If you were to list all the redeeming elements of Australian politics at the moment, I'm sure Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison wouldn't make the cut (or even come close to it). The government's asylum seeker policies have sparked hysterical shock and anger throughout the nation, with everyone who gives a damn participating in street rallies and public forums. It's great to see then, that this cause hasn't fallen on deaf ears in our local music scene either. More than ten bands from across Australia are throwing a big fundraiser at the Marrickville Bowlo, with all donations going towards two grassroots organisations: the Bridge for Asylum Seekers and the Refugee Action Coaltion (RAC). Among the total legends playing on the day are beloved Melburnian indie pop crew Dick Diver, Sydney dance outfit Holy Balm and dreamy four piece Day Ravies. Other local acts on the lineup include The Ocean Party, High Tails, Cull, DAG, TV Programmes, Roamin' Catholics, melonmelonmelon, and Destiny 3000. Good tunes for a good cause; who could possibly resist? https://youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZXaj8P-UA
Bangarra Dance Theatre is celebrating its 25th anniversary with another masterful fusion of storytelling and contemporary dance. Building on one of the earliest collaborations between Aboriginal people and the new settlers, Patyegarang traces the relationship between a spirited young indigenous woman and an English astronomer. It's a little bit like Australia's own Pocahontas adaptation but with cutting edge choreography. As the colonial fleet arrived on Eora country in the late eighteenth century, Patyegarang befriended Lieutenant William Dawes and in a courageous display of trust, began teaching him her local language. Lifted from the pages of Dawes' notebooks and modelled into an endearing portrait of friendship and cultural exchange, this production encourages a more nuanced understanding of 'first contact.' It also enlivens the legacy of Patyegarang as a striking visionary and educator. Assured by the experienced hand (or foot) of artistic director Stephen Page, along with a deeply moving soundscape by David Page, this is Bangarra's first full-length Sydney story. Imbued with a spirit of optimism and collaboration, Patyegarang promises an electric tribute to our first people, excavating an overlooked historical tale and providing an opportunity to reflect on Australia's future as a new nation.
From the writing team behind Fat Swan comes this performance that exponentially raises the calibre of things set in the Sutherland Shire. Little Orphan TrAshley is the latest adults-only panto to verify the genius of Sydney drag artist Trevor Ashley, who this time plays a ten-year-old orphan seeking her birth parents so they can give permission for gender-reassignment surgery. The performance is much in the same vein of Fat Swan. A good portion of the humour is due to the fact that Ashley is a slightly overweight man and hence looks funny dressed as a girl, but most of it is due to the fact that he’s an extraordinary actor with impeccable comic timing. The rest of the characters are no less ingenius — a photographer/multi-millionaire named Daddy Warhorse (Gary Sweet), the boozy matron Miss Trannigan (Rhonda Burchmore), and Fannie’s ex-sniffer dog Bullshit (Rhys Bobridge). You'll never look at that cutesy orange mop the same way again, but it will be worth it.
We all know how pretty Sydney is on the outside, but she's not all surface. There are hundreds of alternative perspectives awaiting you on the inside — and that's what Sydney Open is all about. For one weekend a year, this event gives you the chance to explore the intestinal passages of the city's most spectacular buildings. And, in 2016, there's a bunch of new additions to the program. Leading these is the Botanic Gardens' brand spanking new The Calyx, whose design is inspired by a flower's sepals, as well as the EY Centre, where you'll see the latest in sustainable design. Meanwhile, step into an epic, seven-storey atrium in the Macquarie Group's No. 1 Martin Place, and get a glimpse of three, heritage-listed transformed for contemporary use in the Hassell studio at Pier 8/9. Other newcomers include Barangaroo's International Towers, Walsh Bay's Pier 2/3 and Arup Studios and Workshop. A stack of favourites will be making a reappearance, too. At Central Station, you can visit the ghostly, no-longer-used Platforms 26 and 27 and climb up the 302 stairs inside the sandstone Clock Tower. After that, try crossing to St Mary's Cathedral Tower to squeeze up its 120 Hobbit-sized steps. For a dose of history, there's also the Australian Museum's original wing, The Mint, St James (Australia's longest-running church), Chippendale's Mortuary Station and the Reserve Bank's incredible art collection. All in all, more than 70 buildings will fling their doors — and hearts — open to the public. If you're keen to see loads of them, your best bet is to invest in an open ticket, which lets you in everywhere. To add an educational experience to your adventure, book a focus tour. You'll get the guidance of an expert, as well as access to secret, hidden spaces. Sydney Open takes place on November 5 to 6 at various locations around the city. For more information, visit the Sydney Open website.
Before heading along to Belvoir St Theatre, I usually say to people, "Oh, I'm going to see one of those edgy plays downstairs at Belvoir, you know, the kind with some nebulous storyline, butt cheeks right up in your face and someone smoking weed on stage." But Food is different. Writer and co-director Steve Rodgers has still included all that wonderful Belvoir-esque wackiness, swearing and gritty arthouse Australiana, but there was a depth and meaning in this work that I had never experienced in this theatre before. At the crack of dawn, Elma (Kate Box) is kneading and slamming dough on the counter in a takeaway joint somewhere in the backwaters of middle Australia while her sister, Nancy (Emma Jackson) pulses and jerks the night away in a South-East Asian nightclub. For two years, Nancy went missing, but unlike in a 'normal' family, her absence was never reported. Time skips forward and now that Nancy has returned, the sisters are left to their own devices in a family of two where they work hard to supply the local town with a staple supply of spring rolls, dim sims and Chiko Rolls. Between the shouting and banter of kitchen orders, sisterly squabbles and head-gripping wrestling, their teen-hood pains and complications begin to rise up like leavened bread. To add a little spice to the mix, a foreigner arrives in response to their kitchen-hand job advertisement. Hakan Leventelou (Fayssal Bazzi), from Olympus, Georgia explains nervously that his first name means 'Emperor' or 'King' and his family name means 'Son of Handsome'. With natural exuberance, he seasons their day-to-day grind with delectable anecdotes, incessant singing and adorable jokes about mice and dogs. He is also a man who loves "to watch and admire the women all the day", he explains in his thick, rhythmic accent. Tension builds between Hakan's overarching romantic universal perspective versus the sisters' static obsession with "who once stole whose Uggies". Wary as ever, Elma warns Hakan, "Mind your manners and don't fuck us around or I'll cut off your button." "Button?" he asks. Co-director Kate Champion, with her strong dance theatre background, has cleverly planned the choreography to the point of seamlessness. Although the stage barely changed, scene changes took place through movement and short interludes of carefully thought-out lapses, thus entering new situations or moments through the make-believe of your mind. Hakan may have been baffled by Elma’s button reference, but his intuition told him to tread carefully with these women.
If Parasite and Burning introduced you to the spectacular world of Korean cinema, we have great news: there's much, much more where they came from. As well as delivering two of the very best movies of 2019, Korea's film industry is filled with other gems. And, each year, the Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) brings the latest and greatest to local screens. In 2020, KOFFIA in streaming its lineup to everyone's screens, actually. Adapting to the pandemic, the fest has curated a program of 18 features that'll be available to watch digitally nationwide from Thursday, October 29–Thursday, November 5. Plus, if you need some extra motivation to spend more time staring at your TV or phone, the event is entirely free. On the bill: crime caper By Quantum Physics: A Nightlife Venture, sporting comedy My Punch-Drunk Boxer and sibling drama Family Affair, the latter of which stars Parasite's Jang Hye-jin. Or you can check out the multiple stories in Fukuoka, page-to-screen adaptation Kim Ji-young: born 1982 and assassination thriller The Man Standing Next. The list goes on — but you will need to note the exact date and time that each film is available, with every title only on offer to start viewing within 30 minutes of its scheduled timeslot. Also, courtesy of SBS On Demand's free Korean Film Festival Selects, seven more flicks from past KOFFIAs will be available to stream — at your leisure — from Sunday, November 1–Sunday, November 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT5w9y7OVy8
This is one suave-as-all-blazes tour announcement. After the recent announcement of their national tour set for November, Flight Facilities have revealed their perfect sidekicks for the road: Client Liaison. Currently touring the country on a cheeky headline tour of their own, the Melburnian duo are set to play their biggest shows to date with FF. They've recently released their perpetually listenable, essentially '80s-meets'90s debut LP Down to Earth through Dot Dash/Remote Control and now they're one of Australia's most must-see artists. Seriously. Flight Facilities have sold out their first Sydney and Melbourne shows, with extra dates announced all round. This is one show you're going to want to suit up for, lest you feel underdressed by the talent. FLIGHT FACILITIES + CLIENT LIAISON TOUR DATES: Thu 6 November — Adelaide HQ Sat 8 November — Perth CAPITOL Thu 13 November — Melbourne FORUM SOLD OUT Fri 14 November — Melbourne FORUM Sat 15 November — Brisbane TIVOLI Thu 20 November — Sydney ENMORE SOLD OUT Fri 21 November — Sydney ENMORE Tickets available here. https://youtube.com/watch?v=L_7DN_X4zsk
The long weekend is just around the corner and, really, it couldn't come sooner. Especially since this upcoming break is brought to you by Easter — a time where eating chocolate eggs and hot cross buns morning, noon and night is completely acceptable. But if you're looking to fill yourself up with something other than sweets, we've tracked down where you can have a bit of competitive fun, get a big ol' dose of culture and catch a live music gig. Also, if you're looking for all of the above in one spot, plus heaps of food and some cute baby animals, then you should set your sights on the Sydney Royal Easter Show. A classic, the Show returns to Sydney complete with heaps of rides (over 100), all sorts of carnival eats (from meat pie doughnuts to fried cheesecake) and a whole menagerie of animals (from puppies competing for the Best Baby Puppy award to prized pigs to a whole indoor paddock full of baby farm animals for you to cuddle). If you call Sydney home and haven't gone to the Sydney Royal Easter Show yet, then this is your time. So plan to hit the Show at least once this year and keep the Easter good fun flowing at one of these joints below. [caption id="attachment_710789" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sydney Royal Easter Show.[/caption] A BIT OF FUN (AND COMPETITION) While the joys of Easter egg hunts may have dwindled with the last years of your childhood, the competition that came from finding the most (and best) chocolates has mostly like not. So, we've tracked down where you can enjoy a bit of friendly competition this long weekend. 9 DEGREES ALEXANDRIA Friday: 9am–10pm; Saturday: 8am–10pm; Sunday, Monday: 9am–10pm 9 DEGREES LANE COVE AND PARRAMATTA Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 9am–10pm ARCHIE BROTHERS CIRQUE ELECTRIQ Friday: 12pm—12am, Saturday: 10am—12am, Sunday: 10am—10pm, Monday: 12pm-11pm BUBBLE SOCCER Saturday, Sunday, Monday: by appointment ENDURO Friday, Saturday: 9am-10pm, Sunday, Monday: 10am-8pm FLIP OUT CASTLE HILL Friday: 10am —10pm, Saturday: 9am—10pm, Monday: 10am-8pm NOMAD ROCK CLIMBING Friday: 6.30am—10pm; Saturday, Sunday: 8am—9pm; Monday: 6.30am—10pm OLYMPIC PARK, SYDNEY ROYAL EASTER SHOW Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 8.30am—late, fireworks conclude at 9pm, Showbag Pavilion closes at 9.30pm SKYPEAK Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 11am—4pm SKYZONE Friday, Saturday: 9am—10pm; Sunday: 9am—8pm ST PETERS CLIMBING GYM Friday, Saturday: 9.30pm—9pm, Sunday, Monday: 9.30am—7pm STRIKE BOWLING AND LASER TAG Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 11am—2am; Monday: 11am—10pm TIMEZONE CENTRAL PARK Friday, Saturday: 10am—12am, Sunday, Monday: 10am—11pm [caption id="attachment_712879" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lu Yang: Electromagnetic Brainology. White Rabbit Gallery.[/caption] A DOSE OF CULTURE A long weekend is the best time to break free from routine weekend activities. It's the perfect occasion to visit the exhibitions and creative spaces that have fallen prey to "I'll go at some point" that often accompanies Saturday mornings. Whether you're strolling the galleries in the AGNSW or lounging in a vintage theatre watching Dead Poets Society at Golden Age Cinema, this Easter weekend there's plenty on to help you feel like the cultured cosmopolitan you are. ART GALLERY NSW Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 10am—5pm ARTSPACE Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 11am—6pm AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 9.30am—5pm BRETT WHITELY STUDIO Saturday, Sunday: 10am—4pm CARRIAGEWORKS Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 10am—6pm (The National: New Australian Art); Saturday: 12pm—6pm (Mark Shorter Performance) CASULA POWERHOUSE Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 9am —5pm COOEE ART GALLERY (BONDI AND PADDINGTON) Friday, Saturday: 10am—5pm GOLDEN AGE CINEMA Saturday: 2.30pm—late (Free Solo, The Kindergarten Teacher, Dead Poets Society plus performances by Mimi Gilbert and Reddenhollow) MCA Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 10am—5pm MUSEUM OF SYDNEY Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 10am—5pm POWERHOUSE Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 10am—5pm WHITE RABBIT GALLERY Saturday, Sunday: 10am—5pm WORK-SHOP Sunday: 10am (Welding for Beginners); Monday: 6pm (Djembe Drumming for Noobs) and 7.30pm (Ukulele for Noobs) [caption id="attachment_518646" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Bad Friday.[/caption] A NIGHT (OR DAY) OF LIVE MUSIC Despite recent happenings, Sydney still has a mix of live music venues scattered around town. Hunt down a nearby music hall and to sate your music cravings this weekend. From inner west music festival's tenth anniversary to dancing it out in everyone's favourite late-night pizzeria, Sydney is turning up the volume this Easter for your listening pleasure. BAD FRIDAY 10TH ANNIVERSARY Friday: 1pm CAMELOT LOUNGE Saturday: 9pm (Malo Malo and The Aretha Franklin Songbook) ENMORE THEATRE Saturday: 7.30pm (Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton); Sunday: 8pm (Snarky Puppy) FRANKIE'S PIZZA Friday: 12pm—3am; Saturday, Sunday, Monday: 4pm—3am THE LANSDOWNE Saturday: 8pm (Philadelphia Grand Jury), Monday: 12pm—3am METRO THEATRE Saturday: 8pm (Nahko & Medicine for the People), Sunday: 8pm (Evolve Origin) OXFORD ART FACTORY Saturday: 8pm (Gasper Sanz), Sunday: 10.45pm (Twenty Three), Monday: 10pm (LOOSE ENDS Easter Sunday Party) SODA FACTORY Friday: 5pm—10pm, Saturday: 6pm—2am, Sunday: 6pm—3am, Monday: 5pm–late THE IMPERIAL IN ERSKINEVILLE Friday, Saturday: 11.30am—3am; Sundays: 11.30am—12am, Monday: 4pm—12am OLD 505 THEATRE Friday, Saturday: 8pm-late THE VANGUARD Saturday: 7pm—1am VIC ON THE PARK Friday: 11am—10pm, Saturday: 10am—3am, Sunday: 11am—10pm, Monday: 11am—10pm WAYWARDS AT THE BANK Friday: 11am—10pm, Saturday: 11am—late, Sunday: 12pm—12am
UPDATE, May 29, 2021: Baby Done is available to stream via Stan, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. A relic of a time when women were considered wives, mothers and little else, the public need to comment on whether someone has a baby or is planning to have a baby is flat-out garbage behaviour. In your twenties or thirties, and in a couple? Yet to procreate? If so, the world at large apparently thinks that it's completely acceptable to ask questions, make its judgement known and demand answers. Baby Done offers a great take on this kind of situation. Surrounded by proud new parents and parents-to-be at a baby shower, Zoe (Rose Matafeo) refuses to smile and nod along with all the polite cooing over infants — existing and yet to make their way into the world — and smug discussions about the joys of creating life. An arborist more interested in scaling trees at both the national and world championships than starting a family, she simply refuses to temper who she is to fit society's cookie-cutter expectations. Her partner Tim (Matthew Lewis) is on the same wavelength, and they visibly have more fun than everyone else at the party. With a title such as Baby Done, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise when this New Zealand comedy soon upsets Zoe and Tim's status quo. She discovers that she's expecting and, while he starts dutifully preparing to an almost unnervingly sensible extent, she also struggles to face the change that's coming their way. At the forefront of Zoe's mind is a phenomenon she has noticed with most of her friends, other than the still single and child-free Molly (Emily Barclay) — who just might be more pregnancy-phobic than she is. When women become mothers, that's often the only way they're seen by the world and themselves. Zoe is also concerned about being forced to put her own dreams on hold. In fact, even as her bump expands and everyone from her doctor to her parents tells her otherwise, she's adamant that she's still heading overseas to climb as many branches in the pursuit of arboriculture glory as she can. Comedies about the trials and tribulations of parenthood, and of the journey to become parents, are almost as common as people asking "when are you two having kids?" without prompting at parties. But this addition to the genre from director Curtis Vowell and screenwriter Sophie Henderson (both veterans of 2013 film Fantail) approaches a well-worn topic from a savvy angle. Zoe clearly isn't a stereotypical mother-to-be, and doesn't experience the stereotypical feelings women have been told they're supposed to feel about having children — and Baby Done leans into that fact. The role-reversal at the movie's centre really shouldn't feel so refreshing. Neither should depicting a women daring to think that, even though she wants to have a baby, she doesn't want her entire life as she currently knows it to disappear. It also shouldn't stand out that, instead of depicting an impending father who's less than fussed about taking on that responsibility as plenty of previous flicks have, Baby Done focuses on an expectant mother who'd rather carry on as if nothing big is happening — but it does. In her first lead big-screen role, comedian Matafeo stands out, too. Indeed, it's easy to wonder whether Baby Done would've worked so engagingly and thoughtfully with someone else as its star. In her hands, Zoe instantly feels like a fully realised character that has walked off the street and into the camera's sights — because, even in an obvious comedy that's constantly trying to evoke laughs, its protagonist is always relatable, fleshed out, and the sum of both her clear strengths and overt struggles. That's the kind of balance that the leads in the last female-led, Taika Waititi-produced New Zealand comedy that touched on motherhood, The Breaker Upperers, also perfected. Matafeo has her own presence, however; playing plucky, outgoing and friendly, but also stubborn and wilfully in denial about what she's going through, she could easily (and will hopefully) step out of Baby Done and into a host of other affable and amusing movies. Understanding that motherhood means different things to different women and subverting the usual gender roles in the process doesn't stop the brightly shot, breezily toned Baby Done from sticking to a largely, sweetly predictable narrative, though. Or, from serving up just as easy-to-anticipate jokes amongst a particularly awkward threesome and a series of encounters with a pregnophile. Neither does Matafeo's excellent efforts, or her also likeable co-stars Lewis and Browning — with the former worlds away from his time as the Harry Potter franchise's Neville Longbottom, and the latter in her second offbeat supporting part this year after Babyteeth. And yet, as the likes of Knocked Up and Juno have shown entertainingly (especially in comparison to tripe like What to Expect When You're Expecting), finding an astute way to tackle a familiar topic really can't be underestimated. Again, Baby Done shouldn't feel like an outlier in its genre. In many ways, it really isn't, in fact. But charting one woman's pregnancy experience, and her backlash to the widely accepted notion that motherhood is the pinnacle of a woman's life, proves poignant and charming more often than not here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbIxi2VHTTk
If you've never attended a big community Syrian barbecue, Almond Bar is giving you the chance to get in on one. Head down to the laneway behind the Darlinghurst restaurant on Sunday, April 14, and you can load up your plate with Syrian-style lamb skewers and pumpkin kibbeh, and enjoy the accompanying music and dancing. All for $20. This successful event has been a staple in Darlinghurst for the last five years. The scent of grilling meats sends a siren call throughout the area, bringing people together to celebrate cultural diversity and togetherness. Syrians love a feast, and they love a party — their cooking traditions are among the oldest in the world and the government itself produces two varieties of beer, Al-Shark Beer and Barada Beer. There's no need to book, but space will be limited — so get there early.
Queensland-born cult burger joint Betty's Burgers is expanding its empire yet again, announcing it will launch its second Sydney outpost in Castle Hill this July. Since opening the Shake Shack-style burger shop back in 2014, founder David Hales has turned his humble Noosa business into an Australian-wide favourite — having opened up shop in Melbourne, Brisbane and its first Sydney store in the ICC last June. Compared with the Darling Harbour shack, which is a small 46 seater (20 indoor and 26 outdoor), the Castle Towers joint will have a considerably larger capacity, seating 85. You can expect the same menu of the Angus beef classic, southern fried chicken, pork belly and crispy fried mushroom burgers, along with Betty's signature 'concretes'. For the uninitiated, these are frozen custard shakes with your choice of mix-ins, including peanut butter brittle, hot fudge doughnut and lemon raspberry cheesecake. The opening of Betty's Burgers is part of the Castle Towers Piazza revamp, with Holey Moley and Strike Bowling having already taken up residence and Rockpool Dining Group's The Bavarian set to launch in June. The beer hall has also just opened an outpost in nearby Rouse Hill, and if things continue this way, it looks like more inner city favourites will be making their way out to The Hills. Betty's Burgers will open this July at the Castle Towers Shopping Centre at 6-14 Castle Street, Castle Hill. Keep an eye on its website for updates.
Sydney coffee lovers are in for a seriously decadent treat this weekend, as the folks from Mr Black and Three Bottle Man team up to transform Bulletin Place into a wonderland of caffeine-infused delights. Kicking off with after-work pick-me-ups this Thursday, March 15, and wrapping up Saturday, March 17, the Caffeine Lane Pop-Up will be slinging a range of limited edition coffee-charged treats, in both liquid and dessert form. Three Bottle Man is the Marriott's laneway-facing bar, and its signature espresso martini will feature on-tap alongside a lineup of bespoke coffee cocktails, including one concoction starring Mr Black's just-launched Coffee Amaro. Meanwhile, Michelin Star-experienced chef Raphael Szurek will be tempting sweet tooths with two wildly inventive caffeine-infused desserts, designed especially for the event. Each of the menu items and cocktail creations will be priced at $15, available from 5pm each night of the pop-up.
Word Travel's literary festival Story-Fest is set to return this month. This three-day festival celebrates performing writers and the spoken-word. This festival will feature an eclectic line-up of creatives who manipulate the art of communication in powerful, innovative and unique ways by performing poetry, stories, lyrics and monologues. With spoken-word performances and talks throughout each day at The State Library, the Opera House and around The Rocks, the featured artists will include Afro-Latina feminist poet and current Australian Poetry Slam champion Arielle Cottingham, first-generation Sikh storyteller and Australia's Got Talent contestant Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa and two-time Canadian national slam champion Ian Keteku. And if you can only hit one event, then this one should be it. The star of the festival and main event, the Australian Poetry Slam National Final, will be held at the Opera House on Sunday October 15. The competition works by making the audience the ultimate judge, as the MC selects five members of the crowd at random to rule on each performance. The poets are given a microphone and just two minutes to capture the crowd's attention before the selected judges score the performance on a scale of one to ten. From these results the winner will be crowned and awarded an all-expenses paid tour to international writing festivals. Have a bit more time to spare? Other events to add to your calendar include Guffaw, where it'll be hard not crack a smile and have a little chuckle as up-and-coming Sydney comedians Annaliese Constable, Sabrina D'Angelo, Benny Eggmolesse and Fran Middleton take to the stage; Queerhyme, which features queer poets Arielle Cottingham, Emily Crocker and Gabrielle Journey Jones performing poems on the fly; and Spoken-Word Women, a celebration of the best female slammers who'll be breaking stereotypes and destroying gender norms with their powerful poetry.
The impression I had of The Spectacular Now before seeing it was that it was another teen movie about a cool guy falling in love with a dorky girl — but this time genuine and refreshing. 'Not possible!', thought I, as I anticipated counting off all the ways that the film failed. Cool guys and dorky girls don't mix, and if they do, Hollywood filmmakers cannot be counted on to explain it. Now I'm forced to eat my words. The Spectacular Now definitely is that genuine and refreshing take on the cool-guy-falls-in-love-with-the-dorky-girl story. It succeeds by focusing secondarily on the romance, and primarily on the shambolic and troubled life of its protagonist, Sutter Keeley (Miles Teller). Sutter is cool not because he's a jock, a leader, a looker or a bully — he's just the most fun. He and his girlfriend, Cassidy (Brie Larsen), are the life of every party. And that's in good part because Sutter has no self-worth, no ambition and knows how to drink without cessation. The Spectacular Now is unique in its portrait of what alcoholism can look like in adolescence, beyond the usual hysteria over binge drinking. Cassidy leaves Sutter when she realises that, even though their chemistry is the stuff of legend, she wants more out of life. Sutter then meets Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley, last seen in The Descendants) — a quiet, swotty girl whose interests include manga and French club (the type who's going to own the college campus soon enough) — when she finds him passed out on a neighbour's lawn in the wee hours. Remember, Sutter is good and fun; he has no ulterior motive for hanging out with Aimee afterwards, besides that he likes her company. But, aided by his inebriation and her infatuation, that friendship quickly escalates. The Spectacular Now has ten times the nuance and complexity of the previous film from the writing duo of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer. It might be that they had strong source material in the book by Tim Tharp, or that they've simply matured as writers. The Spectacular Now is a standout achievement that makes you care for its characters and leaves you with plenty to think about afterwards. It's true the character of Aimee is sidelined, but she's not just a cipher; she's a multidimensional character who is only known to us through Sutter's eyes, because he's who the film is really about. The relationship between the two characters is strong, interesting and believable, with their complicated mothers being a particular source of commonality. Woodley and Teller really help to sell the roles with their incredible performances. "When you look at her, you really see her," Sutter tells his buddy at the halfway point of the movie, and much the same can be said of the two actors. They add so much depth with their mere presence. The Spectacular Now is a beautiful surprise package. High school has never looked so worth revisiting. https://youtube.com/watch?v=wceaLzbtuDY
Local adventurers We Are Explorers are on a mission to make the outdoors easy and accessible, so they're leading 12 enthusiastic explorers on a two-day Wilderness Canoe Escape for the weekend of April 29 through 30. Participants will meet around three hours south of Sydney, where they will be guided by the company's founder to canoe through a natural gorge and reach a secluded, 'secret' campsite that is truly away from it all. The excursion will see participants fishing, wild-swimming and end the day with a feast over some quality campfire downtime. Each ticket includes a two-person Wenoah Royalex canoe (to be shared), a professional canoeist guide, a weekend photography package and an LED head torch, as well as all food and snacks for the duration of the trip. No experience is required as the Canoe Escape is suitable for all skill levels — but you will need to bring your own SLR camera or sort a rental with the WAE crew. Now that's easy-as adventuring at its finest. Images: We Are Explorers.
Some days, you wake up, go about your business as normal, and absolutely nothing unusual or exciting happens. Other days, you're hit with the unexpected announcement that new Rick and Morty has just landed. That's the way the news goes sometimes, including today, Monday, June 21 — because the first episode of the animated comedy's fifth season has just landed on Netflix. Get ready for more interdimensional adventures — and to get schwifty if you want to — because the show's specific brand of chaos is back for another go-around. Once again, Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith (both voiced by show co-creator Justin Roiland) will do what they do best: not just aping a concept straight out of Back to the Future, but wreaking havoc in as many universes as they can stumble across. Also back are Morty's mother Beth (Sarah Chalke, Firefly Lane), father Jerry (Chris Parnell, Archer) and sister Summer (Spencer Grammer, Tell Me a Story) — and, as not one but two trailers have already demonstrated, they're playing a big part in Rick and Morty's dimension-hopping antics this time. Rick and Morty trailers are more about the mood, look and feel than the storylines — so, while you can obviously expect a heap of out-there situations, battles and general sci-fi mania, just what's in store is always best discovered by sitting down and watching a new episode. In season five, though, there'll be nods to and parodies of everything from Voltron to Blade. Rick and Morty will argue, too, because that's one of the thing that this Back to the Future-inspired pair do best. If you're keen to rejoin the smartest Rick and Morty-est Morty in the universe, you can check out the fifth season's first episode now — with new episodes then dropping each week. Now, unless you're a total Jerry, you've got something to look forward to come quittin' time for the next few Mondays. Watch the latest Rick and Morty season five trailer below: Rick and Morty's fifth season will stream weekly from Monday, June 21 on Netflix in Australia and New Zealand.
The bins and footpaths of Sydney have recently become the resting place for hundreds of abandoned umbrellas. As the city entered yet another day of apocalyptic wind and rain, the hashtag #umbrellageddon revealed the full extent of the damage, with many brave brollies mangled beyond repair. In the face of such ruin, many citizens have found themselves searching for an umbrella made of sturdier stuff. As luck would have it, we think we’ve found the perfect one. Dutch company Senz° Umbrellas market their product as a storm-proof umbrella, capable of withstanding winds of up to 100km/h. According to their website, "the senz° aerodynamic canopy acts as an aero-foil lifting the light but exceptionally strong umbrella to an upright position and effortlessly slices through the wind." We're not too sure why you'd need to pelvic thrust your companion or deliberately lift your skirts in a high-wind situation, but we're hoping the product is better than its publicity shots. Prices start at $75, which is probably more than you’ve ever paid for an umbrella. But, as Senz° are quick to point out, "instead of buying lots of crappy umbrellas each year, it's wiser to invest in great products that last." These guys aren’t the only innovators when it comes to umbrella technology. Chinese inventor Chuan Wang recently reached his Kickstarter goal to manufacture an invisible umbrella that uses airflow to shield user from the rain. There's also a group of British designers are currently working on LeafXPro, an attachable windscreen for your bike. Of course, whether either invention would actually have held up in Sydney this week is another question entirely.
For a lot of us, 2020 so far has involved a whole heap less travel than we'd usually like. With devastating bushfires raging across the country, many had to forego our annual summer trips and stay at home. Then, COVID-19 hit Australia, resulting in nationwide restrictions on travel. Recently, the Australian Government announced its three-step roadmap out of COVID-19 lockdown, with talks of interstate and possibly trans-Tasman travel happening before the end of July. Finally, we can start dreaming of our next trip away. And to help inspire your post-iso plans, Tourism Australia is hosting an online program of virtual travel experiences and entertainment. Best of all, it's completely free. Dubbed Live from Aus, the program will run from Saturday, May 16 to Sunday, May 17 via its YouTube channel and Facebook page. It'll feature everything from Phillip Island's penguins to underwater reef tours at the Great Barrier Reef, music by First Nations artists with Uluru as its backdrop, Mona's Spectra light show, an Australian wine tour with Adelaide Hills' Unico Zelo, a cheesemaking session with Jo Barrett and Matt Stone, sunrise yoga at Byron Bay and cooking the ultimate Aussie brunch with Darren Robertson, Mark LeBrooy and Andy Allen from Three Blue Ducks (if you want to cook along, you can check out the recipes here). All up, expect a taste for Australia's natural beauty, food, music, wildlife and culture. Other highlights include a disco party with The Wiggles, an exploration of Indigenous Australian ingredients with famed chef and MasterChef Australia judge Jock Zonfrillo, tours of Australia's greatest golf greens, pub trivia, a coffee making tutorial with Ona Coffee, a tour of Kangaroo Island, a night at the Opera House and Dreamtime stories with Darren 'Capes' Capewell. You can check out the full program and times here. Live from Aus will kick off at 7am AEST on Saturday, May 16 till Sunday, May 17. You can tune in for free via Facebook or its website. Images: Uluru Sunset Session with First Nations music curated by Sounds Australia, Underwater Reef Tour at the Great Barrier Reef, Penguin Parade Bedtime Stories from Phillip Island and Kangaroo Island Tour with Craig Wickham — all courtesy of Tourism Australia.
Held weekly on a Friday in Warriewood, The Beaches Market is one of the most popular farmers and fresh produce markets in Sydney with over 100 quality stalls. The majority of the produce is organic, home grown and hand picked, and arrives fresh from the farm that day. While you stroll through the markets selecting your fresh produce for the week, have a chat to some of the passionate and hard working farmers and tradespeople. You can also pick up local honey, speciality cheese, olive oil, bread, fish, meat, plants and flowers. There's also a selection of stalls selling homewares, fashion, jewellery and handmade items, as well as live music to soundtrack your wholesome shopping experience.
Astronomy, wine and a crackling campfire — if that sums up a few of your favourite things, then the folks at Blue Mountains Stargazing might just have curated your ultimate night out. On a regular basis, the company is hosting a fun new variation on its popular stargazing tours, which'll see you sipping vino around the fire pit while learning about — and marvelling at — the twinkling night sky. Next taking place on Friday, June 4, these sessions will take place among the vines of the Megalong Valley's Dryridge Estate. As the sunset throws its striking colours over the Great Dividing Range, guests will enjoy an expert-led tasting of seven different wines, matched to a ploughman's board loaded with the likes of cheese, pickles and locally-made bread. After dark, an astrophysicist will guide your group on a two-hour stargazing tour, sharing tips and tricks for getting the most out of a naked-eye astronomy session. You'll also get to peek at those stars through binoculars and a telescope, and pick some astrophysicist brains during a Q&A, before settling in around the campfire for some constellation storytelling. [caption id="attachment_808166" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dryridge Estate[/caption] Updated May 22.
Whether beloved bands are reuniting, old lineups are reforming or still-touring groups who hit the charts decades ago are simply heading our way again, we're living in a golden age of musical blasts from the past. On a stage near you at any given time, one of your old-school favourites is likely taking to the microphone, spanning across a huge range of genres. The latest to join the trend: Sugababes. The British girl group is hitting up Australia's east coast this summer, with shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in February. If you're a fan, you likely now have 'Push the Button' or 'Overload' stuck in your head — or a medley that includes 'Freak Like Me', 'Round Round', 'Hole in the Head', 'Walk This Way' and 'About You Now' as well. This isn't just any old throwback tour, however. It will also see Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhan Donaghy — aka Sugababes' OG members — bust out the group's hits. Each of the trio left individually in the 00s, with Heidi Range, Amelle Berrabah and Jade Ewen taking their places, but they've been back together with the initial lineup since 2012. This'll be the first time in more than two decades that Buena, Buchanan and Donaghy have hit Australia together, which is massive news for fans. And, given that Sugababes were one of the British girl groups of the early 21st century — and are one of the biggest-selling British girl groups of all time — there's plenty of those around. SUGABABES AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2023: Thursday, February 23 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Friday, February 24 — Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Monday, February 27 — Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane Sugababes are touring Australia in February 2023, with pre-sale tickets available from 9am local time on Tuesday, December 20 and general sales from 9am local time on on Wednesday, December 21. Head to the tour website for further details.
Launch straight in the Easter long weekend at The Cliff Dive. At 9pm on Thursday 24 March, yet another incarnation of the club's mega-popular Naughty Noughties night will kick off. If you've been before, you'll know it's all about taking unashamed pride in your addiction to the 2000s charts. Taking care of the DJing will be Adam Bozzetto aka DJ Chardonnay (Wordlife/Motorik/Heaps Decent), who's promising to drop a 20-minute Jennifer Lopez medley; Leon Smith, 'Australia's Number One Strip Club DJ' (stay with us) and expert in all things 50 Cent, Ja Rule and Crazy Town; and upcoming talent JORDVN. As usual, fashion blogger 24 Karat Kev will be doing the emceeing.
Yeah, we're thinking he's back — John Wick, that is. Five years after Keanu Reeves introduced everyone's favourite assassin (and dog owner) to the world, and two years after the film scored its first sequel, the action-packed franchise is bringing its third instalment to the big screen in 2019. Entitled John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum and due to hit cinemas in May, the series' latest follow-up picks up where the last flick left off, aka with Wick being hunted down by his fellow killers. With a $14 million price tag on his head, plenty of hitmen and women are out to collect the bounty. And all of this because, in the first film, he became the proud owner of an adorable puppy. If you're not up on your Latin, parabellum means 'prepare for war', which is just what a kick-ass Keanu looks primed to do. This time, he'll have Halle Berry in his corner — and he's not adverse to brandishing some firepower while riding a horse. As for the rest of the cast, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick and Jason Mantzoukas all return from the previous flicks, as does Reeves' The Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne, while Anjelica Huston ranks among the new additions. Check out the first trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v2P3cpPOXY&feature=youtu.be John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 16.
All hail! The (self-crowned) queen of comedy is coming to a cinema near you! But before you baulk in fear of damaging your corneas with exposure to the notorious nightmare that is Joan Rivers' plastic face, you'll do well to know that Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's documentary is quite remarkable indeed. Chronicling the 75th year in the life of the indefatigable and utterly incorrigible Rivers, Stern and Sundberg locate the comedienne's demand for the spotlight and increasingly desperate schedule alongside an illuminating trip into the archives of her distinguished career. Upon witnessing the impressive strides Rivers' took in what was really a man's profession, as well as the personal tragedy experienced en route, it becomes difficult to dismiss her as merely that loudmouth on the red carpet; she is patently so much more. Complex, driven and oftentimes downright hilarious, Rivers can quip about living in more luxury than Marie Antoinette, yet she too fears when the crowd will turn (as one riveting stand-up scene shows all too well). This documentary leaves no doubt that Joan Rivers is a piece of work, but she wouldn't have it any other way. Screening in limited release at the Chauvel and the Hayden Orpheum. https://youtube.com/watch?v=j92Rka-FtUw
Imagine you only see one film this year (because of e.g. extreme electricity rationing, extreme ADHD, etc). You'd want to make it one that would blow your freaking mind. So take some advice from sad parallel universe you and, in a year where you'll probably see many films, make one of them Upstream Color, the dreamy feature that emphatically puts paid to the idea that there are only seven (or nine, or twelve) stories in fiction. Upstream Color is only the second movie from writer/director Shane Carruth, whose indie time travel headspin Primer won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004 and a cult following soon after. The many fans of that film have since been hankering for another dose of Carruth's signature style. (If it seems unlikely a one-film wonder could have a 'signature style', you have not seen Primer.) However, it turns out festival success does not a Hollywood career ensure, and after some upsets (his much-talked-about feature A Topiary never came to fruition), Upstream Color finally exists in the world, having been written, directed, produced, shot, scored, edited and acted in by Carruth himself. The guy is a lesson in self-sufficiency. This gorgeous, unknowable, deeply affecting film makes Primer look almost conventional, given time travel is a genre filmgoers know a little something of. If Upstream Color had a genre, it'd be something like 'biological art sci-fi'. It starts with a worm. A worm found in the roots of a rare orchid stocked at an ordinary nursery. One of the nursery's customers (Thiago Martins) distills the worm into a drug, which we see, taken recreationally, allows its users to connect telepathically. This man, however, uses it to drug young professional Kris (Amy Seimetz) at a club, and through a complex process of manipulation lasting a week, rob her of her tangible assets. When Kris comes to, the worm is still in her body, wriggling about. Soon enough, a man (Andrew Sensenig) using infrasound lures her to a field, where he removes the worm from her body — and transfers it into a pig. In this world, or any other, a person does not bounce back from the experience lightly. Years later and convinced she's suffering a mental illness, Kris is still trying to piece her life back together. A man she connects with on the train, Jeff (Carruth), might be her shot at a real relationship. Meanwhile, Kris's pig goes back to life in its sty under the watch of the infrasound/surgery man, who also seems to indulge a sideline in field recording. Upstream Color is all this, but it's also not this. The effect is all in the way the story is layered, the way it cuts between these seemingly separate ecosystems, and the sensuous, organic cinematography throughout. It's not abstract — it is meticulously, concretely plotted — and yet the telling of it is open-ended and deliberately foggy as remnants of a dream. It moves like poetry but has the shape of quantum physics, conveying the beauty and pain of fate, as shaped by chance. It's a film you desperately want to piece together, and yet you know that piecing it together is not the point. (Though Carruth will spell it out for you if you want, and it won't disappoint a la Richard Kelly on Donnie Darko.) Sam Adams of the AV Club argues that we're mistaken in holding up puzzle-box movies with that perfect twist, like Memento or The Usual Suspects, as a cinematic holy grail when the rewards of a film like Upstream Color are greater, and he's right. You might solve the puzzle but it will open to reveal another. You might solve the puzzle but find the value was in the pieces. https://youtube.com/watch?v=SilYsr_3vrA
You've watched the original movie to death, surely had some of that sweet 80s merch, and probably watched the all-female reboot flick when it hit cinemas in 2016. Now, you can take your Ghostbusters obsession to the next level, as a spooky new escape room inspired by the cult film lands in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne just in time for Halloween. Dubbed GhostMaze, the immersive pop-up will take over a secret location in each city, where you can live out your wildest ghostbusting fantasies and soak up some old-school gaming nostalgia. Details are scarce, but we do know that this movie-inspired adventure will take the form of a full-sized maze, with dark corners to navigate, prizes to hunt down and ghosts to avoid... unless you fancy being slimed. GhostMaze will be held across various sessions, with each one will featuring DJ tunes, a pop-up bar pouring Ghostbusters-themed cocktails and, of course, more prizes for the punters with the best costumes. Better start rounding out some mates to join in the fun — who you gonna call? In the meantime, you can rewatch the trailer for outfit inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vntAEVjPBzQ To find out more details as they drop and to register for pre-release GhostMaze tickets, sign up now at the website.
Sydney's pop-up events organiser and vintage queen Dear Pluto has operated out of the Mini-Mart Petersham collective space for 11 years now, but its fashion reign is coming to an end. The brand is hosting its last-ever vintage sale and closing its local storage space. This bitter moment, however, comes with a sweet parting gift — the brand is hosting one last blowout sale in true 'everything must go' style. It's happening this week from Thursday, June 13 till Sunday, June 16, with prices starting at just five bucks. Expect heaps of 1950s through 1990s fashion up for grabs, for both men and women. Every last garment will be on sale, including Christian Dior dressing gowns, Adidas track suits and even one very special 1960s pink fur coat. These endless racks of quality threads will be on serious discount, too, starting with a $5 sale bin. If you already have enough in your wardrobe but can't miss out on a good quality shop, the collective's other tenants will be open for a browse as well — think indoor plants, 'lewd' cards by Millie Hall and other artisan homewares aplenty. There will be no restocking, so serious shoppers will want to get in early. The sale will run Thursday and Friday from 11am–6pm, Saturday from 9am–4pm and Sunday from 10am–3pm.
The year is 2113, you are about to embark on a walking tour that dissects the consumerism, ignorance and individualism of 2013. Well, sort of. It's not really 2113, but this comedic tour of our fair city, led by a penguin (writer/performer Xavier Toby) pokes fun at the rampant idiocy of contemporary living and the possible implications of living in an age of overconsumption and intolerance. The mixture of comedy, activism, archaeology and strolling is a rare one that prompted Artshub to call When We Were Idiots "interactive theatre at its energetic best". Read the rest of our top ten picks of the Sydney Fringe Festival 2013.
Roll up, roll up to Cirque du Soleil's big top, with the acclaimed circus company heading back to Sydney with its newest show. Called KURIOS: Cabinet of Curiosities, this acrobatic extravaganza steps inside a fantasy world in the latter half of the 19th century. If you think that normal Cirque du Soleil performances test your perception of reality, then you won't be disappointed — not quite believing your eyes, using your imagination and peering beyond the expected is part of the story. Specifically, KURIOS delves into the tale of the Seeker, who happens to be in possession of a larger-than-life curio cabinet, and also happens to think a hidden world is lurking inside. After world premiering in Montreal back in 2014, the production has been touring the globe since, and now it's setting up shop at Moore Park's Entertainment Quarter from Wednesday, October 2. The show marks Cirque du Soleil's 35th since it was formed in 1984, and features 47 artists from 17 countries. Basically, prepare to stare and drop your jaw as gymnasts, acrobats, contortionists, puppeteers, yo-yo wizards, clowns, actors and musicians do their thing. Performances will take place on Tuesdays–Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 1pm and 5pm. UPDATE: NOVEMBER 1, 2019 — KURIOS: Cabinet of Curiosities has been moving heaps of tickets, and the season has been extended until December 29. After that, the show will move onto Brisbane. Tickets would make great Christmas presents, we might add. Images: D-CORD Costumes: Philippe Guillotel © 2018 Cirque du Soleil.
Lavender Bay's newest edition, Loulou, is offering Sydneysiders a taste of everyday French life. The bistro, bakery, delicatessen-hybrid is set to become a local favourite on the lower north shore, with the team providing everything from a morning coffee and luxe crab soufflé omelettes, to a champagne lunch paired with hand-cut steak tartare. Over at the bistro, you'll find shaved veal tongue, caviar service and an impressive wine list — but Head Chef Billy Hannigan (ex-Bistro Guillaume, The Ledbury London) describes the all-day menu as "a lot lighter" than what patrons may expect. "Many of the dishes will be recognisable to those who enjoy traditional French bistros but my technique is a lot lighter. We want the menu to be approachable enough for locals to feel comfortable dining here a couple of times a week," says Hannigan. Highlights of the French-inspired menu include the melt-in-your-mouth côte de porc (pork chop) served sliced with a drizzle of charcuterie sauce (market price). There's classic steak frites with au poivre vert, as well as lighter hors d'oeuvres including an oxheart tomato salad with rhubarb vinaigrette and zucchini flowers with white anchovy. With a combination of traditional French styling and contemporary aesthetics, the dining space feels warm and luxurious — think warm timber, brass accents and mosaic marble floors. Guests can pull up a seat at the bar or slide into a cushy booth to enjoy an intimate meal with family and friends. With over 150 wines available by the bottle, sommelier Shun Eto (ex-Icebergs Dining Room & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn) ensures guests can choose from an extensive list of both Australian and French producers. Follow your nose to the boulangerie next door where you'll be enveloped in the delicious aroma of artisanal baguettes, croissants, batards and baked sweets. Head Baker Brendon Woodward (Chouquette Boulangerie, Bread Ahead Bakery London) and his team bake four times a day, seven days a week. This number of bakes in a day is almost unheard of in Australia, ensuring that if you pop by after work, the bread is as fresh as can be — just like in Paris. Over in the traiteur (delicatessen), browse through a wide selection of house-made produce and comforting home-style meals created by French-born chef and butcher Cyprien Picard (ex-Victor Churchill). From jars of pickles to charcuterie, cheese and whole rotisserie chickens, Loulou's is your perfect pre-picnic pit stop. Over in the cold section, pristine glass cabinets feature a variety of terrines, parfaits and fresh salads — there's nothing better than a summer cassoulet or chilled ratatouille in Sydney's heat. Guests can choose to bring the goodies home or enjoy them outside on the sun-soaked terrace. Our top tip? Fill a basket and take a quick stroll to Wendy's Secret Garden. It's one of Sydney's most beautiful green spaces and is only a stone's throw away. Loulou's Boulangerie and Traiteur is open from 7am–8pm, 7 days a week. The Bistro is open Mon–Thurs, 12pm–11pm; Fri & Sat, 12pm–12am; Sun, 12pm–10pm.
With Halloween comes the perfect excuse to don your scariest costume and have a ball. To celebrate all things ghoulish, El Topo is letting you party until dawn at Halloween Things. With plenty of bevs, spooky decorations, and tunes to get down to, it's sure to be a cracking night. Head down to Bondi from 9pm on Saturday, November 2 and catch the festivities in full-swing. Tuck into some free fairy floss and popcorn or pick up one of El Topo's cocktails, with everything from punch to brain shots on offer. Then, have a go at some apple-bobbing (there's a bar tab up for grabs) or have some fun with free face painting. Plus, you can put your best, costumed foot forward and get the chance to win a $50 bar tab for you and your crew. Entry is ticketed, but at $15 a head it's a pretty good bargain for a top night out.
Sydney is notorious for its streets that bend like tangled shoelaces, its laughable town planning that left our Town Hall facing the wrong direction (the original front faces the QVB) and a public transport system about as efficient as underground solar panels. But Sydney is also home to a sunny harbour framed by two of the 20th Century’s most impressive architectural feats, parks that feel like paradise, some of the world’s greatest outdoor city festivals and a legacy of elegant colonial buildings that bring us into conflict with our Aboriginal heritage. Public Sydney: Stop, Look, Live is an exhibition presented by the Historic Houses Trust, inspired by Philip Thalis and Peter John Cantrill’s newly released book Public Sydney: Drawing the City. It’s a good starting point for anybody interested in Sydney’s design and offers a basic architectural and social history of iconic public sites including Bennelong Point, the Museum of Sydney, Hyde Park, Central Station and Town Hall. There are some cool old photographs that remind us we weren’t always a hip cosmopolitan metropolis, historical artifacts including a two-ton canon and even an impressive to-scale drawing of the Opera House along one wall. There are videos that chart each site’s history, including vox pops of people waiting for friends at Town Hall steps (not just Goths and tourists it turns out!) and along the Opera House forecourt. There’s also a great photo essay including images of the skaters who spend sun dappled afternoons sharing the tricks of their trade by the Pool of Reflection in Hyde Park and the bike couriers who hang out on the steps near the GPO at Martin Place. But further than eating sandwiches on steps and strolling through tree-lined parks (all excellent and valid activities), Public Sydney washes over one of the most powerful ways in which we have shaped these public spaces. That is, through political and civic engagement. Other than a black-and-white photograph of a rally at Town Hall, this exhibition steers well clear of our political engagement with Sydney’s public spaces. How have we, the public, used these marvelously designed sites for protests, rallies, celebrations and other mass forms of civic engagement? What do these buildings, parks and street corners mean if they haven’t been shaped throughout history by ideological, cultural and humanitarian displays of expression and debate? It is these elements that really inform how a public engages with, experiences and shapes a city. Without them, Sydney is no more than a shiny shell inhabited by a benign and somewhat flaccid public. Public Sydney’s saving grace in this respect is that it offers you, the public, the opportunity to share your own stories – both in the exhibition and online. What are the hidden public histories layered within these spaces? How do you spend your time in the Pearl of the Pacific? Help set the record straight. Local zine maker and master of urban detail Vanessa Berry will be running a parallel blog as part the exhibition.
Ever since it’s birth in 2001 my friends and I have loyally attended Fuzzy Field Day as if it were Christmas lunch at Aunty Tricia’s. No matter what sins are committed the night before, we all meet at a mate’s house, down a few hairs-of-the-dog and head to the Sydney Domain arm-in-arm. This year, Field Day has, as always, sold out – so I will, as always, spend the build up to the New Year hunting down an unwanted ticket. Why? Because when you're dancing deliriously as the sun sets over Sydney’s cityscape and some superstar DJ (this year its 2Many DJS) drops the cheesiest track of the year, probably Thriller by Michael Jackson - you realise you’re in exactly the right place at the right time. Or at least not hungover at home munching Nurofen under the doona.This year Field Day embraces live music with The Presets, Architecture in Helsinki and Miami Horror all playing live on the main stage.
There's never been a better reason to drink. Order a Negroni from participating bars during Negroni Week, coming up June 1–7, and you’ll earn $1 for charity. Yep, it’s as simple as that. Negroni Week, an international event, was initiated by Imbibe magazine two years ago. In 2013, 300 bars participated, but by 2014, that number had more than quadrupled, to 1,300. And this year, Imbibe has teamed up with Campari to take Negroni Week global. Consequently, it’s arriving in Australia for the first time. The Negroni was invented in 1919 in Florence, Italy. It came about when a Count named Camillo Negroni ordered an Americano (Campari, sweet vermouth and soda) in a local bar, but decided to add an extra kick. He asked the bar tender to replace the soda with gin, and lo, the Negroni was born. While other cocktails have gone in and out of fashion, the world has been sipping this delicately balanced and beautifully bitter concoction ever since. To find your nearest participating venue, visit the Negroni Week website, or if you just want to see the shortlist, check out our picks of the top five Negroni bars in Sydney.
If you only see one play this year, make it two. Angels in America is an epic in two parts, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, and Belvoir is putting them on in repertory, giving you the option of seeing both works back to back in one day. At some point, it ceases being theatre and becomes an event. It takes you past familiar experience and leaves you poised for something new and unforgettable. The play itself, by Tony Kushner, is a landmark piece. When he wrote the first part in 1988, AIDS was the great unknown terror. It was one year earlier in Australia that an iconic PSA lodged the grim reaper firmly into our consciousness (terrifying, but part of an impressive and often grassroots education campaign that put Australia ahead of the curve for once). To write about the effect of AIDS on gay men at this time was explosively humanising, let alone to do it with such grandeur and perspective. The play has since been an HBO series and an opera. It's won Tonys and a Pulitzer. It's almost too big to grasp, and yet its subtitle, A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, is a pretty accurate precis. Angels is what an American brand of magic realism might look like crossed with The West Wing. Its characters talk fast about big ideas while travelling to heaven to backchat their divine orders. Prior Walter (Luke Mullins) is the chosen prophet. He's been diagnosed with AIDS, and after a truly wretched night of pain during which he's hospitalised, his partner, Louis Ironson (Mitchell Butel) leaves him. Louis cannot forgive himself for his act of abandonment, but he also can't go back. Despite the companionship of his friend Belize (DeObia Oparei, channelling Andre Leon Talley), Prior is mostly alone, making him prey to ghostly ancestors, unearthly voices and other phantoms affecting the heavily medicated (or the chosen ones). Meanwhile, Roy Cohn (Marcus Graham) — a Republican power broker, McCarthyist prosecutor, libertarian ranter and all-round vile human being (who's quite real) — is diagnosed with AIDS, too, but he chooses to call it 'liver cancer' and quietly procures himself the latest treatments. His protege, fresh-faced young Mormon Jo Pitt (Ashley Zukerman), is also fighting to repress his sexuality, while his behaviour drives his fragile wife, Harper (Amber McMahon), to disconnect further from reality. As cute as they are to each other, when he does finally admit his feelings, she astral travels to Antartica in the arms of a friendly hallucination. Angels in America is really all about these characters, whom you'll soon be willing to follow anywhere (even Ray, in a Joffrey-like sense), and the actors who bring them to life in front of you. Each performance is more flooring than the last, from the rawness and range of Mullins' Prior to the scary, constant intensity of Graham's Ray (through a combination of make-up/sheer force of will/audience imagination, they also genuinely seem to waste away over the course of the seven hour play, which is startling). Spread across several smaller roles, Robyn Nevin and Paula Arundell charm just as well — in fact, Nevin as Jo's Mormon mother and matronly Communist Ethel Rosenberg (deceased) carries off some of the show's most surprisingly tender moments. The parts were written for the actors to play across gender lines, and it remains a fun touch. Director Eamon Flack is playful but fidelitious. There's fire, snow, blood, smoke and a showstopping special effect, but the production retains a sense of handmade creativity and openness. It asks the audience, play along. The low-tech attitude stops at the set, by Michael Hankin. The guiding thought behind it seems to have been, 'how can we communicate the magnitude and un-temporariness of this production?' And the answer was, tile it, tile it all. Tile it so that ten bathrooms must go naked. Tile it so the audience is forced to imagine the drama of demolition. The glossy, beige-spectrum subway tile evokes the arteries of New York, but it also calls to mind bathrooms, hospitals and every situation in which the easy wiping off of fluids is valued. It's almost the maxi-minimalist set — a statement that simplicity is not a bludge. And in its capacity to make light dance, it's beautiful. This might sound weird, but a seven-hour play is the perfect entertainment for our time. We've already proved we'll watch a season of TV in one sitting, and now any book or movie shaped liked TV — that is, episodically — is likely to fare well, too. Angels in America is such a story. It's not that it doesn't tax your wits; it's that characters you trust will be there to hold your hand when it does. Don't fear seven hours of theatre — go the binge.
Advertising all the new films and TV shows coming our way, trailers are designed to get audiences excited. If you're seeing them in a cinema, they're telling you what you should be heading back to watch next. If you're checking out sneak peeks for new television and streaming releases, they want you to add them to your viewing list. Sometimes, however, a trailer stands out because it has fun with the concept — and the sneak peek at Netflix's new Cowboy Bebop series is one such example. Not only does it send its three central characters on a lively bounty and drop plenty of snarky, quippy dialogue, but it also gets them playing with a split-screen setup in quite the slick, vivid and eye-catching way. Hopefully, that's a sign of visually inventive things to come when the show hits the streaming platform on Friday, November 19, and of the tone that both existing fans of the cult Japanese anime of the same name and newcomers can expect as well. Like its source material, this live-action series is filled with space western hijinks — it wouldn't be Cowboy Bebop otherwise — all as bounty hunters Spike Spiegel (John Cho, The Grudge), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir, The Deuce) and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) chase down all of the most dangerous criminals in the solar system. Obviously, Netflix's algorithm told it that everyone loves the original animated 90s series — and that everyone loves Searching, Gemini and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle star Cho as well. When it's right, it's right, clearly. Alex Hassell (The Boys), Elena Satine (Twin Peaks) and New Zealand actor Rachel House (Cousins, Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) also feature on-screen, while the High Fidelity remake's André Nemec leads the charge behind the camera as Cowboy Bebop's showrunner. Check out the Cowboy Bebop trailer below: Cowboy Bebop will be available to stream via Netflix from Friday, November 19. Top image: Geoffrey Short/Netflix.
From dead characters to killer plants, M Night Shyamalan's films are known for veering off in out-there directions, as everything from The Sixth Sense and The Village to The Happening and Split have shown. So, when a trailer for one of his movies drops, you can expect that it'll tease a strange twist — and the first look at his latest flick, Old, doesn't disappoint. This initial sneak peek only runs for 30 seconds, so it doesn't have time to give too much away. Still, it manages to convey the film's basic premise and establish an eerie tone. A family led by Gael García Bernal (Ema) and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) are enjoying a beachside holiday, and everyone seems to be lapping up the secluded setting. Then, the couple's kids disappear behind a few rocks, only to return looking much older than they did mere seconds ago. If you're wondering where Shyamalan will take the concept from there, you'll have to wait until the thriller releases in cinemas in July. The filmmaker has penned the movie's script, too; however, he's based it all Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters' graphic novel Sandcastle. Hoping that it turns out more like Unbreakable and less like The Visit is understandable. As well as Bernal and Krieps, Old has amassed a hefty cast, although most don't appear in the teaser. However the premise plays out, though, it'll involve Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle), Ken Leung (Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens) and Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Australian actors Abbey Lee (Lovecraft Country) and Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth), and New Zealand's Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit). None of them say "I see old people" in the trailer, and hopefully that'll remain the same in the movie itself. Check out the teaser trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB1m-WogYeg Old opens in Australian cinemas on July 22. Top image: 2021 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Acclaimed Surry Hills theatre company Belvoir is celebrating all things live performance with its new Festival of Everything, a three-week showcase of comedy, dance, theatre, music and performances that push against classification. Headed up by an all-star comedy lineup, the festival consists of nine different shows, each taking residency at the Belvoir's Upstairs Theatre at various points between Tuesday, September 7–Sunday, September 26. Comedy legends Judith Lucy and Eddie Perfect head up part of the program's comedy offerings, alongside Zoe Coombs Marr and Hannah Riley as well. If that's not enough laughs, there's also a stand-up showcase featuring the likes of Dilruk Jayasinha, Lizzy Hoo, Bec Charlwood and David Woodhead, plus the return of popular live foley comedy show 44 Sex Acts in One Week. Outside of the comedy space, you'll find Afternoon Tea at Sex, an exploration of storytelling through music, plus Neglected Musical's Curtains, a musical mystery and parody of backstage murder mystery productions. The Lingalayam Dance Company will also be joining the festival as well, captivating audiences with Kuruntokai, a look at our relationship to nature through dance, music and 13th-century poetry. The festival kicks off part two of Belvoir's 2021 season. Following the September run, the theatre company will host its first-ever repertory season featuring Alana Valentine's Wayside Bride and Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, two thematically connected works set centuries and thousands of kilometres apart. Rounding out the season is The Boomkak Panto, a pantomime celebrating small-town Australia and the theatre. Top image: Daniel Boud
Beyond the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the attacks of September 11 set in motion a third, different kind of battle. One fought on the home front; a quiet, uncomfortable and unspoken war of words and sidelong glances directed towards anyone who suddenly came to look 'different', 'foreign', 'un-American'. The inadequacies of American security were undeniable; however, the indignity of the racial profiling that became rampant in their wake remains — to this day — an irredeemable blight on the United States' history. It's within this framework that author Mohsin Hamid set his bestselling 2007 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, now a film by director Mira Nair. It tells the story of Changez (Riz Ahmed), a prodigious Pakistani-born Princeton graduate who's headhunted by Jim (Kiefer Sutherland) to work in New York's top consultancy firm. With the company placing him on the fast-track to partnership and the chairman's daughter (Kate Hudson) quickly besotted, Changez's pursuit of the American dream seems assured. But then the Twin Towers come crashing down, and so too his perceived security. Colleagues view him differently, arrests and random searches become commonplace and despicable bigotry bubbles to the surface. At first Changez ignores, then endures, the prejudice, but eventually the feeling of victimisation and the loss of his identity become untenable and he returns to Pakistan. The film flicks back and forth between Changez's time in America and his present-day life as a 'radical academic' suspected of kidnapping an American colleague, and it's those latter scenes that engage most directly. Played out as an interview with US journalist Bobby (Liev Schreiber), they've a distinctly Cold War-era feel to them in the vein of the recent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Schreiber puts in a great performance as the journo with his own secrets, and Sutherland shines as a Gordon Gecko-esque corporate cutthroat; however, it's Ahmed who steals the show. At times the rhetoric is handled a touch clumsily and the 'fundamentals of business'/'fundamentals of Islam' motif is, like the book, not especially subtle, but The Reluctant Fundamentalist remains a compelling and confronting examination of one of the war on terror's less publicised dimensions.
Tracey Emin, one of the infamous YBA's, emerged in the late 1990s under the watchful eye of ubiquitous advertising-cum-gallerist magnate Charles Saatchi. Regardless of the form her work takes — she tinkers with text, neon, painting, textiles and photography — the content is always Tracey Emin: herself, her childhood, her relationships, her life. Some would question the merits of the underpinnings of her oeuvre, but for Emin, who believes that art and life are one and the same, is not the most direct route to present her own life as art? Dutch historian, art critic and curator, Rudi Fuchs has described Emin as an honest realist. Her work is not always easy to look at, nor is it pleasant to think about where it came from. But much of the best art is like that, no? Emin's attitude itself says something about the magical capability of art — to allow us to express our humanity in ways that other mediums may not accommodate. Edmund Capon will I'm sure ask her about ideas of self-representation, feminism and expressionism. I’d love to hear what Emin has to say, and I encourage you to come along and join me.
If you thought yoga retreats were all silence and brown rice, Yoga Cucina invites you to reconsider. Initiated by a trio of yoga instructors — and wine drinkers — it's a brand new kind of yoga-inspired getaway. Gear up to spend a weekend practising your salutes to the sun and downward dogs, in between sampling several drops, feasting on Italian fare, playing darts and swimming beneath waterfalls. "We want it to be an adventure, rather than a retreat," says Aly Clarke, who's organised the project alongside friends Rebecca Lockyer and Claire Blackwood. "It's not about people dressing in white and wearing patchouli." The idea came about at 1am, over a year ago. "We'd been to yoga together and were starving," Aly says. "Claire's husband, Marco [Gobbo] and his best friend Luca [Faccin] are both chefs, so they cooked up some risotto. There we were, eating and drinking wine and rum, and playing poker. We started thinking, other people must want to do this." And so, Yoga Cucina was born. The first adventure will be held over three nights, from September 29 to October 2 in The Pill Factory, a 19th century sandstone building in NSW's Southern Highlands. Think Chesterfields, open fireplaces and secretive nooks. "On the first night, we'll meet for a pre-dinner drink, then sit down to a big, family feast," Aly explains. Marco and Luca, who are both Michelin star trained, will be taking care of that. Come morning, you'll wake up to a two-hour yoga session, soundtracked by hip hop, before partaking in a barbecue lunch. Then it'll be off to a local national park for swimming under waterfalls and back to The Pill Factory for a pasta-making class, followed by another epic dinner and an evening in the games room, playing pool, darts and board games. Days two and three offer similar eclecticism, including a meeting with a monk at nearby Sunnataram Theravada Buddhist Monastery. A weekend at the retreat will set you back $880-935 per person, which includes all activities and brunch, dinner and snacks. Space is strictly limited to 26 and there are rooms for singles, doubles and groups. "The building is really big, so there's heaps of space for people to spread out and do whatever they want, Aly says. "We want them to feel free to do as little — or as much — as they'd like." After the first adventure is completed, the Yoga Cucina team will look further afield. When we chatted with them, they were scoping out venues in Tasmania. Image: Leeroy Te Hira.
Taste Tuesdays — a new series of monthly dinners — will see some of Sydney's best restaurants join forces for one-off menus and epic chef collaborations. For the first instalment, nel. is teaming up with Harvest Newrybar on Tuesday, April 10. The dinner, dubbed The Foraged Feast, will showcase wild and native ingredients in an on-the-day curated menu. The minds behind the evening include nel.'s executive chef Nelly Robinson and Harvest's head chef Alastair Waddell, along with Harvest's forager Peter Hardwick. The trio will hunt around the forests, coastline and beaches of Byron Bay and Sydney to source the dinner's ingredients. They'll be making the rounds throughout the dinner, too, so guests will have the chance to engage one-on-one with the gents and learn a bit more about this foraging business. On the night, patrons will be greeted with a welcome cocktail and snacks, followed by a four-course menu that will be created on the day using local ingredients — which have been collected just hours before. After dinner, guests will receive a complimentary digestif to close the evening. It's all included in the $115 per person ticket price, with a wine pairing on offer for an additional $50. Taste Tuesdays is a global initiative by Taste Festivals, with monthly dinners happening in Sydney, London, Paris and Hong Kong on the same night. The dinner series will continue on the second Tuesday of every month and each one will be held at a different Sydney restaurant — so keep an eye on the website for the next dinner announcement.
Regardless of your amazing (or less-than-amazing) green thumb skills, keeping your garden lush is extra tough right now. Greater Sydney continues to battle through some of the roughest drought conditions in history and, as a result, level 1 water restrictions. Which is why Sydney Water's huge Drought Proof Garden has popped up in the CBD's Martin Place this week, offering garden inspiration aplenty and giving away over 100 hardy plant babies for free. Open to the public from 7am–7pm until Wednesday, October 30, the 100-square-metre living installation aims to show locals how they can create top-notch, healthy gardens while also conserving water. It's packed with over 15 varieties of locally sourced, water-efficient plants that can thrive even in extra tough conditions, from vibrant blue chalk sticks to the bushfire-resistant gymea lily. Head in from 5pm on Wednesday, and you can even take home one of these indestructible plant species for free. While the pop-up's here, you can also take a workshop on efficient watering led by The Planthunter editor Georgina Reid, jump on a guided tour of the garden, and learn about other nifty water-saving methods including mulching and composting. For more water-saving tips, head to the Sydney Water website. The Drought Proof Garden is giving away 100 free succulents and drought proof plants from 5pm on Wednesday, October 30.
If the way that cinema depicts cancer was plotted out on a scale, Babyteeth and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl could easily demonstrate its extremes. One sees its protagonist as a person first and a patient last; the other uses terminal illness as a catalyst for other people's sorrows and struggles (the "dying girl" part of its moniker, right there at the end, is oh-so-telling about how it regards someone with cancer as little but an afterthought). Nowhere Special thankfully sits at the Babyteeth end of the spectrum. That said, its premise screams weepie, and being moved by its story happens easily. But there's an enormous difference between earning that response through an intimate and delicate story about a person's plight — and, here, their quest to provide for the person dearest to them after they're gone — and merely treating their life-and-death tussle as easy grist for the tear-jerking mill. Nowhere Special follows a 35-year-old single father in Belfast, John (James Norton, Little Women), who needs to find an adoptive family for his four-year-old boy (first-timer Daniel Lamont). His cancer has progressed, and now the doting dad and window cleaner's days are numbered, so he's determined to save his son Michael from more sorrow than his absence will naturally bring — in a situation that's pure emotion-courting fodder, but never manipulatively treated as such. Indeed, writer/director Uberto Pasolini opts for understatement and realism, including over overtly endeavouring to incite the kind of non-stop waterworks that most movies with this premise would eagerly turn on. The filmmaker's last feature, 2013's Still Life, was also just as beautifully measured and tender without mawkishness. Although the gap between his two latest pictures is sizeable time-wise, Pasolini hasn't lost his touch for making sensitive and affecting cinema. Suffering an illness that's turned fatal, and possessing little energy to get through everything that comes with being a single father, John's own fate isn't his primary concern. Nowhere Special takes time to dwell in the routine that marks its protagonist's remaining days — washing panes of glass, making the most of the time he has left with Michael, trying to secure his son new parents, feeling exhausted by all of it but still soldiering on while he can — which seems both mundane and extraordinary in tandem. The always-unspoken fact that life goes on even when it doesn't lingers throughout the film, as stark as a freshly cleaned, newly gleaming window, and contributes to the prevailing bittersweet mood. That's Nowhere Special's baseline. As it charts John's efforts to get Michael the best future he possibly can without himself in it, it soaks in the ups and downs of the pair's life together, recognising that it's both ordinary and remarkable — because all lives are. The search at hand is a difficult one, even when pursued with the best of intentions — by John and with the help of social worker Shona (Eileen O'Higgins, Misbehaviour). Unsurprisingly, finding the right people, or person, to entrust your child to forever is a heartbreaking job, and the weight of what John grapples with never fades from the film's emotional landscape. Features that treat ailing characters so considerately may be uncommon, and they are; however, pictures that willingly face the complicated questions, worries and fears that come with knowing your existence is about to end are rarer still. It might come as little surprise that Pasolini found his tale in reality, reportedly after reading a newspaper article about a man in the same circumstances as John, but how gracefully, attentively and still unflinchingly Nowhere Special fleshes out its story never fails to astonish. Both visually and in his storytelling, Pasolini's approach is to dwell on small moments, as well as times shared in passing that might be forgotten by many but mean the world to John. See: the type of mirrored behaviour that a young son adopts from his dad, the sight of them walking around in matching baseball caps, and the joy that Michael gets from washing his toy truck — doing what his dad does in a way that he can, and showing how he idolises his father without needing to voice it. There's an unfussy, unsentimental but always empathetic feel to the Northern Ireland-set movie, and every shot, including in John's mission to relish every second that remains, and with his interviews with prospective new parents both doting and disastrous. While a lesser movie would've used the latter for comedic purposes, that's never part of Nowhere Special's remit. With windows such a key focus — being cleaned and peering into homes that might become Michael's — it's also little wonder that viewing Nowhere Special resembles gazing into a slice of life that isn't just poignant but cherished. Perhaps better known for his television work to-date courtesy of Black Mirror, McMafia, Grantchester and Happy Valley, Norton offers a glimpse into John's soul via his exceptional performance, which conveys a world of devotion and sorrow even when he isn't saying anything. In fact, Pasolini uses dialogue sparingly between his two main characters, knowing that this father-son duo don't always require words to express what they mean, and also recognising that finding the right thing to utter is arduous on both sides. With the also-magnificent Lamont, Norton inhabits scenes of comfortable and treasured silence. Also made plain as a result: that Michael's young mind will only keep the haziest of memories from these times, so it's the loving mood that truly matters above all else. Nowhere Special is easy to sum up: in contrast to its name, it's something outstanding. Its potency also springs from the lens it turns on the kind of character that's infrequently given such thoughtful attention, with or without terminal cancer. Every dollar counts for John, but it's clear that he spends what he has on Michael — as seen in the kid's new clothes and bedding — rather than himself. He's had his own experiences in the social-services system, which beats at the heart of his quest to lock in his son's future. He's been robbed of most of life's opportunities, and he's devoted to ensuring the same doesn't happen for his boy. He's also still wounded by Michael's mother leaving without providing any contact details in her absence, and he's as doting a dad that anyone could ask for. Thanks to both Pasolini and Norton, John is a fleshed-out portrait of someone on the margins, even before his illness factors in. Feeling for his plight isn't just a case of heartstring-tugging; here, it comes as naturally as breathing.
After attracting 286,631 visitors to its inaugural event in 2017, The National: New Australian Art — an epic contemporary Australian art exhibition held across three major Sydney galleries — is back. Due to open in late March 2019, the program will feature works from 65 emerging, mid-career and established artists at the Art Gallery of NSW, the MCA and Carriageworks. Taking care of the AGNSW's offering is Isobel Parker Philip, Curator of Photographs. "States of suspense and anticipation characterise the exhibition at AGNSW, as 24 artists navigate the boundary between chaos and control in work that is by turns political, poetic and personal," Philip said of the exhibition. Look out for Victorian artist Mira Gojak's sculpture Stops, which brings together steel rods and sky blue acrylic yarn, as well as Rushdi Anwar's Irhal (expel), hope and the sorrow of displacement, 2013–ongoing, which combines burnt wooden chairs, black pigment, charcoal and ash. At the MCA, you'll find works by 21 artists from cities, regional areas and remote communities, co-curated by Clothilde Bullen, MCA Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Collections and Exhibitions, and Anna Davis, MCA Curator. "We have selected a diverse group of artists whose practices reflect urgent contemporary concerns," they said in a combined statement. "Many pose questions around hierarchies of power and the ways in which different groups are represented, while other artists create new rituals and experiment with improvisational processes." Among these are The Australian Ugliness (2018) by Melbourne's Eugenia Lim — which exhibited in Melbourne earlier this year as part of Open House — a multi-channel video installation exploring our national aesthetic; and Mumu Mike Williams' Kulilaya munuya nitiriwa (Listen and learn from us) (2017), a painting on canvas mail bag, with wood, kangaroo tendon and resin. Meanwhile Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Senior Curator of Visual Arts, has determined the 19-strong program at Carriageworks. "The National 2019 at Carriageworks presents newly commissioned works that map memory and place-making, where the work of art is a form of emotional tourism," he said. "Exploring the boundaries of truth and fiction, the selected artists reflect on the individual's place in an uncertain and ever-shifting world." Tasmanian duo Mish Meijers and Tricky Walsh will be bringing The Crocker Land Expedition, an installation made up of timber, found objects, parachute, plastic and light, while Troy-Anthony Baylis, an Aboriginal artist of the Jawoyn nation, will be continuing (re)presentations of "notions of drag (cultural and gender), landscape and home". The National 2019: New Australian Art will run at AGNSW from 29 March–21 July 2019, and at Carriageworks and the MCA from 29 March–23 June 2019. Entry is free. Images: Melanie Jame Wolf, HIGHNESS (2017), photo by Bryony Jackson; Nat Thomas, Man cleaning up (2017); Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, The Dogs (2017), photo by Tom Ross; Mark Shorter, Schleimgurgeln (2011); Eugenia Lim, The Australian Ugliness (2018), photo by Tom Ross.
Art enthusiasts, collectors and creators, we have news for you. The Other Art Fair is returning to Sydney this May on its 2023 world tour. From Thursday, May 11 to Sunday, May 14, you'll find the fair in The Cutaway, Barangaroo. This supersized concrete void of a venue boasts immense ceiling height, acoustics and ample natural light — perfect for an event with this much colour and popularity. If you aren't already in the know, The Other Art Fair is a roaming international art show that allows you to view, discuss and even purchase art directly from an emerging artist, rather than deal with the red tape and hurdles of buying through a gallery. It's an extensive roster of 120 talents, each selected by a committee of experts, so you'll be purchasing quality work and supporting the local creative scene. And there's more than just their work to expect — there'll be immersive installations, performances, live DJs, and a fully stocked bar. Convinced yet? It should be a great night or day out for art-and experience-lovers alike, and you could walk away with a brand-new piece to hang up at home. Tickets are on sale now with a variety of options, including a 50% discount if you book before Wednesday, April 12. For more information on the event and artists or to book tickets, visit the website.
The World Press Photo Foundation is a global platform connecting professionals and audiences through raw visual journalism and storytelling. The organisation was founded in 1955 when a group of Dutch photographers organised a contest to expose their work to an international audience. Since then, the contest has grown into the world's most prestigious photography competition and global travelling exhibition. The 65th edition of the World Press Photo Exhibition will touch down in Sydney this year and be on display at the State Library of NSW from Saturday, May 21–Sunday, June 19. The winners from this year's contest were chosen by an independent jury that reviewed 64,823 photographs by 4066 photographers from 130 countries — and while the exhibition only showcases a selection, get ready to peer at the best of the best. Taking top honours for 2022: Amber Bracken's image for The New York Times, featuring red dresses hanging on crosses along the roadside to mark the children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. It's a hauntingly striking photo. This will be on display alongside other finalists, plus eye-catching images in categories that span contemporary issues, the environment, general news, nature, portraits and sports. View this post on Instagram A post shared by World Press Photo Foundation (@worldpressphoto) Top image: 2022 Photo Contest, World Press Photo of the Year. Title: Kamloops Residential School. © Amber Bracken for The New York Times.
If you didn't miss a single chapter of Dr Death and you spend more time on Audible than you do with your friends, then this extravaganza is for you. Meet Audiocraft Podcast Festival, a three-day happening dedicated to podcasts. Whether you make them, listen to them or obsess over them, there are talks, panel discussions and workshops for you. Highlights include a session on true crime podcasts with Stephanie Van Schilt (Sisteria) a performance by Avery Trufelman of 99% Invisible, and a live recording of Hey Aunty!. Other names to look out for include Ian Chillag of Everything is Alive (Radiotopia), Mark Pesce of The Next Billion Second (PodcastOne) and Travis De Vries (Broriginals). The action will kick off on Friday, May 31 with an opening night listening party at Forest Lodge's Harold Park Community Hall. A full day of talks will then take place at AFTRS the following day, where you'll learn about everything from pitching to the future of podcasts and recording the sound of icebergs in the Antarctic. On Sunday, the talks will move to The Calyx at the Royal Botanic Garden and will feature a showcase of some of the best moment's from Radiotopia's podcasts. There'll also be a host of workshops happening across the three days, for those keen on creating their own audible series. Image: Bryce Thomas.
Warm weather means heading outside and not only soaking up the sun, but enjoying summer's sultry evenings. It also means finding as many ways to do just that as possible, so how better than heading to a free film screened under the stars? Every year for the past 19 years, Sydney Olympic Park has played host to Movies by the Boulevard, a free summer film fest that's all about the openair experience. This year, it has combined with Sydney Hills Outdoor Cinema and had a name change — now it's called Outdoor Cinema at Sydney Olympic Park — but, thankfully, it's filled with more of the same great things: food, drinks and free films. Held on a selection of evenings between January 4 and 19, it's serving up a feast of 2019 flicks for your outdoor viewing pleasure. Love Avengers: End Game and want to see it again on the big screen? Missed Aladdin the first time round? Eager for a another dose of childhood nostalgia with Toy Story 4? They're all on the agenda, and more. The rest of the lineup spans from more Edna Mode in Incredibles 2, more live-action Disney with Dumbo and more of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. While you can go and see all of these flicks for free , you can also splash out on some fancy tickets ($17–206). These start with primo seating and free snacks in premium general admission ($17) and go all the way up to the super-luxe VIP tent ($206), which includes your own glamping tent and butler service. If you've been to Sydney Hills Outdoor Cinema, you'll know what to expect from these comfy setups. Also available on site is pizza from the Happy As Larry food truck, slow-cooked barbecue treats and hot buttered popcorn, ice cream and candy. A licensed bar will be pouring beers and wines, too. Gates open at 6pm each night in Cathy Freeman Park, with films kicking off at 8.30pm. BYO blanket and don't forget to register. Top images: Sydney Hills Outdoor Cinema
UPDATE Thursday, June 24: Due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney, Winter in the Domain has been postponed. Heaps Gay's 8th Birthday Carnival will now take place on Saturday, July 17. You can stay up to date with the developing COVID-19 situation in Sydney, as well as current restrictions, at NSW Health. A new winter-themed concert series featuring a family-friendly winter park and a jam-packed lineup of Australian talent is coming to Sydney's CBD this June. Following the tumultuous, yet successful run of Summer in the Domain this March, the Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain are collaborating for another run of performances set among the CBD skyline titled Winter in the Domain. As part of the three-week run of gigs, Sydney's beloved LGBTQIA+ party collective Heaps Gay is celebrating its eighth birthday with a blockbuster night of performances. Heading up the lineup for the Heaps Gay party are performances from dance-pop group Haiku Hands, pop sensation Banoffee, Western Sydney R'n'B hitmaker A.Girl and Touch Sensitive collaborators The Goods. Across the rest of the 30+ strong lineup are performances from the likes of Millie Sykes, Felicia Foxx, Madam3Empress, Lauren and Heaps Gay's own DJs. Manning the hosting duties for the night will be Ru Paul's Drag Race Down Under's Karen from Finance as well as Sharon Manhattan, while Nana Miss Koori will perform a Welcome to Country to begin the event. Alongside the music and performances, a wondrous Winterpark will be set up in The Domain. The park will include an ice skating rink alongside family-friendly carnival rides, food and drink stalls and heated outdoor spots. The music will run from 5–10pm, with the drinks and rides continuing until 11pm. Top Image: Heaps Gay Qweens Ball 2018
