic-free direction. You can read more about the Queensland Government's Plastic Reduction Plan over here.
After nearly a decade of Westerosi power struggles, obsessed fans and soaring ratings, HBO now finds itself with a Game of Thrones-sized gap to fill. The network isn't completely saying goodbye to the world created by George RR Martin, with at least two spinoffs in the works, and possibly more to come. But it's also looking for its next big hit. Bleak superhero saga Watchmen is one of the network's options, thanks to a television adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel that's headed to screens this month. His Dark Materials is another, as based on Philip Pullman's award-winning young adult trilogy of books of the same name. And if the latter sounds familiar, that's because — like Watchmen — one of the tomes has already been turned into a movie. Twelve years after the incredibly family-oriented The Golden Compass made its way to cinemas, it's now heading to TV alongside sequels The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. HBO is keeping things simple by sticking with the franchise name, other than individual book monikers. Also, they're betting on star power. As the first teaser demonstrated a few months back, the series boasts a hefty cast, spanning James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Wire's Clarke Peters and Logan's Dafne Keen. Still on the big-name front, Academy Award-winning The King's Speech director Tom Hooper also helms the first two episodes (which, unlike his next big movie Cats, probably won't feature big-name actors and singers shrunk down to feline size). Amidst all of the above well-known folks, Keen leads the charge, playing an orphan by the name of Lyra Belacqua. She seems just like everyone else, but hails from an alternate universe — one where a person's soul manifests as a shape-shifting animal called a daemon. As she looks for a kidnapped friend in the Arctic, Lyra discovers a church-run stolen children ring, learns about mysterious particles known as Dust and ventures through different worlds, including the one we all know. McAvoy pops up as a powerful aristocrat, Wilson is his ex, and Miranda plays a balloonist and adventurer. If you're already eager, the eight-episode first season will drop in November — and there's more to come. Instigated by and co-produced with the BBC, the show has already been renewed for a second season before it even airs. Check out the full trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APduGe1eLVI His Dark Materials launches on November 5, Australian and New Zealand time — with the series airing weekly from that date on Foxtel in Australia. Images: HBO.
The tournament turns six this year and is set up to be better than ever. It goes down on February 22 at the newly resurfaced Bat and Ball Park in Moore Park and kicks off at 9.30am for a day of community and family fun. Hosted by the Sydney Rangers FC, Sydney’s first football club for gay men, and the Flying Bats FC, the world’s largest lesbian football club, the event will have qualified referees, a men's and ladies' tournament, a field set up for the kids and a good ol’ BBQ. The tournament forms part of the slew of sporting events teed up for this year’s Mardi Gras Sports Festival, including the Rainbow Run in Sydney Park on February 8, and the City Hoops 3 on 3 basketball tournament at Prince Alfred Park on February 9. Want more Mardi Gras events? Check out our top ten picks of the festival.
In a reverse manifestation of 'Big Yellow Taxi', one cement-filled corner of the city is about to get a very green makeover. A 2000-square-metre rooftop car park is set to be transformed into a lush public urban farm and cafe. Located atop a ten-storey parking lot on the city side of the Yarra across from the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Melbourne Skyfarm project is the brainchild of urban farming company Biofilta, along with The Sustainable Landscape Company and local protection group Odonata. It's being built with the help of a $300,000 grant from the City of Melbourne Urban Forest Fund, as well as support from the MCEC. An inner-city oasis inspired by the likes of New York's famed Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, the groundbreaking green space will boast a working farm and orchard, a beekeeping set-up, an educational centre, and a 90-seat licensed terrace cafe and events space serving the fruits of the farm. When it opens in 2020, visitors will be able to get a close-up glimpse with regular guided tours, take expert-led workshops on a swag of nature-focused topics, or simply kick back with an after-work tipple while soaking up the view. The farm itself will run on one of Biofilta's state-of-the-art, water-efficient systems, creating an expected haul of over five tonnes of fresh produce each year. Much of that will be given to local food charities, while a portion will be showcased — along with native ingredients and Victorian food and wine — throughout the menu at the on-site cafe. A design hub and high-tech education centre will focus on creating sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by our natural world, exploring concepts like zero waste living, renewable energy, and urban biodiversity. The farm will be located in the $450 million Seafarers Place precinct that's currently going up on the north side of the Yarra, just south of Clarendon Street near Wurundjeri Way. The project, led by developers Riverlee, will restore the wharf and historic Shed 5 site and turn it into apartments and and Australia's first 1 Hotel. Melbourne Skyfarm is currently undergoing City of Melbourne planning approvals, but it's expected to be up and running by late 2020. If it sounds familiar, that might be because a similar project is currently underway at the new Burwood Brickworks, which is set to open later this year. A smaller urban farm led by Pastuso chef-owner Alejandro Saravia will also be featured atop the new 80 Collins development. Melbourne Skyfarm will open at the Seafarers Place site sometime in 2020. We'll keep you updated on any further developments.
Visitors to the Sydney Opera House might soon be able to stay the night, under a bold new plan being considered by NSW state authorities. According to The Guardian, the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment is currently mulling over a proposal that would see certain sections of the Opera House — including the Utzon Room, the Board Room, the Joan Sutherland Theatre and the Concert Hall — temporarily transformed into luxury accommodation on a small number of nights throughout the year. Under the proposal put forward by the Sydney Opera House Trust last year, the Opera House could be utilised for "two types of experiential events". The first would offer "up to two nights' accommodation for a maximum of five guests, offered five times per year". The second would offer "up to two nights' accommodation for a maximum of 100 guests, offered on a single occasion per year". According to the proposal, the activation would "provide a unique opportunity for the community to experience the iconic Sydney Opera House in new and innovative ways", while allowing corporate partners to "promote their support of the Sydney Opera House". The idea sounds cool in theory, but has caused some controversy, particularly in relation to the Opera House's corporate partnership with Airbnb. In a submission to NSW Planning, a former Opera House employee called the plan "bold and brazen marketing" and described the partnership with Airbnb "evil genius". Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the Opera House said that they did not intend to charge visitors for an overnight stay, but would instead utilise the accommodation for "ballots, visitor experiences, competition prizes or promotional activities". It doesn't sound too dissimilar to the types of competitions that accommodation sites Airbnb and HomeAway have run overseas, which have included overnight stays. It doesn't sound too dissimilar to the types of competitions that accommodation sites Airbnb and HomeAway have run overseas, which have included overnight stays in the Eiffel Tower, the catacombs in Paris and Dracula's Castle. And while it could prove a handy option if the Opera House decides to run its all-night Bingefest this year, we'll wait and see if the proposal gets the final sign-off. Via The Guardian. Image: Frances Gunn.
It's that time of year, somehow. Christmas is fast approaching, winter has well and truly fallen by the wayside, and you're probably thinking about your summer shenanigans. While jetting overseas still isn't an option for Australians at the moment, you can make plans to roam around much of this country we all come home now that borders are reopening — and, if you'd like to head up to the Northern Territory, its government wants to give you an extra incentive. As part of the NT Summer Sale campaign — which launched at the beginning of October — the NT Government and its tourism body are offering discounts on trips to Australia's red centre and top end. To all of the Northern Territory, actually. For each $1000 you spend up to $5000, you'll receive a $200 discount. It maxes out at $1000 off, but that's still 20-percent off the price. The discounts are available for a number of things too — covering plenty of essential elements of every holiday. You can use them on flights, accommodation, tours and attractions, and vehicle hire. You will need to both book and travel between now and March 31, 2020, however. The other big stipulation: you'll need to book through one of Tourism NT's campaign partners to score the discount. They include retailers such as Holidays of Australia, Helloworld Travel & Viva Holidays, and Flight Centre. [caption id="attachment_785574" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Tourism Australia[/caption] If you've always been meaning to make the trip — and you've had both Uluru and its incredible Field of Light installation on your must-see list for ages — here's a mighty fine excuse to put those dreams into action. Border-wise, the NT currently doesn't require interstate visitors to quarantine unless you've been in a declared hotspot in the 14 days prior to your arrival — which, at the time of writing, only covers a number of Local Government Areas in Victoria. It's best to keep an eye on the NT Government's coronavirus hub, though, for any future changes, For further details about the NT Summer Sale campaign — which is available for travel between now and March 31, 2020 — head to the Tourism NT website. Top image: Field of Light: Bruce Munro. Photo by Mark Pickthall
A fictionalised account of Grace Kelly's marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco, Olivier Dahan's glittery period drama arrives in theatres on a wave of bad publicity. Repeatedly delayed by its American distributor, publically disowned by the Monacan royal family and critically savaged after its opening night premiere at Cannes, the buzz around the film is nothing short of toxic. Yet the reality is that no amount of negative press could prepare you for how awful Grace of Monaco truly is. The film takes place in the early 1960s, five years into a marriage that has lost its fairytale feel. Stifled by the minutiae of her stately duties and neglected by the emotionally distant Rainier (Tim Roth), glamorous Grace (Nicole Kidman) yearns to return to Hollywood. Instead, she finds herself a pawn in a trade dispute with Monaco's French neighbours — one that threatens to erupt into the world's most one-sided war. Blending the tepid romanticism of a made-for-TV biopic with the most tedious political drama this side of The Phantom Menace, Arash Amel's screenplay is suffocatingly dull. The dialogue, when it's not dropping lead bricks of exposition, consists mostly of groan-inducing Hallmark quotations. There are a few unintentional comedic gems, thank God, but for the overwhelming majority it's just flat-out embarrassing. Equally weak are the attempts to connect Kelly's weepy personal crisis with the fate of Monaco at large. The entire second half of the film hinges on our heroine learning proper princess etiquette — via Miss Congeniality-style training montage — in the hopes that she can soften mean old Charles de Gaulle's heart. Of course, considering that the conflict basically boils down to whether or not Monaco gets to keep operating as a tax-free haven for wealthy Frenchmen, it's difficult to see why anyone should care. Dahan's direction is as ghastly as Amel's script, with sickly golden lighting and eye-watering soft focus making the film look like something between a daytime soap and a handbag commercial. His most baffling decision, however, is the one that led him to shoot key scenes of emotional dialogue in extreme close-up. As the frame roams aimlessly from Kidman's chin to her eyeball to her earlobe as she talks, the overwhelming impression (aside from a mild feeling of motion sickness) is that the guy operating the camera is every bit as bored as we are. It's a bit of a shame really. Kidman's performance is perfectly adequate, making it far and away the movie's greatest asset. She's certainly better than the wooden, chain-smoking Roth, who sports an unconvincing British accent as the decidedly not British Rainier. None of the film's normally respectable side players — including Frank Langella as Kelly's clerical confidant, Parker Posey as a hatchet-faced matron and Roger Ashton-Griffiths as a cuddly Alfred Hitchcock — fare much better. For a story about a woman called Grace, there are few films in recent memory as lacking in the virtue of the same name. Avoid this movie like the plague. https://youtube.com/watch?v=bFYmYWa348c
With interstate borders now almost all reopened, it's not like you need much of an excuse to get out of town and scratch that travel itch. But if you've got your newly broadened sights set on the Mornington Peninsula, you will find a pretty strong reason to lock in a visit to the renowned Pt Leo Estate. The property's ever-evolving sculpture park has just scored a very high-profile new addition: a 5.5-metre-tall work by acclaimed New York artist KAWS. Not too long after the much-hyped KAWS: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness exhibition wrapped up at the NGV earlier this year, KAWS has unveiled a new bronze-cast figure gracing the manicured grounds of Pt Leo Estate. Titled SHARE 2020, the artwork features a towering figure imagined in the Brooklyn-based artist's distinctive style, though this time he's used a muted colour palette of grey and brown that's contrasted by the backdrop of verdant lawn and blue ocean. The main figure holds a smaller, bright blue character or BFF, dangling by one hand. [caption id="attachment_641337" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pt Leo Estate by Anson Smart[/caption] Making its home in the foyer, overseeing the route to the cellar door, is a second new acquisition for the estate, titled Shrive II. This one's a new piece by Turner Prize-winning UK sculptor Antony Gormley, whose renowned works pull inspiration from the human form. Of course, there's plenty more to keep you busy on a visit to this 134-hectare estate, including the Pt Leo Estate Restaurant, the cellar door and wine shop, and the full sculpture park. The site's Wine Terrace and fine diner Laura currently remain closed, but are expected to reopen their doors soon. Find Pt Leo Estate and its new sculpture works at 3649 Frankston-Flinders Road, Merricks.
Winter might be all about staying in doors, rugging up and avoiding the frosty weather, but if you want to see a pair of meteor showers at their peak this week, you'll want to head outdoors. Not one but two celestial events will be visible in Australia's skies to end July 2024: the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids. Arriving in the thick of winter, the Southern Delta Aquariids may not be quite as famous or frenetic as other meteor showers, but it's still considered a strong one, with around 15–25 meteors hurtling across the heavens per hour during its peak. In good news for those Down Under, it's also typically best seen in the Southern Hemisphere. [caption id="attachment_727210" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mike Lewinski via Flickr.[/caption] Caused by the breakup of the Machholz comet, the Southern Delta Aquariids is visible each year from around July 12–August 23 — so now. But the ideal time to catch it is between July 28–July 30, aka until Tuesday this week. And, like many astronomical shows, catching an eyeful around midnight is recommended — when the moon has set and its light will not interfere. Also soaring through the skies at the moment: the Alpha Capricornids, which tends to run from around July 7–August 15. Yes, that means that you can peer up at night and catch a glimpse now, too, but it tends to peak around July 30–31 — so Tuesday and Wednesday this week. This one comes from the comet 169P/NEAT, and was discovered in 1871. It's known for its bright meteors and even fireballs, although they're infrequent, at around two-to-nine per hour. For your best chances of getting a glimpse at both, the usual advice applies. Get as far away from bright lights as possible — this could be a good excuse to head out of the city to a clear-skied camping spot — and pray for no clouds. The Delta Aquariids' name comes from Aquarius, the constellation from which they appear to come. Accordingly, that's what you'll be looking for in the sky. For the Alpha Capricornids, you're looking for the Capricornus constellation. To locate them all, we recommend downloading the Sky Map app — it's the easiest way to navigate the night sky, and is also a lot of fun to use even on a non-meteor shower night. The Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids meteor showers will peak between Tuesday, July 30–Sunday, July 31, 2024. Top image: Mike Lewinski via Flickr.
I love a versatile breakfast — one that can overflow into brunch or snuggle you in with a night-capping brinner. But have you heard of this recent brinnervation? Vibewire Youth Inc in conjunction with the Powerhouse Museum have poached five sharp, young industry leaders from their corporate and non-profit organisations to share ideas around the humble breakfast table, with a menu bursting with ideas and innovations. The inter-disciplinary buffet hopes to attract entrepreneurs from all areas, including science, technology, education, media and the arts. Passing the milk at August's table will be photographer Carlo Ambrosio T. Lina, social activist Justin Koonin, Project Australia founder Donnie Maclurcan, Vibewire director Annie Le Cavalier and writer Catriona Menzies-Pike. Given the topic 'Failure', these idea-creators will toast you to the tune of commercialisation, collaboration, connections and conversation. If you miss out, mark down the next fastBREAK in your calendar: they're on the last Friday of each month.
Following four sell-out events across Sydney and Melbourne, which featured MasterChef Australia champ Adam Liaw, Adelaide's Africola chef Duncan Welgemoed, dumpling master from Lotus Dining Group Chris Yan and Melbourne's very own Paul Turner behind Chapel Street's Lover, Red Rock Deli is putting together its final secret supper. And, this time it's bringing one of Melbourne's most renowned chefs to host an exclusive dinner for some very lucky Melburnians. Giorgio Distefano, the chef behind Cremorne's celebrated Ms. Frankie, is hosting the next mouth-watering feast, which will is inspired by Red Rock Deli's new Chilli, Roast Garlic and Lemon Oil Deluxe Crisp flavour. All the details are very much under-wraps, including what he'll be cooking up. But, despite everything being very hush-hush, here's what we can reveal: Distefano will be cooking up a storm on Thursday, October 17 and his dinner will feature plenty of chilli, garlic and lemon. Plus, the theme for the event is 'Sensorial Savoury' — so expect a menu packed full of flavour. Even better? You'll be treated to matching wines throughout the feast, too. We can also tell you that this experience will involve more than just the dishes — after arriving at the collection point in Melbourne's CBD, you'll be whisked away to a mystery location where you can expect everything from the decor to the food to elevate your senses — although the menu will remain a secret until you arrive. There are two sessions of this lavish dinner, with room for just 20 guests at each. Tickets to Giorgio Distefano's secret supper cost $110 per person. Enter the ballot below to be given the chance to purchase tickets. The lucky winners will receive a secret link to buy tickets to the evening on Monday, October 7. Please note, the Secret Supper menu will not cater to ANY dietary requirements or allergies. There are strictly no changes to the menu. [competition]741921[/competition] Image: Parker Blain.
When social distancing became our new way of life, the good folk at Audible released a stack of audiobooks for free, all to help keep everyone entertained while we were spending more time (read: all our time) at home and indoors. Now that things are slowly starting to return to normal, summer is on the horizon and prime road trip season is upon us, the online retailer is doing the same — so you have something ace to listen to while you're heading away for a getaway. The free audiobooks are on offer in collaboration with the tourism-focused initiative Empty Esky, which aims to support small businesses, including those affected by the Australian bushfires. So, the idea is that you'll hop behind the wheel, mosey out beyond the city limits, see the country, and patronise local retailers and hospitality venues — and that you'll listen to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Hess along the way. Almost 60 hours of audiobooks are available for free, and they all tie into seven set itineraries, covering Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania, and both New South Wales' south coast and northern regions. Follow your chosen route, keep an eye out for Audible posters at participating small businesses, and download a free audiobook at each stop. You'll need to follow the whole process, because you'll have to scan the QR code on the poster at each place to get access to the relevant text. If you knew you wanted to hit the road this summer, but you weren't sure where to venture to, Audible and Empty Esky have basically taken care of that decision for you. The itineraries also include Audible podcasts, if you're in the mood for something other than literature. Among both the books and podcasts, you'll also find JM Barrie's Peter Pan, the Beatrix Potter Collection and Jojo Moyes' Me Before You — as well as Heist with Michael Caine, Australia's Funniest Stand-Up, and Nakkiah Lui and Miranda Tapsell's Debutante: Race, Resistance and Girl Power. They'll all stream on your phone, tablet or laptop, although you will need to either sign into your existing Audible account or create a new one to start listening. To check out the Empty Esky itineraries — and the Audible books available — head to the Empty Esky website.
Hailing from Western Australia, Pond will perform in Sydney from their newly released Beard Wives Denim album. The trio — Joseph Ryan, Nick Allbrook and Jay Watson — have recorded three previous albums and held shows around Australia and Japan. They have supported MGMT and performed at the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival. Now it is time for their label debut; Beard Wives Denim was released on Modular this past March. Recorded at a friend's farmhouse and mixed by Tame Impala (Kevin Parker), the album is best described as psychedelic rock, with elements of '70s funk and glam styles. Make sure to check it out before the band heads off on their American tour.
It's Friday afternoon, the weekend's beckoning and there are probably a few drinks happening somewhere in your immediate future. But they'll taste a whole lot better if someone else is shouting, right? Well, you can forget about your budget and start geeing up your work crew for knock-off time, because whiskey brand Jameson is giving away the country's biggest round of drinks. Kicking off today, Friday, September 13, Australia's Biggest Round will see the label doling out 10,000 free drinks, available at 20 different Merivale across the city. To snag yours, sign up online and then head into the likes of northern beaches hot-spot The Newport, Marrickville haunt Vic On The Park, Establishment and Bondi's The Royal, and the bar will sort you out with a free Jameson Dry and Lime. The whiskey-filled celebrations will continue at Jameson's one-day mini-festival, taking over the Vic On The Park on Saturday, October 19. There'll be a local music lineup — with acts to be announced soon — as well as market stalls, whiskey tastings and food pop-ups, with a portion of the day's bar profits heading to charity. We have an inkling these free drinks won't last long — sign-ups have only just opened and, at time of publishing, over 100 people have already claimed their free drink. Here's where you can score yours: Angel Hotel, CBD The Beresford, Surry Hills Coogee Pavilion, Coogee Establishment Bar & Garden, CBD Hotel CBD, CBD Palings, CBD Ivy Pool Club, CBD Queens Hotel, Enmore Tank Stream Bar, CBD Tennyson Hotel, Mascot The Collaroy, Collaroy The Grand & 30 Knots, CBD The Newport, Newport The Paddington, Paddington The Royal, Bondi The Royal George, CBD The Smelly Goat, Enmore The Vic on the Park, Marrickville Wynyard Hotel, CBD York 75, CBD Jameson's 10,000 free dry and limes are available from today, Friday, September 13, until sold out. To register for yours, head to the website. Top image: Coogee Pavilion
Anarchic. Chaotic. Creative. Everything a sixties TV rockband was claimed to be, Os Mutantes was in real life. Kurt Cobain had tried to reunite Os Mutantes to support Nirvana in 1993, and they were Beck before Beck was. Playing the Enmore on Wednesday night, the Tropicália group had formed before Brazil's twenty-five year military rule from 1964, and as their patrons in the television network were slowly arrested the group kept broadcasting on TV. They were bizarre and they were subversive. Opponents collected signatures to keep them off TV, with their electric guitars and weirdness. And although they claim their show wasn't meant to be anything except a vehicle for crazy ideas, they made people think about standing out in a political system that was said to have offered you room only to vote "Yes" or "Yes, Sir!" In 2006 they reformed, after breaking up in the seventies — drifting into obscurity through a combination of drugs, divorce and arguments over the best brand of guitar. Touring since their reunion, they've enjoyed an international recognition that they never really achieved during their original success. Supported by Best Coast and Richard in Your Mind, check them out to see if the weird they promise is the weird they deliver.
Every two years, the Biennale brightens up Sydney with artworks that become beautiful, quirky parts of the landscape for a few months before disappearing as suddenly as they came. But this year is going to be a little different. The City of Sydney Council has decided for the next three exhibitions, they will commit up to $300,000 to fund a "legacy artwork" — an artwork that stays permanent at the end of the Biennale and becomes part of the City Art collection. This year, the first ever legacy artwork will be City of Forking Paths, a site-specific interactive work in the form of a smartphone app. Users can download the app (or borrow a mobile device) for free and wander around The Rocks at dusk, taking in various fictional scenarios and incidents that tie in with this year's theme, 'You Imagine What You Desire'. Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, the artists behind City of Forking Paths, are no strangers to Sydney audiences. In 2008, they created sound installation The Murder of Crows for Pier 2/3 at Walsh Bay. They've also created similar interactive walks in New York, Pittsburgh, Sao Paulo, Rome, London and Berlin. According to artistic director Juliana Engberg, commissioning Cardiff and Miller was a very deliberate choice. "I wanted to acknowledge artists who have already made an impact upon the hearts and minds of the Biennale audience," she said. "This video walk will become, I’m sure, a must-do encounter for the people of, and visitors to, Sydney." The app will be available for download from May 1 as part of the Biennale's Middle Program.
Grab your beach chair and binoculars — it's time for Australia's biggest surfing festival. This year marks Surfest's 33rd birthday and will see 11 different surfing events take place across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens. While the events are spectator-only (unless you're lucky enough to have already qualified for the comp) you'll definitely be inspired to get your board out of storage and catch some early-morning waves. If you fancy yourself as the next Steph Gilmore, there's the Grandstand Women's Pro, and for the budding Mick Fannings out there, it's the Burton Automotive Pro. Let's not forget the little grommets, either — watch the under-18s take part in the nib Pro Junior where there's a cool $10,000 on the line for the winner. If you love to catch waves and enjoy the atmosphere of a team sport, get around the ORICA Team Challenge or the High School Team Challenge if your time in the green room still revolves around the school bell. And if you'd rather haggle than hang ten, check out the 3 Peas Markets which will take place at Stockton Beach and Merewether Beach. And of course, there's the option of pulling up some sand, getting your shakas out and watching it all go down.
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art's new exhibition takes the tropes, motifs and ideologies that you're probably familiar with from works in the fantasy genre and twists them into a complex — and at times uneasy — exploration of "unhinged otherness". A joint show by Hong Kong-born, Sydney-based illustrator Gerald Leung and Chinese Australian multi-disciplinary artist Louise Zhang, Dark Fantasy celebrates the artists' personal journeys of identity. Leung and Zhang have used cyberpunk imagery, visceral body horror and their own experiences of otherness to offer insight into the creation of fantastical worlds as a process for establishing a sense of identity. The exhibition is running alongside 4A A4, the gallery's anonymous fundraiser exhibition which is returning for the first time in five years. Maybe you'll be inspired to stamp a representation of your identity on your walls and take home some new art. Dark Fantasy opens on Friday, October 4 with an event from 6–8pm. It's only open for the weekend, so you'll need to jump on this quickly. Image: Louise Zhang, The Pure Land (2018), courtesy the artist and Arterial Gallery, Sydney.
A man struts into a diner and asks "who've I gotta kill to get a coffee?". When a woman hears the doorbell ring, she instantly grabs her gun, baseball bat and taser. The series that'll include both? Fargo, the anthology TV show inspired by the big-screen Coen brothers masterpiece, which is returning for its fifth season in November. 2023 marks almost a decade since writer, director and producer Noah Hawley leapt from Bones, The Unusuals and My Generation to diving back into crime in often-frosty American places — and always with a strong streak of black comedy pumping through its veins. The first two seasons arrived back to back in 2014 and 2015, with season three then following in 2017 and season four in 2020. Now, after another three-year gap, the show returns with a whole new story and cast, but still set in the same world as the Fargo movie. Oh you betcha there's accents, crime capers, dedicated cops, and people doing dark deeds for selfish reasons and then getting karmic comeuppance. When it arrives in Australia via SBS On Demand on Wednesday, November 22, Fargo's fifth season will do so with a stacked lineup of talent, too: Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), Jon Hamm (Good Omens), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Hunters) and Joe Keery (Stranger Things) all included, plus David Rysdahl (Oppenheimer), Lamorne Morris (Woke), Richa Moorjani (Never Have I Ever), Sam Spruell (The Gold) and Dave Foley (The Kids in the Hall) as well. Like season one, two and the movie, this season spends its time in Minnesota and North Dakota. The year: 2019. Dorothy 'Dot' Lyon (Temple) is the otherwise-ordinary person falling afoul of the law — so, when she grabs those weapons in one of the show's sneak peeks, she's clearly not an average Midwestern housewife — while Roy Tillman (Hamm) is the North Dakota Sheriff (and preacher) on her trail. In a case of spectacular casting, Keery will put his famous hair to good use as Tillman's son Gator, in a franchise that also loves unpacking the ties of blood that bind and cause chaos. Spruell plays a drifter who is enlisted to help on the search for Dot, while Rysdahl is her husband Wayne. Leigh hops on board as his mother, aka the 'Queen of Debt' thanks to being a debt collection company CEO, and Foley plays her in-house counsel. Among the cops, there's Moorjani as a deputy from Minnesota and Morris as a North Dakota counterpart. Everyone on-screen joins a saga that's seen Billy Bob Thornton (The Gray Man), Allison Tolman (Gaslit), Martin Freeman (Breeders), Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog), Patrick Wilson (Insidious: The Red Door), Jesse Plemons (Love and Death), Jean Smart (Hacks), Ewan McGregor (Raymond & Ray), Carrie Coon (Boston Strangler), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Ahsoka), Chris Rock (Amsterdam), Jessie Buckley (Women Talking) and Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City) all feature in past seasons. Off-screen, Hawley is back as showrunner, writer and director, guiding a series that started with the hard task of living up to the masterpiece of a movie and hasn't struggled so far. Check out the teaser trailers for Fargo season five below: Fargo season five will start streaming via SBS On Demand on Wednesday, November 22. Images: Michelle Faye/FX.
Ride-sharing isn't just about hopping in someone's car, getting a lift and avoiding a taxi queue. Over the past few years, scooter and electronic bicycle services have been popping up on Australia's streets, with companies such as Lime, oBike, Uber and Neuron Mobility bringing their fleets — usually in bright colours — to the nation's cities. In Sydney, Beam is the latest outfit to join the fold, courtesy of 50 purple-hued Apollo e-bikes that are now available to hire around Bondi. That number will grow in the coming weeks, topping out at 250, with bikes placed at parking around the Waverley area as well. Beam's launch is timed to coincide with Sydney's continued easing of COVID-19 restrictions, as well as the springtime weather — but if you're wondering what makes it different from the others, that's understandable. While e-bike services are typically dockless, meaning that you can finish your ride wherever you like and just leave your bike there, Beam offers designated parking spots. It calls the scheme 'virtual docking', with customers parking the bikes in predetermined places located by using the company's app. The aim is to solve a familiar problem. As anyone who has stumbled across a scooter or e-bike in an inconvenient location knows, these modes of transport can be left everywhere from roadways to the middle of footpaths. Indeed, back in 2018, the Waverley Council — which covers Bondi, Bronte, Vaucluse, Dover Heights, Bondi Junction, Waverley and parts of Rose Bay — started impounding dockless bikes dumped around the area. In the same year, the City of Sydney created bike sharing bays to help tackle the same issue. Beam users don't have to park the services bikes in its allocated spaces, though. It's encouraged, and parking in a designated spot is free, but you can choose to leave your ride somewhere else and pay a $4 fee. That doesn't seem like the biggest incentive to get people to do the right thing; however, it's better than nothing. When it comes to that other item that's often spotted in weird and awkward places, aka bike helmets, Beam is using bluetooth to lock them down. And, to deal with errant bikes and helmets, it has a team of rangers who are tasked with collecting them. Beam already operates scooters in Adelaide, in Bunbury in Western Australia, and in New Zealand, South Korea and Malaysia as well — but its Apollo e-bikes are making their worldwide debut in Sydney. If you're keen to hit the road, Beam isn't currently charging users to unlock its bikes, but you will pay 29 cents for every minute you're riding. That's part of the company's introductory special, which runs until Sunday, October 18. And for those wondering about the realities of hygiene and e-bike hire in this COVID-19 world, Beam advises that its bikes and helmets are coated with a long-lasting but non-toxic anti-microbial treatment — and regularly sanitised with disinfectant as well. Beam's Apollo e-bikes are now popping up around the Waverley Council area. For more information, head to the company's website.
NAIDOC Week, the annual celebration of the achievements and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, is set to return this month from July 7–14, and Klub Koori is always a highlight of the week. The mini-festival, which will take place on Saturday, July 13, promotes the talents of established and young Indigenous Australians artists to a large and diverse audience while also advocating for a broader appreciation of Indigenous arts and culture. For $15, you can expect a great mix of hard-hitting beats and sultry tones across the night, with things kicking off at 7:30pm. This year's lineup is coming from the artists of Bad Apples Music, created by one half of the A.B Original duo, Adam Briggs. As far as we know for now Briggs himself isn't on the list, but a whole heap of upcoming Indigenous Australian talent is. NT rapper BIRDZ, Nowra-born Yuin man Nooky and award-winning MC Philly are all set to take the stage. Locals, Gamilaroi artist Koibe Dee and R&B singer Rebecca Hatch, will also join the party. Organiser Koori Radio 97.3FM has been on-air since 1993, offering listeners a 'live and deadly' cultural mix of Australian and International Indigenous music interspersed with discussions on news, current affairs and community information. Image: Klub Koori by Daniel Boud.
The big friendly giant of the streaming world has found itself a golden ticket, with Netflix bringing the work of beloved author Roald Dahl to its platform. Viewers can expect to feel like Charlie Bucket walking into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, with a whopping 16 of Dahl's classic books set to get the Netflix treatment. Teaming up with The Roald Dahl Story Company, the outfit is turning everything from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator to Matilda and The Twits into new animated television shows. Oompa Loompas, everlasting gobstoppers and everyone's favourite book-loving schoolgirl with telekinetic abilities will be joined by basically every Dahl novel you read and adored as a kid — including The BFG, Esio Trot, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Henry Sugar, Billy and the Minpins, The Magic Finger, Dirty Beasts and Rhyme Stew. His autobiographical efforts Boy – Tales of Childhood and Going Solo will also hit the service, with one detailing Dahl's youth and the other delving into his journeys to Africa as well as his service in World War II. For many, including the tales about the author himself, it'll be the first time that they've been adapted for the screen. Netflix plans to turn Dahl's stories into event series and specials — so limited-run shows across a number of episodes, plus one-offs. Announcing the news, the company said in a statement that it "intends to remain faithful to the quintessential spirit and tone of Dahl while also building out an imaginative story universe that expands far beyond the pages of the books themselves". In other words, expect the tales you know and love, as well as tales that expand upon those tales. Work will start on the first Dahl animated series in 2019, although just which one it'll be is yet to be revealed. Netflix also hasn't said when the shows will hit the platform, but expect them soon — it's usually pretty speedy when it comes to turning content around. And if you just can't wait, Wes Anderson's delightful stop-motion animation version of Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox is currently streaming on the service.
Sydneysiders and dogs go together like smashed avo and toast, Bondi and backpackers or Circular Quay and unintentional photobombs. While you can now take your pup along with you to some pubs and cafes, other activities are less accommodating. Take yoga, for example. Want to up your practice, but don't want to leave your furry pal at home alone? Cue Hot Dog Yoga. The new Double Bay studio allows well-behaved pooches to relax in the airy reception with Pavlova the Maltese concierge (and maybe try out a few poses of their own) while their human works on their own downward dog. The studio isn't just about welcoming your pups, though. It offers a range of yoga from beginner to expert classes, mellow to power flow, in a heated room (the studio has rain showers, too) and all classes are taught by friendly, experienced teachers. It also has a sleek, Scandi-inspired design complete with light wood, white details and eco-friendly yoga mats. Want to check out the studio but don't have the cash? Fear not. To celebrate the opening of Hot Dog Yoga, we're giving away five, three-week unlimited yoga passes, so you can savasana in peace for 21 days in a row. To enter, see details below. [competition]641487[/competition]
For the third time in the 2020s, Fatboy Slim is heading to Australia to break out 'Right Here, Right Now', 'The Rockafeller Skank', 'Praise You' and plenty more dance-floor fillers. After touring the country in 2020 and 2023, the dance music legend is returning in March 2025 on a five-stop trip, four of which will get him spinning tunes in wineries. Trying to dance like Christopher Walken, pretending you're in Cruel Intentions, being transported back to the late 90s and early 00s: that's all on the agenda again. So is making shapes to DJ Seinfeld, CC:DISCO! and Jennifer Loveless, who'll be supporting the British legend at all five gigs — including at Centennial Vineyards in Bowral on Saturday, March 15. [caption id="attachment_975624" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Selbymay via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Cook has been making music since the 80s, but took on the name Fatboy Slim in the mid-90s, starting with 1996 record Better Living Through Chemistry. His 1998 album You've Come a Long Way, Baby was the club soundtrack to end the 20th century — a staple of every 90s teen's CD collection, too. As for 2000's Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, it gave the world 'Weapon of Choice' and its iconic Walken-starring (and Spike Jonze-directed) video. Fatboy Slim's discography also spans 2004 album Palookaville and 2013 single 'Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat'. [caption id="attachment_897289" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Carlos Luna/ Secretaría de Cultura CDMX via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Top images: neal whitehouse piper via Wikimedia Commons / Carlos Luna/ Secretaría de Cultura CDMX via Wikimedia Commons.
How'd you like to populate your Christmas feast with local, artisanal goods to make your relatives impressed and your in-laws floored? Carriageworks is bringing back its Christmas Market, where you can buy fresh seasonal produce just a couple of days before Christmas. Importantly, you can also buy last-minute gifts ahead of the big day — because we know what you're like. Taking over Carriageworks on the evening of Wednesday, December 22, the market will go full Christmas with a cornucopia of goodies from more than 80 of Australia's best producers, restaurants and designers. Think, homemade puddings, seafood, fresh cherries, award-wining cheeses and more. Expect the best from the weekly Carriageworks Farmers Market and more, including Christmas hams, handcrafted spirits, bottled cocktails and floral bouquets made to complete your Christmas table. Making the night's festivities even more enjoyable will be sustainable South Eveleigh bar Re, which will be serving up Christmas-themed cocktails using repurposed ingredients from Carriageworks' usual farmers market that may have otherwise gone to waste. Last year's market was ticketed in a bid to keep the capacity COVID-safe, however with looser restrictions in place this year, it's returned to a free event format with no registration needed. That said, Carriageworks does have a in-depth COVID-19 safety plan in place for all events which you can read at its website. The Carriageworks Twilight Christmas Market runs from 4–9pm. Images: Jacquie Manning
There's no doubting who Bob Marley: One Love is about, but the Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard)-directed biopic also brings two other big-screen portraits of music superstars to mind. There's always a dance through a legend's history flickering somewhere, or close to it, with the initial dramatised look at the reggae icon arriving after Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis both proved major hits in recent years. Where the first, which focused on Freddie Mercury, had Live Aid, Bob Marley: One Love has the One Love Peace Concert. Both are gigs to build a movie around, and both features have done just that. Baz Luhrmann's portrait of the king of rock 'n' roll wanted its audience to understand what it was like to watch its namesake, be in his presence and feel entranced by every hip thrust — and, obviously without the gyrating pelvis, Bob Marley: One Love also opts for that approach. Enter Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley, in a vital piece of casting. Although it may not earn him an Oscar as Bohemian Rhapsody did Rami Malek (Oppenheimer), or even a nomination as Elvis scored for Austin Butler (Masters of the Air), the British actor turns in a phenomenal performance. He's worlds away from being a Ken in Barbie. He isn't in wholly new territory seeing that he played Malcolm X in One Night in Miami and Barack Obama in TV series The Comey Rule. He's also magnetic and mesmerising — and, in the process, expresses how and why Marley was magnetic and mesmerising. Ben-Adir's vocals are blended with Marley's. Accordingly, you're largely listening to the singer himself. But there's a presence about Ben-Adir in the part, perfecting Jamaican patois, getting kinetic and uninhibited in his movement while he's behind the microphone, radiating charisma, but also conveying purpose and self-possession. It's a portrayal that's as entrancing and alive as the music that's always echoing alongside it; with Marley's discography, that's saying something. Ben-Adir shares the part with Quan-Dajai Henriques, the acting debutant who gives the movie its younger version of Marley. That comes via sporadic flashbacks, which means that Lashana Lynch (The Marvels) also shares her role as Bob's wife and backup singer Rita with Nia Ashi (another feature first-timer) as the teen version. Green and his co-scribes Terence Winter (an Academy Award-nominee for The Wolf of Wall Street), Frank E Flowers (LeBron James biopic Shooting Stars) and Zach Baylin (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story, and returning from King Richard) ground their picture in the elder Marley's life, though — not that, because he died at the age of 36, he could ever truly be deemed elder. The bulk of the feature is set between 1976–78, and between two Kingston concerts. Both were designed to help address Jamaica's political unrest, with two parties clashing and the impact of British colonialism still felt. Not only that peace and freedom were instrumental in Marley's message, but why, is a core element of the film. "Do you believe music can end the violence?" Marley is asked in Bob Marley: One Love's opening, where he's fronting the press days out from 1976's Smile Jamaica show. Green signals one of the movie's fundamental musings at the outset, then, as well as his intent to unpack how his subject aimed to counter not just political but human turmoil through his music and Rastafarian beliefs (his initial embrace of the religion, as well as his early courtship with Rita, fuels most of the film's jumps backwards). Marley is also queried about whether he harbours any fears about putting on the gig. He says no and soon demonstrates it, after an attempt is made on his life at his home studio two days out from the concert. Rita was among the victims shot, and survived. The show goes on, then Marley goes into exile in London, while Rita takes the kids to the US. To get to Bob Marley: One Love's second big Jamaican performance involves charting the defining aspect of Marley's career during that period: 1977 album Exodus. Recorded in the UK, and home to not just its own titular track but the flick's (and also 'Jamming', 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' and 'Three Little Birds'), it's as influential as albums get — and, again, unfurling the trains of thought driving it is one of the feature's motivations. There's few surprises in how Green brings this to the screen, complete with recording sessions, producer Chris Blackwell's (James Norton, Happy Valley) fingerprints and montages of the finished product flying off shelves, plus the rapturous response as it's toured. That there's several established templates in giving a star's story the filmic treatment reverberates through Bob Marley: One Love, in fact, even as it avoids the dutiful birth-to-death timeline. But the movie always has Ben-Adir imparting energy and vibrancy, and Lynch as well — and a determination to make this Rita's tale, stepping into the complications in their marriage, as well as Bob's. Notably unrelated to One Love: The Bob Marley Musical, the stage production about the legend — even if it uses plenty of the same Bob Marley and The Wailers songs, such as 'Get Up, Stand Up', 'War', 'Redemption Song', 'No Woman, No Cry', 'Is This Love' and 'I Shot the Sheriff' — Bob Marley: One Love unavoidably hits familiar beats. Enlivening those predictable moves are its tunes, compelling story and powerhouse central performances. This is a deeply respectful effort: Rita is among the producers, alongside her and Bob's children Ziggy and Cedella; Stephen, their third-born, is the music supervisor. Love was always going to shine through. The tunes were always going to resound with power and affection. The tale itself was always certain to prove inherently absorbing. Its casting couldn't be more important, however. After a lengthy search to find its Bob, Ben-Adir is a force of warmth, calm and potency — gifting the picture the kind of portrayal that it couldn't live without — while Lynch is formidably fierce as Rita. For a movie about someone so revolutionary, Bob Marley: One Love mightn't earn that description itself, but it does deliver the tribute it's striving for, celebrate Marley's message as much as his music and contextualise one helluva record. Indeed, where Bohemian Rhapsody was the silver-screen equivalent of a greatest-hits album and Elvis took its cues from concert spectaculars, Bob Marley: One Love is a jam-session type of flick. When it briefly recreates live shows, it does so with verve, as aided by cinematographer Robert Elswit (also back from King Richard). And yet, while Smile Jamaica and the One Love Peace Concert are pivotal — including structurally to the narrative — they aren't the primary way that the film lets its audience experience Marley's impact. When Bob Marley: One Love dives into Bob's creativity and just enjoys being in the moment with its take on the singer, it cuts deeper; no one is merely jamming in making this movie, but it hopes its viewers like jamming with Marley, too.
Ragazzi Wine + Pasta has announced the next event in its Avventura series. This time, you'll be transported to Piedmont, in the foothills of the Italian Alps, for an afternoon. And, to get every detail right, Ragazzi has enlisted the help of Giorgio de Maria. You might know him from Darlinghurst restaurant Paski Vineria Popolare or Giorgio's Fun Wines – or both. He and Executive Chef Scott McComas-Williams have come up with an eight-course menu based on de Maria's family recipes. You'll start with acciughe al verde (anchovies in green sauce) with Fabbrica sourdough, before moving onto bagna cauda (a hot dipping sauce of red wine, anchovies, garlic and olive oil) with Jerusalem artichokes and radish. Next is vitello tonnato (thinly sliced veal in a caper-anchovy sauce), followed by carne crude (steak tartare) with hazelnut oil. After that, prepare for two handmade pastas: agnolotti del plin of rabbit and cabbage, and tajarin with hazelnuts and Australian black truffle. Sweets include traditional panna cotta and testun di barolo (drunk cheese) with honeycomb. Needless to say, de Maria has selected a wine to match every bite perfectly, with a focus on Piedmont's upcoming winemakers. He'll be spending lunch going from table to table, discussing his picks while sharing stories of life in Piedmont. Tickets — at $200 each — include all eight courses and wines.
For seven years, Melburnians have inhabited the world's most liveable city. But that reign has come to an end — the Victorian capital has been dethroned by Vienna for the top spot on the The Economist Intelligence Unit's global 2018 Liveability Index, which was announced today. The index ranks 140 cities on stability, healthcare, education, infrastructure, culture and environment, giving each city a rating out of 100. Last year, Vienna (97.4) and Melbourne (97.5) were incredibly close, but this year the Austrian capital has pipped the reigning champions. While none of Melbourne's ratings dropped — its overall ranking actually climbed to 98.4 — Vienna's stability and culture and environment ratings increased, which The Guardian is attributing to downgraded threat's of militant attacks in western Europe and the city's low crime rate. The Economist said, "Although both Melbourne and Vienna have registered improvements in liveability over the last six months, increases in Vienna's ratings, particularly in the stability category, have been enough for the city to overtake Melbourne. While Melbourne dropped, Sydney managed to climb the ranks (huzzah) — coming in at fifth this year, compared to last year's eleventh. Rounding out the top five were Osaka at third and Calgary at fourth.
Two-buck baos. No, that's not a typo, it's a spring miracle — cheap buns have landed at The Rocks. On three Thursday nights in September, The Argyle is be treating punters to warm, pillowy bao buns filled with pork belly, chicken, fish or veggies for only two bucks each. There is a small catch — there's a minimum order of three baos. But if our maths is correct, that's a pretty tasty meal for well under a tenner. Add a $5 beer and it's hardly breaking the bank. The baos and beers will be available from 5pm, making it a pretty top-notch post-work option. If you're really keen for some more discount action, stick around for the venue's $10 cocktail menu to kick in at 7pm. Best part is that you can book, so gather your mates and head here to secure a table ahead of the after-work rush.
A good, air-conditioned cafe for working in is a saviour on a hot day. A heat wave can be fun - when you're on holidays, can get to the beach readily, and don't have to force your swelling, sweltering brain to think about things of actual consequence. Productive labour is not the friend of high summer. This is when we need all the mod-cons on hand. And we want to help you meet that deadline, avoid that frustrating colleague, conference calmly, or master the art of procrastination by hooking you up with your neighbourhood coffice (that's 'coffee shop office', naturally). For those seeking out attractive alternatives to working at home, uni or your stifling, partitioned space, these are five cafes that ably accommodate working folk in Sydney. They each have Wi-Fi, powerpoints, and ample table surface area - as well as beautifully blustery, sweetly icy air-conditioning to keep your head as level as the thermostat. 1. BERKELOUW CAFE BOOKSTORE, NEWTOWN Just off King Street is Berkelouw Cafe Bookstore, Newtown's converted warehouse favourite. We're pretty sure you'll enjoy the workspace - sprawl your stuff out over one of the chesterfields or set up shop at one of the large communal tables perched on the second floor. You'll find organic fair trade coffee and freshly baked goods: a winning recipe for an enchanting meeting between boho locals and coffice fanatics. Mon-Sat 10am-9pm, Sun 10am-8pm; 6-8 O'Connell Street, Newtown; 02 9557 1777; www.berkelouw.com.au 2. CAFE OTTO, GLEBE Otto's back! After burning down in 2010, Glebe's institutional Cafe Otto has returned in good form. Owner Neil Mirani is offering up a hearty cafe tucker menu and extensive beverage list in a relaxed coffice setting. With padded bench seating, joinable tables, Wi-Fi, and $12 specials for everyday of the week, Otto's a Sydney Uni kid's escapist haven and our pick for coffice comfort. Mon-Sun 11am-Late; 79 Glebe Point Road, Glebe; 02 9556 1519. 3. MCA CAFE, THE ROCKS Located on level four of the new Mordant Wing, this place boasts the view across the quay, free Wi-Fi, and is top of our list for the coffice shmooze. Knock over some work in the indoor 'canteen', and if the temperature cools, liaise with clients or coffice mates over a glass or two on the terrace. On Thursdays, the kitchen is open until 9pm. Score! Mon-Sun 10am-5pm, Thu 24 hrs; Level 4, 180 George Street, The Rocks; 02 9250 8443; www.mca.com.au 4. THE GROUNDS OF ALEXANDRIA, ALEXANDRIA The Grounds of Alexandria is known for its, well, grounds, but there's also plenty of indoor space. The team has taken an industrial warehouse and transformed it into a homely, wholesome sanctuary. In fact, it's almost a town. Yes, there will be both queues and prams, but don't let this put you off - order from the takeaway counter then kick back at a shared rustic table. It's best for cofficers looking for creative inspiration and/or those on a quest to nail the whole kitchen garden thing. Mon-Fri 7am-4pm, Sat-Sun 8am-3pm; Building 7A/2 Huntley Street, Alexandria; 02 9699 2225; www.groundsroasters.com 5. The Bar at the End of the Wharf, Walsh Bay The Bar at the End of the Wharf offers something no other small bar in Sydney can: a jaw-dropping view of the likes normally hogged by tourist traps. You can enjoy the comfort indoors but stare out through floor-to-warehouse-ceiling windows over the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park. It's relatively quiet during the day, although when you do feel like a break from your work, you might want to get a bit more rambunctious at either the ping-pong or pool table. Mon - Sat 9am - late; Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay; 02 9250 1761; www.sydneytheatre.com.au/visit/thebar By Lisa Omagari and Rima Sabina Aouf
