The end of winter means warming temperatures, blooming flowers and summer inching closer. In 2024, it also means looking up. To close out August, a blue supermoon will take to the sky — or a super blue moon, if you prefer. Both terms fit, because the Earth's only natural satellite will serve up both a supermoon and a blue moon. The date to point your eyes to the heavens: the morning of Tuesday, August 20. Stare upwards with your own two eyes at 4.25am AEST and you'll see a noteworthy sight at its peak. Of course, if you train your peepers towards the sky the evening before or afterwards, you'll still be in for a glowing show. While super full moons aren't particularly rare — several usually happen each year — blue moons only tend to occur every few years. Wondering why else you should check this one out? We've run through the details below. What Is It? If you're more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, here's what you need to know. As we all learned back in November 2016, a supermoon is a new moon or full moon that occurs when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making it particularly bright. Again, they're not all that uncommon — and because the supermoon on Tuesday, August 20 is a full moon (and not a new moon), it's called a super full moon. A blue moon refers to either the second full moon occurring within a calendar month, or the third in an astronomical season with four full moons. August 2024's moon falls into the second category. Despite the name, it isn't blue in colour. Also, despite the saying, they happen more often than you might think, but still only ever few years. The last monthly blue moon occurred in August 2023, and the next blue moon of either type isn't set to happen until the end of May in 2026. The August moon is also a sturgeon moon. The name doesn't refer to its shape or any other physical characteristics, but to the time of year. In the northern hemisphere, August is around the time that sturgeon fish start to show up in big numbers in North America's lakes. Of course, that doesn't apply in the southern hemisphere, but the name still sticks. When Can I See It? As mentioned above, the blue supermoon will officially be at its peak at 4.25am AEST on Tuesday, August 20, Down Under — but thankfully it will be visible from Monday night Australian time. The moon does usually appear full for a few days each month, so you should find the night sky looking a little brighter this week anyway. That 4.25am AEST time applies in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with folks in Perth needing to look at 2.25am local time and people in Adelaide at 3.55am local time. Where Can I See It? You can take a gander from your backyard or balcony, but the standard advice regarding looking at glowing sights in the sky always applies — so city-dwellers will want to get as far away from light pollution as possible to get the absolute best view. Fancy checking it out online? The Virtual Telescope Project is set to stream the view from Rome at 5.30am AEST on Tuesday, August 20, too. For more information about the blue supermoon on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 in Australia, head to timeanddate.com. Top image: NASA/Joel Kowsky.
While unscrewing the cap on a bottled cocktail was the closest many of us got to a bar for a large chunk of 2020, some clever Sydneysiders actually opened a bar. And they're an impressive bunch, too. Our fair city is now home to a gin distillery in Surry Hills, a retrofuturistic bar on the 83rd level of Sydney Tower and lower north shore spot dedicated to cognac and jaffles. That's just the start. As the storm clouds start to clear and we reach the end of a weird (and sometimes horrific) 12 months, we're taking a moment to celebrate the good that's come from 2020 by rounding up the best new bars to open their doors this year.
What happens when two cousins played by Kieran Culkin (Succession) and Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman Is in Trouble) honour their grandmother and explore their family's past by heading to Poland? Eisenberg himself asked that question, then turned the answer into the Sundance-premiering and now Jewish International Film Festival-bound A Real Pain. The actor not only co-stars but writes and directs the dramedy, his second feature behind the lens — and Australian audiences can see the results when JIFF returns for 2024. This year's festival is back to finish out the year, screening in seven cities, including across Monday, October 28–Thursday, December 5 at Ritz Cinemas and Thursday, November 7–Wednesday, November 20 at the Roseville Cinemas in Sydney. Just like its fellow major cultural film fests, such as its French, Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian and Japanese counterparts, JIFF's 2024 slate is jam-packed. Movie lovers can choose between 41 features, two TV shows and a showcase of short films, with the festival's titles hailing from 17 countries. Eisenberg and Culkin aren't the only big names on the lineup. Closing night's Berlin-set The Performance, which is adapted from an Arthur Miller short story and tells of a Jewish American tap dancer, stars Jeremy Piven (Sweetwater). The fest's centrepiece pick Between the Temples features Jason Schwartzman (Megalopolis) as a cantor and Carol Kane (Dinner with Parents) as his former elementary school music teacher. And in White Bird, which hails from a book by the author of fellow page-to-screen effort Wonder, Helen Mirren (Barbie) and Gillian Anderson (Scoop) pop up. In Sydney, The Brutalist is on the JIFF bill as well. It shows Down Under after winning Venice's Silver Lion-winner for Best Director for actor-turned-filmmaker Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader, Vox Lux). Starring on-screen: Adrien Brody (Asteroid City), Felicity Jones (Dead Shot) and Guy Pearce (Inside), in a flick that follows architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet to America from Europe after the Second World War. Well-known folks are also in the spotlight in documentaries Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, Diane Warren: Relentless and How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer — and acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, The Trip movies) is on the lineup via British Mandatory Palestine-set historical thriller Shoshana. Then, there's TV series Kafka, arriving a century after the death of its namesake. Highlights across the rest of the program include documentary The Commandant's Shadow, about The Zone of Interest-featured Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss' son Hans Jürgen Höss meeting with survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch; Tatami, following a female Iranian judo athlete played by Arienne Mandi (The L Word: Generation Q), with Guy Nattiv (Golda) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi (last seen on-screen in Shayda, and also co-starring here) co-directing; television's Auckland-set Kid Sister; and Aussie doco Pita with Vegemite: An Israeli Australian Story.
If Gelato Messina's cult following in Sydney wasn't already at boiling point, the dessert lords just took things to a whole new level with the launch of an expansive headquarters in the heart of Marrickville. The flagship Inner West store works as a kind of Wonka-esque one-stop shop for all things Messina. Two years in the making, the Marrickville HQ is now officially open on the corner of Victoria Road and Rich Street, directly next to the Factory Theatre. And with this impressive addition to the Messina family, the team has gone all-out. There are 40 gelato flavours on offer — 35 signature flavours and a rotating selection of limited-edition varieties. Alongside the classic scoops, you'll find eight styles of gelato cakes, thickshakes, farm-fresh Jersey milk and an entire wall stocked with merch. A new range of take-home desserts is also on the menu at Messina HQ. Why not forgo the Woolies mud cake for your next birthday and opt for a Bavarian cream pie — with Iced Vovo, malt chocolate, lemon meringue and tiramisu flavours all available. There's take-home cookie dough here, and nostalgic cookie pies that can be ordered in the flavours fairy bread, peanut butter and dulce, OG choc chip or Messinatella. If all of this wasn't enough, the headquarters also functions as a chocolate shop with a range of Messina-made bars and blocks created using single-original cocoa and cocoa butter from Ecuador and Peru. Before you head off with your arms piled high with next-level desserts, you can also take a look at the production facility which is encased in floor-to-ceiling glass. This peak behind the curtain gives you a glance at the process behind all of the one-of-a-kind flavours and sugary creations that the Messina team ships off to its stores around Sydney and Australia. To celebrate the opening, Ricos Tacos is popping up in the carpark this weekend from 5pm on Friday, April 14 and midday on Saturday, April 15 to sling its beloved Mexican street eats, and the first 50 customers into the store on each of these days will be given a Messina goody bag. Gelato Messina's Marrickville HQ is now open at 1–9 Rich Street, Marrickville. It's open 12pm–late Monday–Sunday.
Here's your latest excuse to stop dreaming about a holiday and start booking: a flight sale by new Australian low-cost airline Bonza. Soaring through the local skies since January, the carrier is already all about cheap fares, but now it's doing 20-percent off all of its routes and destinations for a five-day start-of-spring frenzy. New to Bonza? The local outfit was initially announced in 2021, then secured regulatory approval this year, launching its first flights shortly afterwards. It boasts two bases so far: the Sunshine Coast, where it's been soaring out of since January; and Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport, which joined the list in March. From November, the Gold Coast will become its third home. [caption id="attachment_916931" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tennis Australia/ Fiona Hamilton[/caption] This fresh face in the Aussie aviation scene isn't just about more-affordable tickets all year round, but also opening up routes to more of the country's regional destinations. On its list so far: 18 destinations and 34 routes. They're all getting the 20-percent-off treatment — and you've got from 10am on Thursday, September 7 up to 11.59pm on Monday, September 11 to book. As for where you can travel, Bonza's coverage includes the Whitsunday Coast, Cairns, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Bundaberg, Gladstone and Toowoomba — and also Port Macquarie, Newcastle, Albury and Mildura. Prices start at $39.20. The caveats: you'll need to want to travel this year, specifically from Tuesday, October 10–Wednesday, December 6. Also, you'll need to use the promo code LETSGO when you book. And, that discount is only applicable to the actual fare. So, any costs for bags, seats and payment fees aren't getting cheaper. With the code, if you don't use it at the time of booking, you'll miss out — you can't go back and apply it later. To book during the Bonza sale, you'll need to download the airline's app or hit a registered local travel agent. App-only online reservations are one of the carrier's points of difference. Another: an all-Australian in-flight menu, spanning both food and craft beer. Bonza's flight sale runs from 10am on Thursday, September 7–11.59pm on Monday, September 11. For more information, and to buy fares — using the using the promo code LETSGO — head to the airline's website to download its app for Android and iOS. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
After spending a glorious, sunny summer on the Promenade, the Casa Aperol at Bondi Beach pop-up will be moving indoors and into the beloved Bondi Pavilion to keep giving Sydneysiders the chance to quaff Aperol Spritz, the Italian sunset in a glass, while overlooking their city's most iconic beach. With a breezy bar serving up drinks and a summer-ready food menu designed for beachside enjoyment, the Mediterranean-inspired oasis will shift inside the walls of the Pav, open every Sunday from 11.30am until Sunday, May 7. As well as fresh sea breezes and stunning views of Bondi Beach, you can expect DJs on the decks and prizes up for grabs. The celebrations will keep that summer feeling alive from early March to early May, and culminate in a ticketed live music event in collaboration with Live Nation, so stay tuned for further details. And, if the world's most famous al fresco aperitivo is anything to go by, expect good vibes, great times and a ton of fun for you and your crew. For the latest information on the Casa Aperol pop-up in Bondi, head to the website.
Combining camping in comfort with drinking in a vineyard, winery glamping is the trend that absolutely no one will ever complain about. It's been popping up all over the country, from Bendigo in regional Victoria, to Mount Cotton just outside of Brisbane, to a luxury pod-based version in South Australia's McLaren Vale — and now the Mornington Peninsula is getting in on the action. Meet Mornington Peninsula Glamping, which is now up and running at Blue Range Estate Wines in Rosebud. At a site overlooking not only the vineyard, but with views out over Port Phillip Bay, it features a number of luxe five-by-five-metre tents. There's three onsite at the time of writing; however there'll be ten by mid-October. Available for $265 per night, each tent is decked out with a queen-sized bed with 1000-thread-count sheets, two armchairs and a coffee table, plus solar power to keep your devices juiced. Visitors also have access to a shared cooking and eating area with two barbecues, hot water, and a choice of boutique tea or coffee, plus a luxury bathrooms in a shipping container. Mornington Peninsula Glamping is the brainchild of Christian Melone, whose family own and run vineyard, with his grandparents establishing the site back in the 80s. If you glamp over Thursday to Sunday, you can also mosey up to the winery's restaurant for a meal, tucking into the likes of tagliatelle with bay scallops and prawns, slow-roasted lamb shoulder with truffled mashed potatoes and ocean trout fillet with blood orange butter. Find Mornington Peninsula Glamping at Blue Range Estate Wines, 155 Gardens Road, Rosebud, Victoria.
If the only thing that's been holding you back from packing up and making a home in the middle of nowhere has been the lack of electricity (and the desire to not live out of a tent), you might want to start plotting your escape. Architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have designed a 3D-printed pod home that not only looks 100 percent epic, but can function entirely off the grid. The sustainable structure works in conjunction with a companion vehicle, which is also printed using 3D technology. Solar panels built into the pod's curved pavilion-stye roof powers it by night, and the vehicle generates its own power too through a hybrid electric system. The two share their power — get this — wirelessly through a closed-loop battery system to ensure you're not left in the dark when the sun doesn't peek out behind those clouds. The pod has been developed with the geniuses at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory as part of the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy (AMIE) project. The pod, which is largest of its kind at 11.6m long, 3.7m high and 3.7m wide, has been developed with the aim to illustrate "the potential of a clean energy future for a rapidly urbanising world by demonstrating the use of bidirectional wireless energy technology and high performance materials to achieve independence from the power grid at peak-demand times". 3D printing has given us everything from a chewable toothbrush, 60-second cupcakes, and titanium sculptures, but this has to be the most dream-worthy 3D printed possibility yet. Via Dezeen. Image: SOM.
Doing your bit for the environment has never looked quite so good as it does with Frank Green's colourful range of reusable cups. The durable containers are not only helping to quash Australia's single-use coffee cup waste problem, they're also super stylish and beautifully designed. And you've got the perfect excuse to add a couple to your collection (or someone else's) with Frank Green's Virtual Warehouse Sale, offering up to 50 percent off a heap of Frank Green products. From Thursday, March 18 until Sunday, March 21 you'll be able to treat yourself, a friend or your family to a stylish and sustainable cup on the cheap. Head to the website to browse all the sale items and find the best deals. Frank Green is best known for its reusable cup and bottle range featuring the brand's recognisable pastel colour palette and in-built tap-to-pay feature, but its range of stylish and sustainable goods doesn't stop there. The brand also produces homewares like ceramic reusable containers, tea, coffee and stylish ceramic french presses, as well as Disney and Minions-inspired cups and bottle for kids. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Another streaming service is about to boost your viewing options, focusing on Australian movies and television while letting you watch for free. We might live in peak online-viewing times, with no shortage of platforms vying for eyeballs, but Brollie is launching with a couple of clear points of difference. Firstly, there's the lack of price tag. Secondly, there's the homegrown love. When Brollie arrives on Thursday, November 23, it will hail from independent Australian and New Zealand distributor Umbrella Entertainment — hence the name — and draw upon the company's catalogue. Open debut, that'll mean 300-plus titles ready to view. While the Aussie contingent is a big drawcard, there'll also be overseas releases among the range. So, get ready to watch local-made gems such as The Babadook and Two Hands; classics like Walkabout and Storm Boy that feature the late, great David Gulpilil; the Kylie Minogue-starring Cut; Hugh Jackman (The Son) in Erskineville Kings; and the Nicole Kidman (Special Ops: Lioness)-led BMX Bandits. Documentaries such as Servant or Slave and Ablaze will also be available. Or, get excited about Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid)-led masterpiece You Were Never Really Here, the live-action OG Super Mario Bros, and mind-bender Vivarium with Jesse Eisenberg (Fleishman Is in Trouble) and Imogen Poots (Outer Range) among the international titles. You'll be watching along via Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, Chromecast with Google TV and on your browser. Because Brollie is free, however, the caveat is that you'll also be watching ads. To help viewers sort through the Brollie collection, the service's team will highlight its best-of picks twice monthly, and also hero Aussie horror via an Australian Nightmares collection. "We know these iconic films and TV shows can find new and old audiences instead of gathering dust on the shelf. Brollie is about helping Aussies to access this world-class storytelling easily and, most importantly, for free so everyone can enjoy our epic screen legacy," said Ari Harrison, General Manager and Head of Sales & Acquisitions, announcing Brollie's arrival. Brollie will launch on Thursday, November 23 — head to the streaming platform's website to subscribe and for further details.
German agency Jung von Matt has given some of the world's most iconic cartoon characters a wonderful makeunder by recreating them with Lego blocks. With a distinct minimalist approach to these creations, Jung von Matt have used height and colour to cleverly mould these creations. Nothing displays this better than Marge Simpson's signature towering blue hairstyle. However, some of the other cartoons aren't so easy to make out. But once you find out the answer, you'll kick yourself for not spotting them earlier. Furthermore, your ability to name these characters will be a good indicator of how much time you spent in front of the television as a kid. Have a look at the images below, and score yourself on how many you can guess. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Smurfs Asterix and Obelix South Park [via Flavorwire]
Oxford Street's Taylor Square is set for a revamp after Moelis Australia acquired neighbouring venues the Kinselas Hotel and the Courthouse Hotel in a $67 million deal. The private equity firm has revealed the purchase of the adjoining properties is part of a plan to combine them to create a singular Taylor Square hospitality precinct. Moelis currently owns several venues, including the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay, which it reportedly bought for more than $100 million late last year, and the Australian Brewery. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, both the Kinselas Hotel and the Courthouse Hotel were hotspots for late-night visitors to Oxford Street. The three-level Kinselas, which was once a funeral parlour, includes the top-level bowling ally and nightclub The Standard Bowl, the aptly titled second-level Middlebar and Johnny Wong's Dumpling Bar. [caption id="attachment_794200" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jan Smith via Flickr[/caption] The Courthouse Hotel has been an Oxford Street stalwart for decades. The sale of the Darlinghurst venue is its first in 30 years. "The Courthouse has to be one of the most recognisable pubs in Sydney," said Dan Dragicevich of HTL Property who brokered the deal with Moelis Australia. "The widely held view is that Oxford Street is in for a renaissance in the years to come as astute investment houses and developers seek a foothold in what will be the city's only 24-hour precinct following the reshaping of the lockout laws." Moelis Australia Hotel Management CEO Dan Brady sited the repealing of Sydney's lockout laws in January and the City of Sydney's plan to revitalise nightlife and the creative industries as influencing factors in the purchase of the venues. In the past twelve months, the City of Sydney has announced plans to reignite the nightlife in Kings Cross and Oxford Street, while the NSW Government has scrapped several archaic laws surrounding liquor licenses and live music. The settlement for both hotels is expected to occur in February 2021. The Kinselas Hotel is located at 383 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst and the Courthouse Hotel is located at 189 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.
Louis Vuitton's stamp of luxury (that popular LV) and Supreme's iconic red and white boxed logo are joining forced for their first collaborated pop-up shop — and they've picked Sydney to launch. From Friday, June 30 until Friday, July 13, the Bondi beach pop-up will feature coveted LV-stamped apparel paired with the Supreme logo accessories as seen in the men's autumn/winter 2017 line, which was announced at Paris Men's Fashion Week in January. Count yourself lucky, Sydney, this pop-up shop request was denied in New York City. The pop-up will stock the duo's new collaborative baseball caps, t-shirts and backpacks. And if you're feeling bold, the collection also features denim baseball jerseys, leather jackets, cross-body bags and much more. The store will also offer exclusive pop-up shop pieces that you'll have to check out for yourself. While the two brands were established 140 years apart, their collision of high fashion and New York City streetwear is a world-first — and a huge coup for Australia. The pop-up store will be open Monday to Sunday 10am–6pm, and Thursday 10am–7pm.
No doubt you've heard that the world's favourite rich-kid band, the Strokes have dusted themselves off and are back in the studio. Not sure how it's going down, especially after watching their first studio diary video, which Julian Casablancas is completely absent from. Julian said recently that "it's way more collaborative", so obviously he's letting the boys start off the proceedings whilst he's off touring his solo work. In the four-year interim between albums, it's not just Julian who has gone off on a solo tangent: Albert Hammond, Jr. has released two albums of sunny pop and Nikolai Fraiture put out a solo album which was far more expansive than any of the Strokes stuff. Maybe these diversions will all play a part in the next album from the NYC supergroup. From the sounds of things on the studio diary it's going to be more of the same sharp-edged guitars and driving drum beats, but it's a bit early to call it. We will have to wait to see how it sounds when they come to our shores. They are rumoured for Splendour (and it's not the most ridiculous rumour, as Secret Sounds, who own the festival, are presenting the tour), but if you want to catch them in Sydney you'd better hop to it as the tickets go on sale on Monday, April 12, at 9am. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Wcye5kvbgAs
If there's one thing Australians do well, it's drinking beer. And if there's something that Australia does well, it would have to be pubs. Arguably, Sydney has a few of the very finest anywhere in the world, and there's really no better time than spring to crawl and trawl your way through them. We have whittled it down to the best of the best, handpicking our favourites for you. So, without further ado, here is Concrete Playground's top pubs in town. 1. The Lord Nelson Where: 19 Kent Street, The Rocks Once sandstone house, now historic pub, the Lord Nelson has to be one of Sydney's best places to enjoy a beer. This is a proper, old English-style pub, set in the right spot to have exceptional views straight across the harbour. Naval prints on the walls, no poker machines and plenty of locals: this is exactly how pubs should be. The beer on offer isn't half bad either. On tap are the six beers brewed on-site, ranging from a summer ale to a porter. The most popular is the Three Sheets, a pale ale, though we'd also recommend the Victory Bitter, a classic English ale with a touch of caramel. If you decide to venture upstairs and make the most of the view, perhaps complete the picture with the brewery's summer ale, the Quayle Ale. All are completely natural, with no preservatives, extra sugar or other additives. For review and details, click here 2. The Old Fitzroy Where: 129 Dowling St, Woolloomooloo The Old Fitz has been in operation for over a century, and remains one of the few pubs left in inner Sydney with a bit of character to it. It prides itself as being a place with history and substance, as well as a meeting place for artists, writers and musicians. It also stands as one of the last bastions of old-fashioned Australian drinking culture in the heart of one of Sydney's most gentrified areas. The Old Fitz has thirteen different beers on tap including varieties of Coopers and James Squire, as well as Little Creatures and Guinness. They also have Bulmer's Cider at the ready, which is always good for those of us who don't actually enjoy beer very much but, for fear of derision from one's friends, like to look like we're drinking one. Wines on offer are mostly Australian or Kiwi, the cheapest glass costing a mere $6.80 and most bottles averaging at about $30, and the most expensive bottle of French 'sparkling wine' will set you back $97. For review and details, click here 3. The Cricketers Arms Where: 106 Fitzroy Street, Surry Hills The Cricketers Arms, known more intimately as the Crix, is the kind of local that will make you want to move into the area. It's a beautiful old pub, boasting wooden floors and wall tiles, a laid back atmosphere, and plenty of character behind the bar. The walls are decorated with intimate paraphernalia, strung together with fairy lights, while graffiti runs amok in the toilets. The local theme stems into the drinks too, with a sturdy wine list and an excellent selection of local beers on tap. Be warned, this place is busy - and not only on nights that there's a game up the road. Friday and Saturday nights are particularly insane. We think, however, that the wild and varied crowd is all part of the fun. For review and details, click here 4. The Norfolk Where: 305 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint and some mismatched furniture can do for a courtyard. Just take the Norfolk's beer garden, for example. Since it's decidedly hip transformation, the leafy backyard has become a haven for Surry Hills locals to kick back and have a drink, and you'll be hard pressed to find a seat during the packed lunch and post-work hours. It's the jewel in this redone pub's crown. There's a lot of great reasons to visit the Norfolk, and the trendy interior is just the start of it. Cocktail lovers will like the ingenuity behind drinks like the Bloody Mary, served in a Campbell's tomato soup tin, or the Ciderlicious, combining apple cider with pear vodka and smashed mixed berries. And while they still need to work out the kinks on the sharp-tasting Sangrias, the jugs are good value for groups. For review and details, click here 5. The East Sydney Where: 113 Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo If you want to get yourself a pink pepper martini and some gluten-free tapas you've come to the wrong place, my lad. Get thee up the road and into the bosom of Surry Hills, for the East Sydney Hotel is a proper pub: no nonsense beer, a decent steak and plenty of merriment. And not a cocktail umbrella in sight. The East Sydney Hotel speaks to what a Sydney pub might have been fifty years or ago, or a hundred years ago for that matter. You can imagine proper men, from the age when men still wore hats and non-ironic moustaches, populating the amiable darkness of the pub and nursing their beers after a hard day. The East Sydney prides itself on being the last proper country-style pub left in Sydney, which has got to be a hard task when you're located between the borders of Surry Hills and Woolloomooloo. For review and details, click here 6. The Courthouse Where: 202 Australia Street, Newtown Popular with students, artists and the battered men who've been frequenting it for the past forty years, The Courthouse is a beloved staple of Newtown's drinking spots. Grungy, relaxed and unpretentious with one of Sydney's finest beer gardens, I have an unabashed devotion to this place. Inside you'll find pool tables, a collection of pinball machines and a couple of vinyl couches with the stuffing falling out of them. The interior of the pub is exactly what you'd expect: dark wood on scruffy walls, well-trodden carpet and a gallery of old Sydney Swans posters. A pair of arty student types with silly beards sit at the bar alongside a bloke in a Bonds singlet, nursing a schooner, sporting an entirely un-silly beard. During AFL season expect not to be able to hold a conversation anywhere near the football-scarfed fans surrounding the televisions. For review and details, click here 7. The Hollywood Where: 2 Foster Street, Surry Hills It's difficult to speak about the Hollywood without mentioning its owner, Doris Goddard. This is partly because her paraphernalia is plastered onto one of the walls, an intimate shrine to her history. (Goddard emerged from slums of Glebe to become a successful film star, performing alongside big names like Katherine Hepburn and Bob Hope.) Another reason might be that she is often in the pub herself, occasionally for one of her renowned midnight performances. The hotel itself is perfectly suited to an ex-Hollywood starlet. Nestled amongst the deco era buildings of Surry Hill's long vanished film industry (including the heritage listed Paramount Building), all the right details are in place: from a curved wooden bar to antique toilets. That said, there's nothing fussy or intimidating about the joint. Bar staff are friendly and relaxed. The menu consists of chips in wooden bowls and cheese platters, which are more nostalgic than fancy. And the best beer on tap is the Hollywood's own lager. For review and details, click here 8. The Hero of Waterloo Where: 81 Lower Fort Street, The Rocks One of Sydney's oldest pubs, the Hero lets you time travel and sip a cold beer at the same time. Within these sandstone walls, listening to the lilting tones of the Irish bar staff, it doesn't feel difficult to reach out to your own, or someone else's, colonial ancestor. That said, there's more than that to stimulate the imagination. Ask around about the ghost of Anne Kirkman, join in a Saturday night sing-a-long held around the old piano or sneak a look at the tunnel that runs from the hotel's maze of cellars to the harbour, safe as you are from any shanghaiing techniques. If you'd rather live in the present, perhaps you should pay a visit to the restaurant. The lamb shanks are hard to beat, with sautéed onion potato mash, green beans, and port wine, garlic and rosemary jus. Otherwise opt for the bangers and mash, with roasted onion, sautéed cabbage and red wine jus. Prices are reasonable, considering your proximity to the harbour, and the food is well worth it. For review and details, click here 9. The Flinders Where: 63 Flinders Street, Surry Hills There is something a little bit saucy about Flinders. Could it be the way that the interior flirts with Americana whilst remaining resolutely local? The audacious opening hours? Perhaps that its namesake drink is a twist on a Bloody Mary? Whatever that secret sauce is, we want more of it. The words 'dive bar' have been floating around this place since it opened, and that can only be a good thing. The drinks menu, however, may not be what you'd expect. Don't get me wrong: there are certainly tough elements. Tequila, rye whisky and absinthe all put in an appearance. But the way these elements are put together suggests something a little more considered. The Pickletini reworks this classic gin base with pickle juice, while Penicillin (with scotch, more scotch, lemon, honey and ginger) promises to cure what's ailing you. For a fundamentalist, the Aussie Boilermaker might be the go: a schooner of XXX, shot of Bundaberg rum and a home made sausage roll should do the trick. That said, the flashing neon in the window that spells out 'COLD BEER' isn't lying either. There's plenty of good options on tap, with Kirin and James Squire - both Amber and Pilsner. For review and details, click here 10. The Annandale Where: 17 Parramatta Rd, Annandale This pub rock institution is the lifeblood of the Sydney music scene. A '30s Aussie pub, converted in the early '80s into a live music venue, the Annandale has long been the quintessential Australian rock venue. There's the distinct stench of blood, sweat and tears in the air to prove it. With a substantial stage and lighting rig, and a sound system perfectly worn in to the room, any Australian band worth their salt aspires to play here (or already has). A rite of passage for up and coming bands, a night at the Annandale is memorable for musicians and punters alike. And to help the memory factor, the paved courtyard behind the hotel hosts 'pub cha' every Saturday and Sunday, offering regular favourites as well as weekly specials. For review and details, click here
Lili J has given the once-abandoned building it calls home, which was once upon a time a florist shop, a new lease on life. The cafe mixes mismatched furniture, plants and huge bay windows to welcoming effect. Coffee is serious business here, with the beans from Sydney roaster Reuben Hills and the occasional appearance by other top-notch roasters. The all-day breakfast menu blends cafe classics like bacon and egg rolls and granola with the likes of chilli scrambled eggs and warming cinnamon porridge. There's also a scrumptious range of baked goods on offer, which rotate daily. Best of all, such are the prices, you won't have to put off buying a home to fund your breakfast. Images: Jasmine Low
If part of you loves the long-haul flights of fancy of Discworld and the dynastic intrigue of The Bold and the Beautiful, chances are, you also love some Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But the author of classic Latin American epics Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude has a stash of lesser-known short fiction you may not have yet uncovered, and fortunately, director Netta Yashchin has dug out one fine example, I Only Came to Use the Phone, and brushed it up for a dashing public outing. Set in the dying years of Franco's Spain, the story homes in on a woman, Maria (Annabelle Stephenson), who is left trying to phone her husband, shelter from the rain and anxiously light damp cigarettes at a rest stop after her car breaks down. Dejected and drawn to join the shrouded women on a passing bus, she winds up inadvertently dispatched to a psychiatric institution, where, of course, no-one believes she only came to use the phone. Her path to escape — or acquiescence — makes up a wry and touching tale that captures the feeling of dislocation and parallels the very real experience of arbitrary imprisonment found under Fascism. Unusually, the story isn't adapted into a play; instead, the original text, rich and written in the third person, is delivered by an ensemble cast while they embody the characters to which the words pertain. The tack itself adds interest, and the result is surprisingly engaging. Stephensen, Julia Billington, David Hansen, Dorje Swallow, Fayssal Bazzi and (only occasionally appearing) Yashchin are all excellent and ultra-committed as they shift into their various roles, including those of inpatients, wardens, a magician and a house cat. It's a world away from a mere dramatic reading, as the story is completely brought to life through the depth of characterisation and physicality, the rich dialogueishness brought to the text, and a set (by Charlotte Lane) that breathes the scungy romance of Catalonia, even in confinement. Most brilliantly, this approach has allowed Yaschin to add cheeky inflections of irony and heighten dark subtexts that aren't the characters' own or aren't present in a surface reading of the material. Throw in the constant serenade of a live Spanish guitar (Damian Wright), and you've got a bewitching night of independent theatre.
First, the 80s-set tale of Vivian meeting Edward fuelled a big-screen box-office smash. Next, Pretty Woman took the screen-to-stage leap, premiering on Broadway in 2018. Australia has been waiting to see the theatre production ever since — a delay that'll finally be over in 2025. Even better: after initially announcing its Aussie-debut season in Brisbane from October, Pretty Woman: The Musical is now extending its run, heading to Theatre Royal Sydney from November. Yes, that means getting a specific song stuck in your head. Whenever 90s rom-com Pretty Woman comes to mind, Roy Orbison's song likely does as well. That said, when the musical based on the hit flick arrives in the Harbour City for the first time, you'll be getting Bryan Adams tunes lodged in your brain, too. The Canadian singer-songwriter helped bring the Julia Roberts (Leave the World Behind)- and Richard Gere (The Agency)-starring film to the stage, penning the music and lyrics for the show. If you've seen the film, you'll know the story, as an escort and a corporate raider fall in love — and you'll also know that it made Roberts a star, complete with a Golden Globe win, plus her first Best Actress Oscar nomination. Alongside America's most-famous theatre district, where it broke records at the Nederlander Theatre, Pretty Woman: The Musical has graced the stage in London's West End, plus Spain, Italy, Poland and Germany. Also just announced: that Samantha Jade, who stepped into Kylie Minogue's shoes in 2024 TV miniseries Never Tear Us Apart: The Untold Story of INXS — opposite Scrublands' Luke Arnold as Michael Hutchence — will be playing Vivian in Brisbane and Sydney. "We knew from the first time Samantha auditioned that not offering her the role of Vivian would be a big mistake. Big. Huge! Her voice perfectly suits Bryan Adams' iconic score and I know Australian audiences will fall in love with her when she makes her debut at QPAC in October," said Suzanne Jones of JONES Theatrical Group. "This is a dream role for me. Such a beloved film that is a favourite of so many worldwide and I'm delighted to be able to originate the role for Australian audiences," added Samantha Jade. There's no word yet who else will be among the local cast, so who'll be following in Gere's footsteps, too — and Laura San Giacomo (NCIS) and Hector Elizondo's (Mr Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie) as well. Whether Pretty Woman: The Musical will head to other Australian stops beyond the Queensland and New South Wales capitals also hasn't yet been revealed. Behind the curtain, Adams worked with his songwriting partner Jim Vallance, who he wrote 'Summer of '69', 'Run to You', 'Cuts Like a Knife' and 'Heaven' with, on the music and lyrics. Late filmmaker Garry Marshall (Mother's Day), who directed the Pretty Woman movie — plus Roberts and Gere's on-screen reunion in 1999 in Runaway Bride — penned the book with the OG flick's screenwriter JF Lawnton (Yellow River Christmas). Pretty Woman: The Musical Australian Dates From Sunday, October 5, 2025 — Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane From November 2025 (exact dates still to be announced) — Theatre Royal Sydney, Sydney Pretty Woman: The Musical will play the Theatre Royal Sydney, 108 King Street, Sydney, from November 2025 — head to the production's website for more details and to sign up for the ticket waitlist. Images: UK tour, Marc Brenner.
The crew behind beloved pizza shop My Mother's Cousin is carving out a claim to be the go-to hospitality group for anything dough-related in Sydney's south. Not content with running one of the area's best pizzerias, the team has delivered another standout venue in the form of Self Raised Bread Shoppe. Decked out in retro signage and awnings accompanied by a chequered lino floor and wood panelling, the cafe and bakery is serving carb-laden goodness on Jubilee Avenue in the Sydney suburb of Carlton, just down from Jubilee Stadium. On the counter you'll find a glass cabinet with the day's baked wares for sale. Expect kouign-amanns, croissants, filled doughnuts, tarts and cinnamon buns all ready to satisfy your sweet cravings. Or, if you'd prefer the savoury route, opt for focaccia topped with tomato and ricotta, sausage rolls or a selection from the made-to-order sandwich menu. If you're heading in before 10.30am and on the hunt for something hot and hearty you have two choices. The first is the egg, cheese and potato hash on a milk bun with your choice of peppered ketchup or the specialty house sauce plus the optional addition of sausage — a perfect combo for a Sunday morning after a big night. The other option is your classic sourdough grilled cheese with mushroom as an optional added extra. From 10.30am until close, the sandwich selection expands to include mortadella, turkey, ham, and salami hoagies; tuna sandwiches loaded with dill, onion, cheese and pickles; a vegetarian delight that loads up ciabatta with artichoke, onion, rocket, parmesan and mayo; or a classic panko-crumbed schnitzel sambo on white bread. Self Raised Bread Shoppe does have more than your bread needs covered. There's also shelves of providore faves like hot sauces, cold meats, sardines, olives, burrata, coffee beans and cans of iced tea.
One of the most iconic sports bars in Sydney, Sports Bar at the Star, is perhaps one of the biggest players in the sports bars games. Without a doubt, one of the biggest drawcards of this Pyrmont venue is its commitment to playing ALL sports live, no matter what time of the day they're on. And no matter what you decide to watch, Sports Bar at The Star boasts six mega screens, over 50 LCD TVs and the behemoth: a 34 square metre LED screen to rule them all. The only bigger screen in town is the IMAX. Food-wise, the in-house restaurant Fuel offers a full menu of pub classics. And for the punters, there's Australia's first paperless TAB right in the middle of the action. Yes, it's in the casino, but what it lacks in intimacy, it makes up for in scale. This bar is huge, and there's simply no way to miss the action. Watch any sport, any time, and if you can't decide — just watch them all at once. Best for live international sport at any time.
It has been 85 years since a patch of Milsons Point was turned into a Sydney amusement park, and much has changed in the city over that time. Plenty has changed at the heritage-listed Luna Park itself, too, including multiple closures and reopenings between the late 70s and early 00s. Now, the site is undergoing a big revamp — which'll add nine new permanent rides as part of a $30 million facelift. As announced on Tuesday, November 24 by New South Wales Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres, Luna Park will update and refresh its facilities, and introduce new reasons for Sydneysiders and tourists to stop by. It'll mark the biggest makeover the park has had since it permanently reopened back in 2004, although the site will need to temporarily close from late-January 2021 to get everything done. Wondering what you'll be able to hop on? Six of the new rides will be specifically for children, so unless you have littlies in tow, they mightn't excite you all that much. Also, just what they'll entail hasn't been revealed. But the other three fresh additions include a family coaster for all ages, some type of thrill ride and a new version of The Big Dipper. Luna Park has been home to rollercoasters called The Big Dipper before, but this latest ride will be smaller than its predecessors — and also faster, with a top speed in excess of 70 kilometres per hour. It'll also be an inline seating launch roller coaster, which means that it'll be just one seat wide. [caption id="attachment_792212" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] A render of how the revamped Luna Park will look[/caption] Exactly when you'll be able to take a whirl on the new rides hasn't yet been announced, but it's expected that you'll be able to walk though Luna Park's big face gates again after its January shutdown by the middle of 2021. Luna Park will close down for its latest upgrades from Wednesday, January 27, 2021, reopening sometime mid-year. For more details about the revamp, visit the park's website.
Craft brew lovers in Sydney's southwest rejoice. The Ambarvale Hotel is bringing a whole heap of exciting beers to your neck of the woods for a one-day craft beer festival coined the South West Beer West. Running from midday on Saturday, February 26, the festival will boast samples from 13 different local breweries for you to try. You're certain to find your new favourite brew with beers on offer courtesy of Capital Brewing Co, White Bay Brewing, Akasha Brewing Co, Holgate Brewery, Willie the Boatman and locals Ambarvale Brewing Company among the 13 different beer-makers on show. The Ambarvale Hotel has recently undergone a bit of an upgrade, with the pub's new outdoor In The Gardens oasis set to play home to the beer festival. Entry is free and $35 token booklets will be available to purchase on the day granting you access to a heap of beer samples. If you're the type to be on the lookout for a good deal, you can nab your token booklet online before the event and save $5.
So far, 2022 has been the year of Wordle — of waking up, busting out your best five-letter guesses over your morning coffee, bragging about your prowess online, getting annoyed about American spelling and grumbling about changes since The New York Times took over the popular game, too. But come March, it'll also be the year of Celebrity Letters and Numbers for the second year running, because SBS is bringing back the star-studded version of its initial 2010–12 hit that first debuted last year. Whether you watched along back when famous folks weren't doing the puzzling, you've been hooked to repeats of old episodes over the past ten years or you jumped onboard when Celebrity Letters and Numbers premiered in 2021, there's no denying the joys of this simple but delightful game show. It celebrates clever contestants doing word and number brain-teasers, each episode has an engagingly low-key vibe — all while still remaining tense as competitors try to work out the right answers, of course — and it's very easy and immensely enjoyable to play along with from home. Accordingly, it's no wonder that SBS has made a second season of its new starry format, which'll start airing on SBS and via SBS On Demand from Saturday, March 5. Comedian Michael Hing is still on hosting duties, after taking over from the OG version's Richard Morecroft. Lily Serna is also returning to flip numbers and show off her maths skills, while David Astle will again tell contestants whether they've found real words or just made them up, all with his trusty dictionary in hand — as they've both done since before Letters and Numbers had an extra word at the beginning of its moniker. As happened during season one of Celebrity Letters and Numbers, they'll be joined by three different well-known faces and a special guest each week, some vying for glory and others sitting with Astle in dictionary corner — with season two set to feature Merrick Watts, Ben Law, Tanya Hennessy, Akmal Saleh, Susie Youssef and Aaron Chen, among others. And, this new run of episodes will again span an hour each, and feature 12 instalments. Making words out of nine randomly selected letters, using six also randomly chosen numbers in equations to reach a set figure, and rearranging a jumble of nine more letters into one lengthy word in the final round — that's still all on the bill, naturally, because it wouldn't be any version of Letters and Numbers otherwise. And yes, to answer the obvious question: this is basically SBS's Aussie version of the great 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (which SBS also airs, so it clearly knows that it's ace). Letters and Numbers, both with and without celebs, owes a big debt to a few European shows, in fact. When it first aired sans comedians more than a decade ago, the original Letters and Numbers took its cues from both French TV's Des chiffres et des lettres, which dates back to 1965 — and also from Britain's Countdown, which has been on the air since 1982, and then inspired 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Check out the trailer for season two of Celebrity Letters and Numbers below: The second season of Celebrity Letters and Numbers will start airing on SBS and via SBS On Demand from Saturday, March 5, with new episodes dropping weekly.
So, you've successfully smashed all the walks and hikes in town and you're looking for some fresh tracks to conquer? We reckon you'll be kept pretty busy with Sydney's new — and utterly enormous — walking trail, known as the Great West Walk. Clocking in at 65 kilometres, the walk runs all the way from Parramatta to the foot of the Blue Mountains in Penrith. As Western Sydney's longest walk, the trail traverses a lot of residential streets (and even the Great Western Highway at one point), but you'll still have plenty in the way of nature opportunities — no matter how much of it you're tackling at once. Near the start, it runs along the river through Parramatta Park, by the likes of the Old Government House and The Old Dairy, and a new 1.2-kilometre track along Toongabbie Creek. You can take in the Lost Rogans Hill Railway Line at Northmead, Seven Hills' International Peace Park and the scenic surrounds of Chang Lai Yuan Chinese Gardens in Western Sydney Parklands. [caption id="attachment_745897" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Great West Walk map, courtesy of the City of Parramatta.[/caption] As you get further out, The Great West Walk passes through the heritage-listed Rooty Hill Historic Site and the 900-hectare Wianamatta Regional Park. It finishes at the Nepean River, where you can either kick back enjoying views of the Blue Mountains in the background, link up to the existing eight-kilometre Great River Walk or venture a few more metres into the Penrith CBD for a hard-earned coffee and feed. You probably won't be knocking the whole thing out in one go, but it can easily be done in parts over a couple of weekends. The track intersects with the train line at multiple points, too, so you'll be able to get there and back without much hassle. Plus, it might even save you a drive to a national park and help you explore your own backyard a bit more. The whole thing has been brought to life with the help of hiking group the Walking Volunteers (who also helped create the 760-kilometre Sydney Harbour and Coastal Walking Network), along with almost $500,000 from the NSW Government and support from the likes of local councils, NSW Parks and Wildlife Services, and Western Sydney Parkland Trust. The Walking Volunteers are the first to put the Great West Walk through its paces. They set out to tackle the whole 65 kilometre stretch on Friday, and are expected to end in Penrith this evening, Tuesday, October 15. The Great West Walk starts at Parramatta and ends in Penrith. To plan your walk, view the map here. Image: Western Sydney Parklands.
Put those glittery gumboots away: you won't be dancing to 'Padam Padam' in North Byron Bay Parklands this winter. Splendour in the Grass has become the latest Australian music festival to scrap its plans, with organisers announcing that 2024's event has now been cancelled, continuing a heartbreaking trend for the local industry. The news comes just weeks after the winter fest unveiled its Kylie Minogue-, Future- and Arcade Fire-led lineup in mid-March, and follows on from a heap of other cancellations across the Aussie festival scene of late. In February, Groovin the Moo also ditched its 2024 events just a fortnight after revealing its lineup. Also, Falls Festival took summer 2023–24 off, Summergrounds Music Festival at Sydney Festival was cancelled and This That hasn't gone ahead for a couple of years now. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Splendour in the Grass (@splendourinthegrass) "With a heavy heart, we're announcing the cancellation of Splendour in the Grass 2024," said the Splendour team in a statement. "We know there were many fans excited for this year's lineup and all the great artists planning to join us, but due to unexpected events we'll be taking the year off. Ticketholders will be refunded automatically by Moshtix. We thank you for your understanding and will be working hard to be back in future years." "We're heartbroken to be missing a year, especially after more than two decades in operation. This festival has always been a huge community effort, and we'd like to thank everyone for their support and overall faith. We hope to be back in the future," added Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco, co-CEOs of Secret Sounds. Splendour was set to feature Kylie and Future doing exclusive shows, plus a lineup that also spanned Turnstile, The Presets doing a DJ set, Yeat, Hayden James, Girl in Red, Baby Gravy, Tash Sultana, DJ Seinfeld, Fontaines DC, Royel Otis, Tones and I and more. Omar Apollo, The Last Dinner Party, Lizzy McAlpine, The Kills, Thelma Plum, Partiboi69, Angie McMahon, Viagra Boys: they were all also on the bill, which was due to take to the stage from Friday, July 19–Sunday, July 21. 2024's event would've marked the festival's 22nd birthday — and its third COVID-19-era fest, following the supremely muddy 2022 iteration (which was delayed for the two years due to the pandemic's early days) and 2023's go-around. Triple J, one of Splendour's long-running partners, first broke the cancellation news. Splendour in the Grass will no longer take place from Friday, July 19–Sunday, July 21, 2024 at North Byron Bay Parklands, Byron Bay. For more information, head to the festival website. Images: Charlie Hardy, Bianca Holderness and Claudia Ciapocha.
The posters for what's tipped to be Lars von Trier’s masterpiece — his upcoming five-hour sexual epic, Nymphomanic — have been unleashed, with the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Defoe and Stellan Skarsgard showcasing their best 'O' faces. The squirm-inducing effect of the promotion, shot by photographer Casper Sejersen, is only a taster for what's to come. Doubtless, the film will not shy away from unflinching portrayals of erotic ecstasy. In a typical von Trier rejection of cinematic convention, reportedly the genitals of porn actors will be spliced onto the bodies of the cast in the production process. Although it's not the first film to use unsimulated sex, evidently the avant-garde provocateur is continuing to uphold his reputation for revelling in a taboo style of filmmaking and subject matter. For example, according to Shia LeBeouf, a disclaimer at the top of the script reads: "Everything that is illegal, we’ll shoot in blurred images." Indeed, producing audience discomfort and sparking controversy is not new terrain for von Trier. Take, for instance, his grotesque tour de force Antichrist, a hard-hitting arthouse horror film that caused uproar for its scandalous depiction of genital mutilation. (If you haven’t eaten lunch yet, perhaps don’t read up on it now.) Although his films strongly divide audiences and critics, he is without question a major powerhouse of contemporary avant-garde cinema. His work is thought-provoking, technically assured, aesthetically radical and forever pushing boundaries. It is the dream of actors and cinematographers alike to work with this enigmatic artistic visionary. Nymphomaniac is due to be released in December of this year. Via Fast Co.Create
UPDATE: MAY 31, 2019 — Merivale is kicking off its (almost) half-price happy hour early so you can score some cheap after-work drinks today. Yep, Friday night drinks just got a whole lot more affordable. The 49-percent off deal is now running from Friday, May 31 through till Sunday, June 30. Keep reading for more info on where and when you can find it. If last week's drastic drop in temperature has you dreading the blustery days ahead, fear not — Merivale is giving Sydneysiders a reason to push forward into winter. For all of June, the Sydney hospitality empire is once again saying "bottoms up, Sydney" with a whopping 49-percent off all the booze at 39 of its venues between 5pm and 7pm. No joke. For those two hours every day in June, its bars and pubs will be slinging all cocktails, mixed drinks, spirits, beer, wine and even Champagne at nearly half price. That's precisely $8.67 packaged Japanese cocktails at Ms. G's bar, $10.2 gin and purple basil drinks at Charlie Parker's and $7.65 margaritas at El Loco, plus really cheap mini cocktails at Bar Topa, bargain wines by the glass (less than $5, friends) at The Newport and The Beresford and even cheaper craft beers at the The Royal and The Paddington bar. The only catch is this: it doesn't apply to items over $200 (which is still pretty generous if you ask us). So, while you'll have to pay full price for a magnum of Veuve on the Coogee Pavilion Rooftop, a 750ml bottle of the orange-label bubbles will only set you back $81.6. Other high-end discounts you'll be able to snag during the month include a bottle of Bordeaux at the Felix bar for less than a pineapple, a glass of premium Chablis at Bert's bar for only $15.3 and a $10.2 whisky-heavy cocktail at Palmer & Co. If you were looking for an excuse to splash out, this is it. Merivale's 49% off deal will run every day from June 1–30 from 5–7pm. You can find the full list of venues here.
While you're probably champing at the bit to head overseas, the past two years have definitely sparked a resurgence in regional travel — and there is a vast array of incredible country escapes right on our metaphorical doorstep. Enter Talbingo. Sure, you might not have ever heard of it, but there's a whole host of reasons for you to go check it out for your next vacay. This little town in NSW's Snowy Mountains region is full of great outdoor adventures and activities from fly fishing to rewarding hikes. We've teamed up with Wild Turkey to put together a list of our favourite ways to enjoy the great outdoors in Talbingo. [caption id="attachment_841377" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lumi1023 (Flickr)[/caption] GO FISHING AT TALBINGO DAM Talbingo Dam is one of the largest bodies of water that make up the Snowy Mountains Scheme, and one of the enduring drawcards of this part of the world is its popularity as a recreational fishing destination. The deep waters of the dam are home to a variety of species including rainbow trout, golden perch, redfin and more. It's also one of the few places that allows catch-and-release sportfishing for the elusive trout cod. If you're planning on dropping a line here, a small recreational fishing fee must be paid. It goes towards the ample restocking of the dams with sustainable species as well as helping to fund research and maintenance about sustainable recreational fishing. [caption id="attachment_841378" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Brendan J Murphy (Flickr)[/caption] OR, HEAD TO THE DAM FOR WATER SKIING, CANOEING OR SWIMMING The sheer size of Talbingo Dam means that there's plenty of space for aquatic activities in the pristine water. There's a cordoned-off area for swimming and plenty of signage so you can't miss it. Or, if you're more of a thrillseeker, there are long stretches of deep flat water perfect for jet skiing — and the calm nature of the water makes this spot a great place to learn. If jet skis aren't your jam, then perhaps hire a canoe and set your own pace to blissfully take in the breathtaking mountain scenery that surrounds the dam. Whichever you choose, there are plenty of ways to experience this impressive body of water. [caption id="attachment_843933" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Kramer[/caption] TAKE IN THE VIEWS FROM THE OLD MOUNTAIN ROAD WALK This four-kilometre walking track follows Talbingo's first mountain road — a remnant of the Kiandra Gold Rush of the 1860s — and takes you up a short but reasonably challenging track, so be prepared to get the heart pumping. At the top, you'll find yourself at one heck of a lookout offering stunning views of the surrounding areas such as Bogong Peaks, Jounama Pondage and Blowering Reservoir (pictured above). Along the way, keep your eyes peeled for mountain wildflowers, grey kangaroos and all manner of native birdlife. [caption id="attachment_841376" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Josh Mitterfellner (Flickr)[/caption] JUMP IN THE 4WD AND MAKE YOUR WAY TO A LOOKOUT POINT While there's plenty to explore on foot, avid gearheads will be pleased to know that Talbingo forms an excellent base from which to set out on road adventures. You could hit up the nearby Black Perry lookout or traverse slightly more perilous terrain to Landers Falls (pictured above), both of which offer extraordinary views of the surrounding bushland. If you're keen to make more of a day of it, set off early and drive to the northern end of the Kosciuszko National Park to check out the region's impressively diverse landscape. [caption id="attachment_624129" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Murray Vanderveer[/caption] EXPLORE THE DRAMATIC YARRANGOBILLY CAVES AND TAKE A DIP IN A THERMAL POOL Live your Morlock dreams or pretend you're Gandalf leading the fellowship through the mines of Moria whilst you explore the hauntingly beautiful Yarrangobilly Caves. Of the 60 or so underground caves that were formed from a massive limestone belt around 440 million years ago, six are currently open to the public for guided and self-guided tours. Check out the massive stalactites and stalagmites, rare black flowstones and spacious, majestic caves, before heading back above ground to take a dip in the thermal pool which is fed by a natural spring and stays at a perfect 27 degrees all year round. [caption id="attachment_843931" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Kramer[/caption] PITCH A TENT AT BUDDONG FALLS CAMPGROUND If you're looking for some peace and tranquility among the mountains then head straight for the idyllic Buddong Falls campground. This remote patch of land is a great base to explore the surrounding national parks and maybe catch a glimpse of some of the local wildlife that make their homes within the surrounding ribbon gums and along the nearby creek and waterfall. If you're not the most seasoned camper then fear not — picnic tables, barbecues and public toilets are all readily available to make things a little more comfortable. Find out more about Wild Turkey's Discovery Series at the website. Top image: Elliot Kramer
Whether you're celebrating Galentine's Day, Valentine's Day or Singles Awareness Day this February, we're betting that a holiday to look forward to would make the occasion even better. So is Virgin Australia, and it only has sunny, summery spots in mind. The focus of its latest flight sale: trips to Queensland. Destinations from the Gold Coast up to Cairns are covered, and dates with plenty of sun, surf and sand between autumn and spring, too. Starting on Wednesday, February 14, this is a one-week-only sale — so you've got until 11.59pm AEST on Tuesday, February 20 to get booking, unless sold out earlier. More than 300,000 fares on offer. While the sale is focused on one part of the country, you still have options in terms of departure points and destinations. Within Queensland, you can leave or arrive in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Hamilton Island, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Mt Isa and Proserpine. And, around the rest of the country, flights to and from Adelaide, Alice Springs, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Sydney are available. One-way fares begin at $69 — which'll get you from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast and vice versa, and also from Brisbane to Cairns and Brisbane to Proserpine (to hit The Whitsundays) or the reverse. Other sale flights include Sydney–Gold Coast from $79, Brisbane–Hamilton Island from $86, Melbourne–Cairns from $115 and Adelaide–Gold Coast from $119. If you're wondering when you'll need to travel, the travel periods depend on the leg — but the general range is from Wednesday, March 6–Thursday, September 12. The sale has the backing of the Australian and Queensland governments' Tourism Recovery Package, to help the Sunshine State's tourism industry after ex-tropical cyclone Jasper. Only select fares cover seat choice and checked baggage, however, with the airline announcing back in 2021 that it now splits its economy flights into three types. Economy Lite doesn't include checking any baggage or picking your seat, but Economy Choice does — and Economy Flex gives you extra flexibility (hence the name) if you have to change your plans later. Virgin's Queensland summer sale runs from Wednesday, February 14–11.59pm AEST on Tuesday, February 20 — or until sold out. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
If you're even remotely tuned in with the world around, you'll have a skerrick of curiosity as to how it all works. Sydney Science Festival is your best opportunity to get down to the nuts and bolts of our big wide world and beyond, from 3D printing to subatomic particles and into deep space — and have a few beers with real scientists while you're at it. To find out how makers across New South Wales are drawing inspiration from science, get along to the Sydney Mini Maker Faire at the Powerhouse on August 13-14. Expect to meet game-changing, 3D-printing designers, genius coders and, hopefully, a return of last year's interactive brain light. The festival's rock star exhibition is Collider. It'll take you on a behind-the-scenes journey through the discovery of the 'God particle', the subatomic particle also known as Higgs boson that is responsible for giving mass to matter. You'll learn all about the Large Hadron Collider, a 27-kilometre long ring of magnets with superconducting powers that can force particle beams travelling nearly at the speed of light to crash into each other. Another exhibition worth checking out will be Winning Sky Photos, showcasing top-notch entries in the David Malin Awards, an annual photo comp for amateur photographers and astronomers. The talks component of the program is headlined by celebrated professor Brian Cox's 'A Journey Into Deep Space'. He'll be delving into questions we've been trying, unsuccessfully, to answer for thousands of years, like are there aliens? What happened before the Big Bang? How did life start? Meanwhile, at 'Biohacking: Why should we care?' Genspace co-founder and director Dr. Ellen Jorgensen will be chatting with a bunch of experts. Then, at BAHFest, a series of wannabe scientific theorists will compete for glory, presenting their 'Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses' to a panel of scientists, hosted by Alex Lee (The Chaser's Election Desk and The Checkout) and featuring science-loving favourite Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. Opening night shenanigans will take place at the Powerhouse on Thursday, August 11, with a free, adults-only launch party, hosted by Lisa Harvey-Smith, starring festival ambassador Dr. Alan Duffy and filled with music, performances and presentations. Image: Greg Rakozy.
UPDATE, April 21, 2023: Elvis is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Making a biopic about the king of rock 'n' roll, trust Baz Luhrmann to take his subject's words to heart: a little less conversation, a little more action. The Australian filmmaker's Elvis, his first feature since 2013's The Great Gatsby, isn't short on chatter. It's even narrated by Tom Hanks (Finch) as Colonel Tom Parker, the carnival barker who thrust Presley to fame (and, as Luhrmann likes to say, the man who was never a Colonel, never a Tom and never a Parker). But this chronology of an icon's life is at its best when it's showing rather than telling. That's when it sparkles brighter than a rhinestone on all-white attire, and gleams with more shine than all the lights in Las Vegas. That's when Elvis is electrifying, due to its treasure trove of recreated concert scenes — where Austin Butler (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) slides into Presley's blue suede shoes and lifetime's supply of jumpsuits like he's the man himself. Butler is that hypnotic as Presley. Elvis is his biggest role to-date after starting out on Hannah Montana, sliding through other TV shows including Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, and also featuring in Yoga Hosers and The Dead Don't Die — and he's exceptional. Thanks to his blistering on-stage performance, shaken hips and all, the movie's gig sequences feel like Elvis hasn't ever left the building. Close your eyes and you'll think you were listening to the real thing. (In some cases, you are: the film's songs span Butler's vocals, Presley's and sometimes a mix of both). And yet it's how the concert footage looks, feels, lives, breathes, and places viewers in those excited and seduced crowds that's Elvis' true gem. It's meant to make movie-goers understand what it was like to be there, and why Presley became such a sensation. Aided by dazzling cinematography, editing and just all-round visual choreography, these parts of the picture — of which there's many, understandably — leave audiences as all shook up as a 1950s teenager or 1970s Vegas visitor. Around such glorious centrepieces, Luhrmann constructs exactly the kind of Elvis extravaganza he was bound to. His film is big. It's bold. It's OTT. It's sprawling at two-and-a-half hours in length. It shimmers and swirls. It boasts flawless costume and production design by Catherine Martin, as his work does. It shows again that Luhrmann typically matches his now-instantly recognisable extroverted flair with his chosen subject (Australia aside). Balancing the writer/director's own style with the legend he's surveying can't have been easy, though, and it doesn't completely play out as slickly as Presley's greased-back pompadour. Elvis is never anything but engrossing, and it's a sight to behold. The one key element that doesn't gel as convincingly: using the scheming Parker as a narrator (unreliable, obviously) and framing device. It helps the movie unpack the smiling-but-cunning manager's outré role in Presley's life, but it's often just forceful, although so was Parker's presence in the star's career. In a script by Luhrmann, Sam Bromell (The Get Down), Craig Pearce (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby) and Jeremy Doner (TV's The Killing), the requisite details are covered. That includes the singer's birth in Tupelo, Mississippi, and extends through to his late-career Vegas residency — with plenty in the middle. His discovery by Parker, the impact upon his parents (Rake co-stars Helen Thomson and Richard Roxburgh), his relationship with Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge, The Staircase), Graceland, America's puritanical reaction to his gyrating pelvis, the issues of race baked into the response to him as an artist: they're all featured. Thematically, those last two points thrum throughout the entire movie. Elvis questions why any hint of sex was such a shock, and why it was so easy for a white man who drew his songs, style and dance moves from Black culture, via his upbringing, to be dubbed a scandal. Elvis also does what Luhrmann often does; he's never adapted a fairy tale (no, Moulin Rouge!'s green fairy doesn't count), but he adores larger-than-life stories that seem more than real. Like style, like narrative, clearly, and Presley's leap to the most famous man in the world and, sadly, to exploited, caught in a punishing trap, addicted, and then dead at just 42, has that touch to it here. Yes, that remains true even though this will always be a tragic story. That said, amid the visual flourishes that help cement the vibe — the filmmaker's usual circling images, split-screens, match cuts, frenzy of colour and visible lavishness, aided by cinematographer Mandy Walker (Mulan), plus editors Jonathan Redmond (The Great Gatsby) and Matt Villa (Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway) — there's an earthiness to Elvis. In fact, the ability to make everything both hyperreal and natural is one of the reasons the feature's live performance scenes have such a spark. There isn't a second of Elvis that doesn't play like a Luhrmann film, of course; crucially, it's always an Elvis movie, too. There's that balance at work, even if viewers won't walk away knowing much more about the man behind the myth-sized superstardom — feeling more, however, happens fast, frenetically and often. Most choices that could've been jarring, such as the musical anachronisms, have depth to them. Luhrmann connects Presley's songs and influence with music since and now in several ways. This is a film about influences in two directions, smartly — because noting that Big Mama Thornton (first-timer Shonka Dukureh) was the first to record 'Hound Dog', that artists like BB King (Kelvin Harrison Jr, Cyrano) shaped Presley, and that his musical roots trace back to gospel churches and revival tents, needed to be inescapable in an Elvis biopic circa 2022. Also inescapable thanks to its Gold Coast shoot: spotting almost every Australian actor around Butler and Hanks, including David Wenham (The Furnace) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) as carnival-circuit performers Hank Snow and Jimmie Rodgers Snow. Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery plays director Steve Binder, who helmed Presley's 68 Comeback Special — the recreation of which is spellbinding. But Butler is always Elvis' force of nature. His physicality in the part, including as Presley ages, is stunning. The soulfulness baked into his portrayal is as well, and moving. That he acts circles around the prosthetics-laden Hanks, who ensures that the self-serving, one-note Parker is easily the film's villain, might sound fanciful in any other movie. But this is Elvis, and seeing Butler play Elvis is one for the money. Doing just that helped make Kurt Russell a star back in 1979, a mere two years after Presley's death, and that taking-care-of-business lightning bolt should strike again thanks to this exhilarating spectacle.
It feels as though event season has popped off earlier than usual in Sydney. Perhaps the start of daylight savings and some blissful days of sunshine will do that to a city that hasn't had a proper summer in two years. In anticipation of your increasingly stacked social calendar, Tribe in Quay Quarter — a hair salon tucked away like a calming oasis from the rush of Circular Quay — is offering customers a blow-dry and glass of sparkling wine for just $55 on Thursdays and Fridays until the end of October. Make a booking to get one of Tribe's expert stylists on your mane for beach waves or Hollywood glam finish — whatever you desire — to get that salon finish for your next after work event for when you want to treat yourself. Tribe also uses environmentally sustainable, socially responsible products as a bonus. Tribe Lifestyle is offering customers the bubbles and blow-dry experience on Thursday's and Friday's for a limited time until October 28. Make your booking here under the 'styling' section.
Now entering its second year, SXSW Sydney is a lightning rod for innovators, trailblazers, trendsetters and paradigm shifters from across Australia and the world. If you're flying in for this year's fest, we've got some suggestions for where you can lay your head after filling it with boundary-breaking ideas all day. Here are the best places to stay in and around SXSW Sydney's major hubs. Recommended reads: The Must-See Conference Events at SXSW Sydney 2024 Whet Your Appetite at the Unmissable SXSW Sydney Food Festival Eight Performances You Won't Want to Miss at This Year's SXSW Music Festival
Do you live in a dog-friendly house? Do you have some spare time on your hands? Do you fantasise about hanging around at dog parks with an actual dog? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the good folks at Vision Australia's Seeing Eye Dogs need you — again. As part of the organisation's ongoing dog-training program, it has puppies running around the place quite often, and it's in need of volunteers to raise them. That includes right now, with more adorable pooches arriving over Easter. In other words, Vision Australia is giving away puppies — although you will need to give them back. If you put up your hand to become a puppy carer, you'll get a puppy for about a year, from around its eight-week birthday to when it turns turns between 12–15 months old. During that time, you'll be responsible for introducing the sights, sounds and smells it'll meet when it starts working as a seeing eye dog (and giving your new friend heaps of cuddles). Of course, it's not all just fun, games and cuteness. You'll have to be responsible enough to take care of regular grooming, house training and exercise, and be available for regular visits. A fenced-in backyard is mandatory, too. In return, the organisation provides a strong support network, and all food, training equipment and vet care. You'll also need to be home or with the puppy most of the time — so you won't be leaving the dog alone for more than three hours a day, sat in front of Dog TV — and to be able to put effort into training and socialising the pup. [caption id="attachment_853581" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Nicola Cotton[/caption] Seeing Eye Dogs Australia is looking for people across the majority of local government areas across greater Melbourne, as well as Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Mornington Peninsula, Macedon Ranges and their surrounding areas. In New South Wales, you'll need to be on the Central Coast. And in Queensland, Brisbane's north and Sunshine Coast areas are the current priorities. Once the pups reach 12-15 months old, they'll return to Vision Australia — and complete their journey to become four-legged companions for people who are blind or have low vision. Keen to help? You can register for an information session or apply online right now. If you're eager but can't commit to the full year, there's also a six-month caring option. For more information about Seeing Eye Dogs Australia's puppy carers, and to apply for the volunteer roles, head to the organisation's website.
Exploring some of the darkest corners of society, the MCA's Taboo film series is a must for any cinephiles seeking a challenging respite from the usual summer blockbusters. Part of Brook Andrew's broader exhibition which includes artworks and talks on taboo themes, the film programming kicks off with Pier Paolo Pasolini's notorious Salo (120 Days of Sodom). A harrowing tale of teens kidnapped and sexually tortured, it was originally banned in Australia. Based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade, it has been rated amongst the most controversial films ever made. Later screenings take in some chapters of Australia's past many would rather not face, like writer/director Darlene Johnson's documentary Stolen Generations. There's also Scarlet Road, which, like the excellent 2012 film The Sessions, looks at the sexual lives of those with disabilities, following a sex worker who is passionate about her work catering to this overlooked clientele. A clear-eyed look at a subject which makes many uncomfortable, it's proof that sometimes these taboo subjects are worth tackling.
A favourite among inner west locals, the annual Mardi Gras Courtyard Sessions take place at dusk in the relaxed grounds of the Seymour Centre. Championing both established and emerging LGBTQIA+ artists, it's all about kicking back with a cold drink, some food, good people and live music. And it's free to attend. This year, the series is wrapping up with a night co-hosted by Sad Grrrls Club on Friday, February 28. Guests are in for an evening filled with funk, beats and pop, starting with progressive soul band Kadimakara. The Sydney-based trio is all about jazz, soul, funk and alt-rock. Then, hailing from Melbourne, self-proclaimed Queen daddy will bring smooth beats and vocals — and lots of daggy 90s dad vibes. Finally, Triple J Unearthed artist RACKETT will deliver energetic, experimental electro-punk. In between sets, Sad Grrrls Club DJs will keep the vibes going with classic R&B and hip hop tracks, while an outdoor bar and vintage games will keep you hydrated and entertained. The free courtyard gig will run from 6-9pm, when the Seymour Centre's Mardi Gras Festival Club will kick off its final night for 2020, with DJs, pop-up performances and dancing late into the night.
If you've ever had the urge to rummage through someone else's suitcase, here's your chance. Suitcase Rummage is coming back to Sydney, and luckily for you it'll be less old socks and more vintage treasures. Next happening between 11am–4pm on Sunday, February 23 at The Goods Line in Ultimo — and then again on April 26, June 21, August 30, October 25 and December 13 — the mini-scale market will bring together numerous trunks that aren't just filled with clothing. The suitcases will contain everything from art to records, shoes and jewellery — so, come and bargain, buy or swap to score that old Joni Mitchell vinyl you've been wanting. [caption id="attachment_760661" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Suitcase Rummage[/caption] Those who wanting to sell their wares must register — and it'll cost $25 for a 'stall'. You can bring up to three suitcases, so you can lug in all those shoes you've been promising to wear but certainly will not. Top image: Yan Chen via Suitcase Rummage.
European holidays are back on the cards once more, though pretty soon you won't even need a passport to embark on an authentic Italian culinary adventure. Italy's famed artisan marketplace concept Mercato Centrale is heading Down Under, opening its first-ever outpost outside of the homeland in Melbourne. With sites in Rome, Turin and Milan, along with the original Florence location, the brand now has its sights set on the Victorian capital. It's in the process of transforming the three-storey, 3500-square-metre McPherson's building on Collins Street into a grand Italian homage to artisanal food, set to launch late-2022. Founder Umberto Montano launched the first of these sites back in 2014, setting out to deliver an artisan-led marketplace that works as a shared platform, shifting the focus away from any individual branding and onto the producers and their craft. Artisans are handpicked and work as solo operators within the market, with just one representative for each food product. And it gives smaller or emerging producers a shot at showcasing their wares without the huge overheads of opening a traditional shopfront. "Instead of trying to just profit from it all, Umberto developed this platform that creates opportunities and exposure for artisans who just love their food, that love what they're producing," explains Eddie Muto, the local hospitality expert who's spearheading Mercato Centrale's expansion into Australia. Muto knew Montano's concept would be the perfect fit Down Under — and for Melbourne — and he's spent the past six years driving a local iteration. "People will come along and have an urban picnic if you like," Muto tells Concrete Playground, explaining how the ground floor market space will work. "They'll go and get a little bit of salumi, a little pasta, some bread. In the morning, they've got the bakery, they can have croissants and Italian pastries. And then they can order at their table for drinks." Visitors will be able to see the artisans at work making everything from fresh mozzarella to hamburgers, lending an interactive element to the experience. Mercato Centrale's lower level will also be home to the main bar, in addition to a dedicated cocktail bar and an artisan bottle shop. Of course, there'll be an espresso bar, too, with cheaper coffees for those who stand and sip their caffeine at the bar, European-style. [caption id="attachment_856980" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mercato Centrale Milan[/caption] Meanwhile, the second level is set to play host to a sit-down Italian restaurant filled with timber and marble; designed "to feel like home", as Muto explains. And the third floor is earmarked for an event and function space. Mercato Centrale is also positioning itself as a hub for arts and culture, so expect a jam-packed calendar of social and creative activities to come — which is worth noting for future Melbourne trips. And there'll always be live tunes to soundtrack your market adventures, from acoustic gigs to weekend DJ sets. "What we're hoping to achieve is that as soon as you step in the door, it'll be like stepping into Florence or Milan or Rome," muses Muto. "So you might walk up and ask for a panino in English and they'll respond to you in Italian!" Find Mercato Centrale Melbourne at 546 Collins Street, Melbourne, from late 2022. We'll share more info as it lands. Top Images: Mercato Centrale Rome, Milan, Turin and Florence.
Observatory Hill Park is quite the picturesque location for a picnic and a workout with its outdoor equipment and sweeping views of the harbour. Though the three fitness stations offer basic equipment and routines, the much-loved exercise spot gets packed on either side of 9–5. To get the view (and the equipment) to yourself, late afternoon is your best bet. To get the view with that beautiful 'golden hour' light, set up your picnic blanket atop the hill with some nibbles and enjoy the views of the water, the bridge, Luna Park across the way and the headlands out towards the sea.
For fans of beautifully made things, there can never be too many design markets. Now, the women behind Authentic Design Alliance and Factory Design District have announced another. DESIGN-MADE will span over three days from October 27–29 and focus on genuinely original, accessible and sustainable design pieces. For co-founders Kobe Johns and Anne-Maree Sargeant, the market has been some time in the making. They have each been in the sustainable design scene for years, both in various capacities. Johns is the one-woman show behind Factory Design District, a three-day exhibition of new and established Aussie designers which has formed the basis of DESIGN-MADE. Sargeant, a designer herself, has been attending and curating design markets since 1987. In her position as director of the Authentic Design Alliance, she's a strong advocate for originality in design and the ADA is also attempting to outlaw the grossly prevalent counterfeit trade that is hamstringing the Aussie furniture design scene. The event will be held across two venues — SUNSTUDIOS and the Fisher and Paykel Experience Centre — and is more than just a market. While the phrase 'a celebration of Australian design' is a little cheesy, it's probably more accurate. You can expect educational talks, book signings, workshops, installations and 'meet the maker' forums. Of course, there will also be craft beer, organic wine, yum cha and food trucks to fuel your browsing. Exhibitors include: CULT, Designer Rugs, Dinosaur Designs, Hava Studio, MUD Australia, Spence & Lyda, Archer Objects, Fresh Prince, Ilanel, Jonathan West, Tom Fereday and Tom Skeehan, along with installations from LOCAL DESIGN and Interpretations V, a design collective created by Andrew Simpson featuring eight leading Australian designers. Image: Fiona Susanto.
The second season of House of the Dragon might've come to an end, but HBO has plenty more must-sees on the way to fill your viewing schedule until its third round of Targaryen feuds arrives. The Last of Us season two, The White Lotus season three, fellow Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, IT prequel series Welcome to Derry: they're just some of the shows that'll have you hearing the US network's famous static-filled intro again. Can't wait for another wander through a world infected with Cordyceps? To see a seemingly idyllic holiday prove anything but again? For more time in Westeros? To be creeped out by an evil clown once more, too? Sadly, none of the above series are due to premiere imminently — they're all set for 2025 — but HBO has dropped a new trailer with footage from all of them. The American station does this periodically — back in December 2023, it also unveiled a glimpse at its 2024–25 slate — but this one includes the first new scenes from some of its keenly anticipated hits. With The Last of Us, not just Pedro Pascal (Drive-Away Dolls) and Bella Ramsey (Catherine Called Birdy) but also new cast member Catherine O'Hara (Argylle) make an appearance, for instance. And with The White Lotus — which stars Walton Goggins (Fallout), Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Jason Isaacs (The Crowded Room), Michelle Monaghan (MaXXXine), Leslie Bibb (Palm Royale) and Parker Posey (Mr & Mrs Smith) — in its third season — "what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand", viewers are told. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms comes to the screen from George RR Martin's novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg, and has been talked about for a few years. The story follows knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg as they wander Westeros a century before the events of GoT, when the Targaryens remain on the Iron Throne and everyone still remembers dragons. As for Welcome to Derry, it returns to Stephen King's go-to Maine town, stepping through the locale's scares before the terror that viewers have already seen. HBO's new trailer also spans 2024 releases The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, The Franchise and documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, alongside the third seasons of Industry and The Sex Lives of College Girls, plus the fourth of My Brilliant Friend. From its 2025 slate, look out for more And Just Like That... and The Gilded Age as well, plus newcomers The Pitt with ER veteran Noah Wylie and Duster with Lost's Josh Holloway. Watch HBO's latest 2024–25 roundup trailer below: The Last of Us season two doesn't yet have a release date, other than sometime in 2025. When it returns, it'll stream via Binge in Australia and on Neon in New Zealand. Read our review of the first season. Images: HBO.
How does anything compete with Mrs Macquaries Point's stunning view of Sydney Harbour, the city, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge? By placing a 350-square-metre cinema screen at the scenic spot every summer, and filling it with an impressive array of new, recent and classic movies. That's the Westpac Openair Cinema setup, aka a Sydney institution — and, ahead of its return in January, the event has just unveiled its full 2023 lineup. Details about Westpac Openair Cinema's latest Sunday, January 8—Tuesday, February 21 season have been dripping through since early October, including locking in its dates, announcing that Kitchen by Mike's Mike McEnearney will be behind its food range just like in 2022 and announcing Steven Spielberg's new flick The Fabelmans as the opening-night film. Along the way, the event has also named some of the movies hitting its screen, and it's been an exciting bill so far. Those flicks now have a heap more company. Already on the list: the cinema-focused Empire of Light, the Cate Blanchett-starring Tár, #MeToo drama She Said, the Emma Thompson-led Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, and The Lost King with Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan. And, there's also culinary thriller The Menu, bleak Irish comedy The Banshees of Inisherin, Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody and certain blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water, as well as stunning volcanologist documentary Fire of Love, the Emily Brontë-focused Emily, saucy threequel Magic Mike's Last Dance and rom-com What's Love Got to Do With It. Throw in Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling, 2022 Palme d'Or-winner comedy Triangle of Sadness, haute-couture comedy Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, and sessions of classics like Titanic, the OG Top Gun, Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown and Cinema Paradiso as well, and clearly the Westpac Openair Cinema bill is already stacked. All of those titles are now joined by the Australian premiere of Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, aka the film that's bringing Brendan Fraser back into the spotlight; a preview of Guy Ritchie's Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre; Damien Chazelle's starry and jazzy Babylon; and the Bill Nighy-starring Living. Movie buffs will also score another chance to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Bullet Train, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Top Gun: Maverick, Ticket to Paradise and Elvis, plus Jodie Comer-starring NT Live production Prima Facie. And, in a special collaboration, viewers will be treated to a session of artist Wu Tsang's Moby Dick; or, The Whale thanks to Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It'll play with a will be live score, levelling up an already special way to see a movie. Now that you know exactly what you'll be seeing, make a date to book tickets as soon as they go on sale. As happens every year, sessions are likely to book out quickly. Across the summer of 2018–19, more than 40,000 tickets sold within the first two days of pre-sale — so put Monday, December 12 in your diary ASAP, or Wednesday, December 7–Friday, December 9 for pre-sales if you're a Westpac customer. [caption id="attachment_880098" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew Maccoll[/caption] Westpac Openair 2023 runs from Sunday, January 8—Tuesday, February 21. Head to the event website for further details — and for tickets from Monday, December 12, with pre-sales for Westpac customers from Wednesday, December 7–Friday, December 9.
UPDATE: APRIL 1, 2020 — This event was originally scheduled to take place between May 19–31, but was rescheduled due to government restrictions related to COVID-19. Reading all seven of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books in 70 minutes? Not even Dumbledore himself could conjure up that kind of magic. Seeing the entire saga play out on stage in the same amount of time, with room for a quidditch match too? Well, thanks to Potted Potter (the Unauthorised Harry Experience), that's another matter entirely. If you don't have the time to reread your favourite novels, are looking for a quick refresher before the new Fantastic Beasts film hits cinemas in 2021 or would just like a brief wander through the entire story for the fun of it, then this comedic production has you covered. The show was created by double Olivier Award Best Entertainment nominees Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner in 2005 — and has been touring ever since. In it, the two performers relive the wonder of the boy who lived and recreate the terror of He Who Must Not Be Named — and whiz through it faster than you can say "accio books!" (or almost that fast). And, if you somehow still have no idea what all the Harry Potter fuss is about, consider this the ultimate primer. Of course, Potted Potter is a parody, so it comes with plenty of laughs when it returns to the Seymour Centre in June 2021. Evening shows will run Tuesday to Saturday, with additional afternoon shows on Saturday and Sunday. Best to book in advance because the show's previous trips to Australia have sold out. Images: Scott Joe.
Sometimes really shitty weather has its upside. Pulling a solid Community Chest card, London is about to open its very first board games-centric cafe in Hackney this September. Sure, plenty of eateries, pubs and existing cafes have a smattering of Scattergoric fun times already stashed in the bookshelves, but Draughts intends to bring games to the forefront — already proven successful by Adelaide's Hungry Hippo and Oxford's Thirsty Meeples. Serving up an impressive 500+ range of old school fun inducers, Draughts will stock both your favourite table toppers like Cluedo, Monopoly and Scrabble alongside weird and wonderful niche releases like Hanabi and one apparently called Chicken Cha Cha Cha. Board game purists will be able to engage in intense bots of chess, checkers and (of course) draughts, while the cafe serves as a perfect loud group outing option (if Boggle is your style). Draughts will function as an all-day cafe, counting freshly made coffee, cakes, milkshakes and sandwiches on the menu before fuelling rambunctious rounds of Risk with ciders and lagers in the chilly London evenings. If you're into the Game of Life, you'll appreciate a few pints. Remember that family member who insisted on reading out the rules, one by one, even after everyone had given up and left them flying solo at the table? Chances are they now work at Draughts, ready to help you out with any Monopoly rule rifts, help you set up the painstaking Mouse Trap board or get you started on something you might never have tried — big fingers crossed for 13 Dead End Drive or The White Unicorn. Just trust me. Draughts know their board games so well, they decided to create a London Tube map to help you out when you're picking: Via Guardian. Photo from The Hungry Hippo.
"Kylie Minogue in her gold hotpants in 'Spinning Around'. That just came to my mind straight away. That was pretty amazing." Ask Celeste Barber to pick her favourite Australian fashion moment and she goes straight for an icon being an icon. In one of 2023's best trends, Barber has spent the year ushering everyone through the ins and outs of wellness and fashion. First came Wellmania, the comedian and actor's Netflix dramedy series about a 39-year-old journalist who copes with a health crisis by embracing prioritising her wellbeing, aka journeying through everything the self-care industry has to offer. Now arrives The Way We Wore, with Barber hosting the new three-part ABC documentary about a subject that she's been interested in since she was a child donning costumes as a dancer, and then a teenager collecting fashion magazines. Barber is no stranger to obsessing over threads in public — or, to be more accurate, parodying whatever's in vogue in the sartorial and celebrity realms. While her career began with acting, complete with an 87-episode stint on All Saints, her #celestechallengeaccepted social-media spoofs have helped make her a household name. If the internet has become fixated on a celeb look, snap or video, Barber has likely satirised it. Most recently, Kim Kardashian's Skims nipple bra launch has been in her sights, but that's just her latest skewering stint. The tone of The Way We Wore is light, but this docuseries isn't a comedy. Instead, as screening on ABC TV from 8pm on Tuesday, November 21 and streaming in full on ABC iView from the same date, it's a sincere and appreciative step through the history and importance of Aussie fashion. Barber didn't ever dream that her career would bring her here, but given that she's hosted The LA Fashion Awards in 2019, appeared on magazine covers and worked with Tom Ford at 2018's New York Fashion Week, it makes sense to her now. "No, no, never, never," Barber tells Concrete Playground about whether fronting a series like The Way We Wore ever seemed possible when she was starting out. "I've always thought I'd have a place in the entertainment industry, but not being someone to narrate documentary on the history of fashion, and it making sense that I did it. When I approached, I was like 'it makes absolute sense that I do this', but I would never have thought that when I was younger — no way." Unsurprisingly, Barber makes an engaging guide through Australian fashion's evolution. With Nel Minchin (Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra) directing, and everyone from Collette Dinnigan, Catherine Martin and Akira Isogawa to Charlee Fraser and Nakkiah Lui sharing their thoughts and experiences on-screen, she hosts an exploration of a sector that's anything but minor yet doesn't always get the appreciation it deserves. The country's need for something to score approval overseas before it can be embraced at home is something that Barber can relate to — "absolutely, and I have experienced that first hand," she advises — as is a process that she hopes all of The Way We Wore's viewers will experience: learning more about Aussie fashion prowess. The series' first episode filters its examination through Australian fashion media, a perfect topic for Barber as a self-described magazine lover. From there, it devotes its second instalment to the local pioneers taking Aussie threads to great heights, even if Barber didn't realise it as a kid growing up without the internet and thinking that Ken Done was the height of Down Under style. Then, The Way We Wore wraps up by pondering why Australian fashion hasn't been getting its due. Ahead of the show's premiere, we chatted with Barber about getting asked to host a fashion doco, her lifelong fascination with dressing up, becoming aware of Aussie designers, her relatable approach to the industry, what she learned from The Way We Wore and more. ON BEING ASKED TO HOST THE WAY WE WORE "I was approached — it was a while ago now — by Nel. She went to my agent to see if I had any interest in presenting this documentary. I love Nel, so I was like 'yes, I would love to do that'. It kind of just made sense to me that they wanted me to do it because I have such an opinion on the fashion industry. It was actually really interesting: I genuinely have an interest in this history of the fashion industry in Australia, and I think I know everything about everything, but it turns I really don't. So it was cool to discover things during the process of filming — and as I was reading the script, to learn things as well." ON ALWAYS LOVING FASHION "I've just always been aware of it. I've always loved fashion. My mum was quite a stylish person. My friends at school used to even say that about her. She's always been really stylish and that got me interested in it. I love magazines — when I was younger, I used to collect them. So, it's just always been around. I've enjoyed the theatre of it as well, the fun side of it, the expressive part of it. Because I danced when I was young, I used to have a room full of costumes that my dad built. My mum would make costumes and store them in this special little room. I've always dressed up and had fun, and I've always had a big fun imagination, and putting on different clothes helped express that. So, as I said before, it's always been a really fun, expressive experience for me." ON THAT AFFECTION FOR FASHION EVOLVING NOT ONLY ACROSS BARBER'S CHILDHOOD, BUT NOW "When I was older, I used to always get InStyle, and I used to collect them. It was fun to see the glossy side. I'd like pretend that I could possibly wear some of that stuff on them — I remember seeing Miranda Kerr with a cute crop top on, and I was like 'yeah, I can do that'. Turns out I can't. I absolutely cannot do that. But it's evolved for me over the years as I get older, like how the 90s fashions are back now. I'm having so much more fun with 90s fashions now than I did when I was younger. When you're a teenager, you're just scared of it. You're scared of putting that acid-wash jacket on the wrong way and then your friends would never talk to you again. But now I'm like 'I don't care, let's just see how we go'." ON BARBER'S EARLY AWARENESS OF AUSTRALIAN FASHION "There was no internet when I was growing up, so you think Ken Done is the biggest thing in the world. There's no other world out there. We went to America for a family holiday once, and I was rocking Ken Done because that's the only designer in the world, right, when you're a kid and there's no internet to tell you otherwise. I didn't go 'I know Valentino was predominantly in Rome, but you'll find that Tom Ford had started off in…'. I didn't have an understanding of that. It was just mum told me to wear that, so I wore that. I think in my InStyle days, when I was buying InStyles and cutting them all up and making my own little magazines out of them — they'd do features on international designers, and I'd be like 'oh, that's bigger, that's different'. But we always held our own. The Australian fashion industry has always held its own." ON STARTING BARBER'S SOCIAL-MEDIA FASHION PARODIES "Just seeing how social media can be toxic in making women feel that if they don't look a certain way that they don't deserve love — I like pushing against this idea of perfection, so I thought I just wanted to make fun of that idea of perfection. I've always just cut through bullshit. It's always been my thing. No one ever is unsure of where they stand with me. So what I saw that with these new apps, with these devices that we're all holding in our hands, was just a new way for women to hate themselves. I thought that I wanted play around with it a bit and see what happens. Turns out it went very well." ON STRIKING A CHORD BY SATIRISING TRENDS ONLINE, AND THE IMPACT UPON BARBER'S CAREER "I kind of always knew it was funny, and I knew that it would help get eyes on me. That's part of the reason why I did it. I always just thought I'd be okay. I've never ever given up. When it comes to my career, I've just never, ever given up — and I've tried to do as much as I can to work and get in the industry. And now it's happened, I guess it's not lost on me for sure. But people have only really known about me in the past few years — I've been at this for decades, so I really worked at it. Don't get me wrong, when I get a text message from someone super fancy, I'm like 'that's awesome'. Or, you know getting invited to things is still brilliant. I'm just enjoying the wave, enjoying the ride." ON BARBER'S APPROACH TO MAKING FASHION AND WELLNESS RELATABLE "It's just my experience in it. It's just my take on it. I don't really come at it by going 'this is super-relatable, I'm excellent' — and I think that's what makes it relatable. I'm like, well, this is just my experience in it, and if I'm experiencing it and I'm just an average lady, then there's a very good chance that someone else has also experienced it like that. Social media, media as a whole, just in general society, we have a handful of the types of women that we are happy to see. And I don't fall within that handful of women, and majority of women don't fall within that handful of women that are being celebrated publicly. So when you see someone like me who is now public and it's quite unusual for someone like me to be public it makes, I think, people feel more comfortable and more seen. That's always a nice feeling." @abciview 🤩🤩🤩 #TheWayWeWore #CelesteBarber @celestebarber #Fashion #Documentary #ABCiview #AustralianHistory #FashionTikTok #AustralianFashion #FashionDesign ♬ original sound - ABC iview ON WHAT BARBER LEARNED WHILE HOSTING THE WAY WE WORE — AND WHAT SHE HOPES THAT VIEWERS WILL LEARN, TOO "The main thing that stood out for me was how big the fashion industry is in Australia. It's a multi-billion-dollar industry and it actually employs more people than mining. I had no idea of that. I've always thought it was great and awesome, and I'm a contributor to the industry, but I had no idea that on an economic level it was so impactful. I hope that the series will open people's eyes to it because, as I say, I didn't know that. Even when I started, when I was reading through that sort of stuff — we actually do a bit of a joke in the doco where I'm like 'really, are you sure we fact-checked that?'. Because the fashion industry is seen as a female-dominated industry, I don't think it's always taken as seriously, and that has something to do with it. But you can't deny those numbers. So hopefully when people watch it, they realise how big and successful it is." The Way We Wore screens on ABC TV from 8pm on Tuesday, November 21, dropping episodes weekly — and streams in full on ABC iView from the same date. The Way We Wore images: Mark Rogers. Wellmania images: Netflix.
Melbourne-based Hoy Pinoy has given Australia a rare taste of legit Filipino street food over the past few years, remaining a favourite at the Night Noodle Markets across the country. Now, it's taking up residence at EQ Moore Park for a month-long pop-up from February 7 through March 11. Every Wednesday through Sunday, the team will be serving up slow-cooked Filipino barbecue during its longest Sydney stint yet. Hoy Pinoy's summer barbecue will go well beyond its signature soy-glazed chicken skewers and banana ketchup-glazed pork skewers — though these items will still make an appearance on Saturdays during the regular EQ Village Markets. The more complex daily menu will focus around an open charcoal pit rotisserie, turning out boneless Cebu-style lechon (roast suckling pig), 12-hour smoked bistek (beef brisket), slow-smoked liempo (pork belly) and grilled pineapple salad. Make sure to rock up on a Thursday at least once during the month, when patrons can get a 'boodle fight' — that is, a spread of Hoy Pinoy's best meats and condiments for just $25 per person. Quantity is limited, so be sure to RSVP via the Facebook event to secure your meaty platter. On the booze side, Hoy Pinoy is representing their home country with San Miguel beers, along with 'pinoy coladas' and rum cocktails served in coconut shells. For those with a sweet tooth, the team's once again teaming up with Gelato Messina, BlackStar Pastry and N2, to bring you treats with flavour profiles using Filipino favourites like ube (purple jam), jackfruit and mango. Hoy Pinoy's summer barbecue will be open February 7 through March 11, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am till late and Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from noon till late. Image: Kimberley Moore.
The iconic Grounds of Alexandria is turning five years old and they're doing so in fairy-lit style — this year offering up a night of free live music on Friday, April 21. Their gardens will be taken over by DJs, bands and, of course, some quality food. The evening will begin with Soul of Sydney DJs spinning their funk collective tunes. The stage will then be taken over by enchantress Thandi Phoenix, whose raw vocals make her one of Australia's top new female electronic artists. While Phoenix and her band rock the stage, The Pizza Silo will be slinging their much-loved wood-fired pizzas and The Soda Barn will serve up beer, wine and cocktails all night. The event is free to enter but you'll have to purchase your food and drink, and seating will be limited so be sure arrive early to get a prime posi. This event will be first in a series of monthly music nights, with each month curated with a different vibe.
Hordes of imitators have spilled ones and zeros claiming otherwise, but the greatest move The Matrix franchise ever made wasn't actually bullet time. Even 22 years after Lana and Lilly Wachowski brought the saga's instant-classic first film to cinemas, its slow-motion action still wows, and yet they made another choice that's vastly more powerful. It wasn't the great pill divide — blue versus red, as dubiously co-opted by right-wing conspiracies since — or the other binaries at its core (good versus evil, freedom versus enslavement, analogue versus digital, humanity versus machines). It wasn't end-of-the-millennia philosophising about living lives online, the green-tinged cyberpunk aesthetic, or one of the era's best soundtracks, either. They're all glorious, as is knowing kung fu and exclaiming "whoa!", but The Matrix's unwavering belief in Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss is far more spectacular. It was a bold decision those two-and-a-bit decades ago, with Reeves a few years past sublime early-90s action hits Point Break and Speed, and Moss then known for TV bit parts (including, in a coincidence that feels like the product of computer simulation, a 1993 series called Matrix). But, as well as giving cinema their much-emulated gunfire-avoidance technique and all those other aforementioned highlights, the Wachowskis bet big on viewers caring about their central pair — and hooking into their chemistry — as leather-clad heroes saving humanity. Amid the life-is-a-lie horrors, the subjugation of flesh to mechanical overlords and the battle for autonomy, the first three Matrix films always weaved Neo and Trinity's love story through their sci-fi action. Indeed, the duo's connection remained the saga's beating heart. Like any robust computer program executed over and over, The Matrix Resurrections repeats the feat — with plenty of love for what's come before, but even more for its enduring love story. Lana goes solo on The Matrix Resurrections — helming her first-ever project without her sister in their entire career — but she still goes all in on Reeves and Moss. The fourth live-action film in the saga, and fifth overall counting The Animatrix, this new instalment doesn't initially give its key figures their familiar character names, however. Rather, it casts them as famous video game designer Thomas Anderson and motorcycle-loving mother-of-two Tiffany. One of those monikers is familiar, thanks to a surname drawled by Agent Smith back in 1999, and again in 2003 sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. But this version of Thomas Anderson only knows the agent from his own hit gaming trilogy (called The Matrix, naturally). And he doesn't really know Tiffany at all, instead admiring her from afar at Simulatte, their local coffee shop. Before Reeves and Moss share a frame, and before Anderson and Tiffany's awkward meet-cute, The Matrix Resurrections begins with blue-haired hacker Bugs (Jessica Henwick, On the Rocks). She sports a white rabbit tattoo, observes a scene straight out of the first flick and helps set the movie's self-referential tone. As a result, The Matrix Resurrections starts with winking, nodding and déjà vu — and, yes, with a glitch, with Lana and co-screenwriters David Mitchell (author of Cloud Atlas) and Aleksandar Hemon (Sense8) penning a playful script that adores the established Matrix lore, enjoys toying with it and openly unpacks everything that's sprung up around it. Long exposition dumps, some of the feature's worst habits, explain the details, but waking up Anderson from his machine-induced dream — again — is Bugs' number-one aim. The Matrix Resurrections' main task: reteaming Neo and Trinity, and getting them to realise that they even are Neo and Trinity. Once more, Wachowski knows where the saga's heart resides, that its existential dramas are about people, and that the bonds that bind us are our lifeblood. But now that Neo and Trinity inhabit a realm where a game series with the exact same plot as the first three Matrix movies is Anderson's livelihood, the path to simulation-dismantling love is unsurprisingly paved with difficulties. Here are three: the demands by Anderson's business partner (Jonathan Groff, Hamilton) for a sequel to the games, the blue pills prescribed by Anderson's analyst (Neil Patrick Harris, It's a Sin), and Tiffany's husband Chad (played by the John Wick franchise's director Chad Stahelski, who was also Reeves' stunt double in the first Matrix flick) and all he represents. Reviving a romance last seen on-screen 18 years ago, raising its main players from the dead, bringing back other characters in altered guises, liberally weaving in clips from past films — stitched together as it is from oh-so-many familiar parts, you could call The Matrix Resurrections a Frankenstein's monster of a movie. Wachowski has found a rare way to make that a positive more often than not, however, because deprogramming the notion that anything is just one thing alone couldn't be more crucial here. That truth pulsates through the film's action, too, which can't live up to the original and doesn't particularly seem to try. Enough of the movie's fights and chases and sci-fi trickery still look stunning, but The Matrix Resurrections wants audiences to go "whoa!' over its ideas, emotions and meta-philosophising above all else. Even the warmer colour scheme — sorry, fans of futuristic green — casts this new tumble down the rabbit hole in multiple lights. A film can be daring, evolve its franchise while mining nostalgia with care and savvy, and make the utmost of its biggest strengths — Reeves and Moss, clearly, who could melt faces with their chemistry. It can be both fun and funny, and also skewer the company resuscitating it (that'd be Warner Bros, with The Matrix Resurrections doing a superior job of making the joke than the studio's horrible Space Jam: A New Legacy). It can offer a sincere ode to love, human connection and perseverance, too, and transform old parts to make them feel different in the process. Still, while so much about The Matrix Resurrections dazzles — Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Candyman) joining the fold and rocking magnificent suits among them — sometimes it's just clunkily new and clumsily self-referential rather than fresh. Believing in Reeves and Moss remains its biggest superpower, though. If the energy from their timeless on-screen romance can help the world forget how underwhelming The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions both proved, it can fuel this mostly thrilling, almost-always-entertaining look back in the sci-fi mirror.
On hearing that he was to be executed in Bolivia, Che Guevara reportedly turned white and said "It is better this way." Dying Capuchin monks made churches with their deaths, their bones used for the deeply serious skeletal collages which still sit oddly in their Italian crypts. The point was to be an artistic momento mori — a Latin reminder to remember death, and presumably the coming judgement. Most talk about death is less immediate, but just as urgent. Morte — Lo-Fi Collective's next exhibition — invites you to gaze on images of skulls and other paraphernalia of death. But, unlike the capuchins, it leaves the judgement up to you. Like life, a good night out or the Lo-Fi itself, the exhibition is transient. Staged off Taylor Square for one night only — Thursday, October 21 — this exhibition features work from over twenty-five Australian artists, versed in tattoos and other visual arts. It's curated by internationally sought-after tattoo artist Josh Roelink. Lo-Fi's weekly, second-floor series of exhibitions give you the chance to get up close and personal with Sydney artists and their work. The life of Morte is brief, but ambitious. Don't let it finish before you go. Image via perpetualplum.
