If you're reading this, it's likely you're in New South Wales — maybe you've lived here your whole life, maybe you're a relatively new transplant, maybe you're visiting for a few months — but how much of its 809,000 square kilometres of bountiful land have you really explored? Next time you head for an outdoor adventure, instead of sticking to your favourite beach or local park, venture a little further afield and check out what regional NSW has to offer. Spanning ocean and desert, NSW boasts an abundance of local food, live music and breathtaking nature to take in. From the lush Orange vineyards to the crystal waters of Nelson Bay, there are festivals and events for every taste. And it's all happening in the new year. Now's your chance to explore. Without some planning, however, your next few months are going to look a little dull. To help you out, we've teamed up with Destination NSW to put together a handy list of top things to do with your entourage just in time for the new year.
Situated in Sydney's CBD, the rebranded Novotel Sydney City Centre is, as its name suggests, centrally located near iconic landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour. Adjacent to Wynyard train station, it offers convenient access to Sydney Airport, Barangaroo and beyond. Housed in the former location of the Mercure Sydney Wynyard, the hotel boasts 283 newly renovated rooms across 22 floors, reflecting a $20-million refurbishment project completed in November 2023, led by Australian studio Dezign. The hotel has a keen focus on emphasising sustainability and family-friendly amenities. As the first Novotel in Australia to embrace "Hypothesis," it aims to minimise waste and maximise functionality for its guests. There are self-check-in kiosks in the lobby, and all in-room information is shared via QR codes to minimise paper waste. There are rooms ranging from family accommodations to suites with wet bars and balconies with views of the surrounding heritage buildings. Select suites offer modular furniture for personalised arrangements, allowing for flexibility and space efficiency to suit a guest's bespoke needs. With natural textures, timber accents and abundant greenery in the rooms and lobby, the hotel provides a tranquil retreat amidst the city's bustle. Downstairs in the lobby, you'll also find the Birdie Bar and Restaurant — which offers a fusion of British and modern Australian fare on a menu that champions local produce and celebrates Aussie fauna of the feathered variety.
This year, NAIDOC Week is taking place from July 3–10 with the theme of 'Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!'. Kicking off the week is a celebration and showcase of First Nations music at Barangaroo Reserve featuring a lineup of popular and rising contemporary Indigenous musicians. The fire pits will be lit and trees illuminated at the Walumil Lawn, which sets the stage for a dreamy winter gig in front of Sydney Harbour. Mo'ju and Ziggy Ramo will headline the night alongside performances from Aya J, Tessa Thames and Cloe Terare. Across the five sets, the audience will be treated to sets traversing genres including pop, hip hop, RnB, neo-soul and electronic music. Picnics are encouraged, or if you're not organised enough to pull together a spread, there will be food trucks on-site from Burger Head, Urban Pasta and Walkabout Coffee. Archie Rose will also be running its own restricted bar area at the park so you can treat yourself to a gin and tonic. Entry is free and music will start from 7pm. Top image: Emma Pegrum
Christopher's Cake Shop first opened the doors of its Surry Hills shop way back in 1955 (originally as Athens Cake Shop). In the years since, the business has stretched its reach from Sydney's inner city to the suburbs with stores in Ashfield, Eastgardens, Kogarah and Hurstville. Here, you'll find traditional Greek sweets such as baklava, kataifi, paximathia, melomakaronas(an almond honey biscuit), plus a wide range of cakes and other biscuits. Although it might seem a little mainstream, take the opportunity to pick up the mud cake — it's as perfect as cake and chocolate put together could possibly get. Hint: take it home and warm it up in the microwave for 20 seconds — it'll melt the fine layer of chocolate on top and make the ganache centre oh-so-perfectly gooey. Image: Trent van der Jagt.
We get it. Everyone loves an espresso 'tini. Melbourne's got a bar that even does them on tap — and Sydney has a whole venue dedicated to that God-sent concoction of chilled coffee and vodka. After Melbourne nabbed the country's very first espresso martini festival in 2016, Sydney got its own dedicated event last year and now its back — with a new name — and it's heading to The Rocks this May. Sleep, who needs it? The festival, to be held in the Overseas Passenger Terminal on May 25, 26 and 27, is being gifted to our espresso-loving, cocktail-filled city by the caffeinated folks at Mr Black, a NSW-based cold-pressed (and damn fine) coffee liqueur. In short, they know how to capitalise on our weaknesses and we're not even mad about it. The affair will involve some of Australia's best coffee suppliers, cafes and bars, and will come together to create a beautiful array of alcoholic caffeinated beverages. As with any festival of this kind, there will be plenty of food, too, including fried chicken from Johnny Bird and antipasti from Salts Meats Cheese. The festival will run during the first weekend of Vivid Sydney, so you can pair your Darling Harbour light-chasing with a 'tini or two. Tickets will set you back $30 (plus booking fee) a pop, and go on sale at 9am on Thursday, April 5. Image: Nikki To.
You could probably make a mildly amusing SNL skit out of the idea behind The House. A full-length movie? Not so much. It's safe to say that no one wins big in this decidedly unfunny comedy, which marks the directorial debut of Bad Neighbours writer Andrew Jay Cohen. Not stars Amy Poehler, Will Ferrell, Nick Kroll and Jason Mantzoukas, and definitely not the audience. Poehler and Ferrell play Kate and Scott Johansen, proud parents to college-bound teen Alex (Ryan Simpkins) — until a town-sponsored scholarship falls through, that is. When their recently-separated gambling addict pal Frank (Mantzoukas) suggests turning his home into an illegal casino to cover Alex's tuition fees, they're wary. But helping their daughter pursue her dreams soon wins out, even with a suspicious local cop (Rob Huebel) and city councillor (Kroll) wondering just what it is they're up to. As anyone who's ever seen Parks and Recreation knows, Poehler is a comedic treasure, who frankly should be on our screens much, much more often. Ferrell's movie track record mightn't be stellar as of late, but when he's at his Ron Burgundy best, it's easy to forget his less successful efforts like Get Hard and Daddy's Home. Kroll and Mantzoukas, meanwhile, were both great on The League. The point is, if you're a fan of any of these funny folks, you'd have hoped that together they could deliver at least a handful of chuckles. On paper, it doesn't seem like much of a gamble. Sure, watching middle-aged suburbanites behaving badly doesn't sound particularly new or exciting, but skilled performers can make anything better, right? Yet, in a breezy, montage-heavy flick that thinks overt nods to Casino, The Sopranos and Terminator 2 are enough to garner giggles, there's little they can do. A hip hop heavy soundtrack can't liven things up, and neither can YouTube-like sketches or a big-name cameo in the final act, no matter how much the movie tries to prove otherwise. At one point in The House — immediately after the main trio ponders "what if we were the house?", in case the premise wasn't already clear — a character makes a speech about clichés. Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything to make the ones in the film any less obvious or infuriating. It's never a good sign when a movie's best moments come during the obligatory over-credits blooper reel, as viewers are left to wonder why the stuff that did make the cut was so routine and uninspired. Maybe the producers made a bet that they could squander their cast with as bland a so-called comedy as possible? If that's the case, then they've really hit the jackpot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx9s-jbSG2s
The wonders of the animal kingdom have arrived at the Australian National Maritime Museum, al thanks to a huge exhibition of nature photography. Displaying from Friday, April 8 through until March 2023, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year showcase comes direct from London's Natural History Museum — which has developed and produced the prestigious competition since 1965. Highlighting the astonishing sights that the natural world has to offer, this year's contest attracted over 50,000 entries from 95 countries. That not only shows how much we all love creatures great, small, cute, majestic and everything in-between, but how much we love both taking and looking at snaps of them as well. From that huge number, 100 winning pics were chosen for their creativity, originality and technical excellence, and then tour internationally. And, you can see the eye-popping, awe- (and 'awwwww') inducing results during its Sydney stop right now. Prepare to rove your eyes over everything from up-close-and-personal shots of gorgeous creatures to astonishing visions of sweeping landscapes. It's open every day of the week during its 11-month season — from 9.30am–5pm daily. [caption id="attachment_851476" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Zack Clothier / Wildlife Photographer of the Year[/caption] Top image: Jonny Armstrong, courtesy of Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the Natural History Museum, London.
One of Sydney Festival 2017's most Instagrammed events was The Beach, an enormous ball pit inside a human-made cave, as created by Brooklyn-based design studio Snarkitecture. Tonnes of the city's residents spent at least some part of January diving, cannonballing and floating about in a sea of plastic bliss. Understandably. If you've been fretting about whether this kind of fun would ever return, here's your answer. Another ball pit is on its way around the country. After originally being slated for summer — and Melbourne getting first dibs — the party is coming to Sydney in May. Like The Beach, it'll be a behemoth, made up of one million balls. Rather than filling up just a single space, they'll be arranged across several, creating a kind of playground. There'll also be an on-site cocktail bar, to let you rest and refuel in between dips and dives. The ball pit will pop up in Bondi Junction on the weekend of May 18–20, and will be open from 5pm–1am on Friday, 11am–1am on Saturday and 11am–7pm on Sunday. Entry will be via ticket — $35 each, or $68 with a bottomless brunch thrown in — which will entitle you to two hours of playtime. Sessions are likely to sell out pretty quickly, so buy them in advance.
Open all year round, Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre (named after the famous Australian Olympic Swimmer) has three indoor heated swimming pools with swimming classes for all fitness levels. It also houses a sauna and steam room and a fully equipped gym with fitness classes.
Perhaps one of the most ambitious venues to open in Sydney in recent years, the OAF is inspired by Andy Warhol's seminal Factory, and intends to operate as a focal point of music and the arts in Sydney. The main room caters to larger and international acts, such as The Dead Weather, Digitalism and Warpaint. The Gallery Bar showcases local acts, with a feature wall repainted frequently by guest artists. Between the two lies the Glass Cube, an exhibition space that regularly features live performance art.
Search for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Mulan and Cinderella on Disney+ and you don't just get one option. Thanks to the Mouse House's devotion to remaking its animated hits in live-action, viewers can watch versions brought to life with actors, too. Come April, search for Peter Pan and the same will apply, courtesy of the Jude Law (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore)-starring Peter Pan & Wendy. The first of Disney's do-overs for 2023, arriving before The Little Mermaid, this one is heading straight to streaming. There, it'll join Lady and the Tramp and Pinocchio, too, with both also bypassed cinemas. And, this take on JM Barrie's classic hails from a filmmaker with experience bringing animated fare to live with flesh and blood, with David Lowery also behind the gorgeous Pete's Dragon. Based on the just-dropped trailer, Peter Pan & Wendy's storyline goes heavy on the latter, as she meets that other titular figure, tiny fairy Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys. With her brothers, she's spirited off to Neverland, where Captain Hook awaits — listing off her full name like she's in trouble, in fact. Cast-wise, Ever Anderson — daughter of actor Milla Jovovich and filmmaker Paul WS Anderson, and also seen in the pair's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter — plays Wendy, while Alexander Molony (The Reluctant Landlord) gets flying as Peter. They're joined by Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish) as Tinker Bell, Joshua Pickering (A Discovery of Witches) and Jacobi Jupe (Cupid) as John and Michael Darling, and everyone from Molly Parker (Pieces of a Woman) and Alan Tudyk (Strange World) to Jim Gaffigan (Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania). With Lowery coming to Peter Pan & Wendy fresh from The Green Knight, the first trailer for the former shares the latter's love of lush greenery — and memorable villains. Indeed, don't go expecting a dashing, debonair version of Law as Captain Hook. Lowery's version of Peter Pan aims to take cues from both the novel and Disney's animated adaptation. "We wanted to invigorate our retelling with emotional sincerity, an open heart, and a grand yearning for adventure. Hundreds of incredible artists spent many years bringing this film to the screen; I'm excited for audiences to see their work, to go on this ride, and to rediscover an evergreen tale from a new perspective," the filmmaker said. Check out the Peter Pan & Wendy trailer below: Peter Pan & Wendy will be available to stream via Disney+ from Friday, April 28.
It might not be quite the same as jetting off on an international getaway, but the banks of Circular Quay are about to get a taste of New Caledonian beach life, as part of a four-day pop-up this July. A whole heap of sand will transform the eastern side of the quay, between the ferry terminals and the Sydney Opera House, into a tropical oasis inspired by the French island's beach villages. The summery beach is part of the city's annual Bastille Festival, which also includes a wintry Christmas in July Village over in the Rocks. As well as New Caledonia, the temporary beach takes inspiration from the artificial beaches that pop-up along the Seine in Paris during summer, which look a little like this: The Sydney beach, however, will have a bit more going on. From July 11 to 14, the sandy stretch is set to be the ultimate playground for those avoiding winter, dotted with beach chairs and palm trees and filled with cocktails, treasure hunts, games and island-inspired fare. Imagine lazing beneath the beach umbrellas while you tuck into the likes of barbecued prawn and pineapple skewers and coconut-glazed roast pork, before sampling limited-edition Noumea-style ice cream treats and desserts from your mates at KOI and Messina. Yep, the Sydney dessert big guns are getting involved for this one. To match, there'll be a bar serving a cocktail selection heavy on rum, coconut and pineapple, along with a tidy lineup of French rosé and bubbles. But it doesn't have to be all lounging and lazing. If you prefer a more adventurous sort of summer getaway, round up your own crew of pirates to take part in a giant treasure hunt, trekking all through Circular Quay and the Rocks. Or, have a crack at 'coconut pétanque' — a riff on the classic European game, which plays a little like Aussie lawn bowls. The Island Kanak Beach Village will pop up at East Circular Quay from Thursday, July 11–Sunday, July 14 as past of Bastille Festival. It'll be free to enter and open from 10am–10.30pm Thursday–Saturday and 10am–8.30pm Sunday.
When it comes to the future of Western Sydney, the Australian and NSW Governments are dreaming big. Very big. Joining forces with local governments, they today revealed their ambitious plans for the Western Sydney City Deal, which aims to transform the area "into an economic powerhouse and one of the most connected and liveable places in Australia" over the next two decades. The main focus of this vision for the Western Parkland City is the Badgerys Creek 'Aerotropolis', an industrial precinct that will centre around the new Western Sydney Airport. An Aerospace Institute at neighbouring North Bringelly will boast its own high performance secondary school and university, with 11 other new and relocated schools already in planning for the surrounding areas. Slated to be completed by 2026, the airport itself is expected to create as many as 13,000 jobs. A new rail link to connect existing train lines in Western Sydney is also in the works. The North South Rail Link will connect the new airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis with the T1 Western Line at St Marys, with a view to extend it up towards Blacktown and down towards Campbelltown. It's hoped the first stage of this will be up and running by the time the airport opens in 2026. The governments have also revealed they're looking into the possibility of a 5G network to boost connectivity and are backing a $150 million liveability program, "designed to enhance local character in each of the participating councils". There's a lot there, and it's expected to be rolled out over the next 20 years in tandem with the Smart Cities Plan. An implementation plan is expected to be released later this year. In the meantime, you can find full details of the Western Sydney City Deal here.
Every city has its traditions, but one of Sydney's midyear mainstays since 2013 takes its cues from the other side of the globe. The event: the Bastille Festival, which livens up Circular Quay and The Rocks each July, serving up French celebrations without the plane fare to Europe. Food, wine, art: if any of these pique your interest, then this four-day French fest is for you. Uniting people in the spirit of Bastille Day, the popular event is back for its tenth edition this winter. Running from Thursday, July 13–Sunday, July 16, this year's street fest will serve up everything from ten tonnes of cheese to a 1.4-kilometre wine-tasting walk around the harbour. Expect a big emphasis on vino in general, of course — and food, too. All that wandering and watching is hungry (and thirsty) work, after all, so there'll be a heap of pop-ups keeping attendees fed and watered. Highlights include a self-guided wine-tasting tour where you can check off different regions via your boozy passport, a wine and cheese feast, and French culinary classics like escargot, crepes, raclette and croque monsieur. The fun doesn't end with the food and wine, though. There will be more than 50 performers to marvel at across multiple stages, with the likes of live bands, DJs, circus performers and fire artists all popping up. And an outdoor cinema will be screening French flicks under the stars. The festival will take place across five Bastille Festival villages set up at The Rocks, The Overseas Passenger Terminal, East Circular Quay, Customs House and Quay Quarter Lanes, providing attendees with a choose-your-own-adventure-style journey through the food, drink, art and culture. Entry is free, but you'll be paying for whatever you'd like to eat and drink as you go. If you can't wait until July to get in on the French action, check out our list of the best French restaurants in Sydney.
We say it every year. We'll say it again this year. On Halloween, there's nothing like watching the exceptional slasher flick that is the OG Halloween, aka one of iconic filmmaker John Carpenter's masterpieces, as well as the movie that helped make Jamie Lee Curtis a star. But when October 31 rolls around — and spooky season in general — there are more flicks to binge at home, including new releases from 2023. So, for your next scary movie-fuelled stint of sofa time, we've picked ten horror movies that'd make a killer streaming marathon — and are all available to watch on subscription-based platforms right now. In this bag of tricks: standout Mexican and Chilean fare, an entry in an ace new slasher franchise, inventive examples of the genre that play with the form and, of course, an evil doll. They're all treats, too. HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN The sound of cracking knuckles is one of humanity's most anxiety-inducing. The noise of clicking bones elsewhere? That's even worse. Both help provide Huesera: The Bone Woman's soundtrack — and set the mood for a deeply tense slow-burner that plunges into maternal paranoia like a Mexican riff on Rosemary's Baby, the horror subgenre's perennial all-timer, while also interrogating the reality that bringing children into the world isn't a dream for every woman no matter how much society expects otherwise. Valeria (Natalia Solián, Red Shoes) is thrilled to be pregnant, a state that hasn't come easily. After resorting to praying at a shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in desperation, neither she nor partner Raúl (Alfonso Dosal, Narcos: Mexico) could be happier, even if her sister Vero (Sonia Couoh, 40 Years Young) caustically comments that she's never seemed that interested in motherhood before. Then, two things shake up her hard-fought situation: a surprise run-in with Octavia (Mayra Batalla, Everything Will Be Fine), the ex-girlfriend she once planned to live a completely different life with; and constant glimpses of a slithering woman whose unnatural body movements echo and unsettle. Filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera (TV series Marea alta) makes her fictional narrative debut with Huesera: The Bone Woman, directing and also writing with first-timer Abia Castillo — and she makes a powerfully chilling and haunting body-horror effort about hopes, dreams, regrets and the torment of being forced into a future that you don't truly foresee as your own. Every aspect of the film, especially Nur Rubio Sherwell's (Don't Blame Karma!) exacting cinematography, reinforces how trapped that Valeria feels even if she can't admit it to herself, and how much that attempting to be the woman Raúl and her family want is eating away at her soul. Solián is fantastic at navigating this journey, including whether the movie is leaning into drama or terror at any given moment. You don't need expressive eyes to be a horror heroine, but she boasts them; she possesses a scream queen's lungs, too. Unsurprisingly, Cervera won the Nora Ephron Award for best female filmmaker at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival for this instantly memorable nightmare. Huesera: The Bone Woman streams via Shudder. EL CONDE What if Augusto Pinochet didn't die in 2006? What if the Chilean general and dictator wasn't aged 91 at the time, either? What if his story started long before his official 1915 birthdate, in France prior to the French Revolution? What if he's been living for 250 years because he's a literal monster of the undead, draining and terrifying kind? Trust Chilean filmmaking great Pablo Larraín (Ema, Neruda, The Club, No, Post Mortem and Tony Manero) to ask these questions in El Conde, which translates as The Count and marks the latest exceptional effort in a career that just keeps serving up excellent movies. His satirical, sharp and gleefully unsubtle version of his homeland's most infamous leader was born Claude Pinoche (Clemente Rodríguez, Manchild), saw Marie Antoinette get beheaded and kept popping up to quell insurgencies before becoming Augusto Pinochet. Now holed up in a farm after faking his own death to avoid legal scrutiny — aka the consequences of being a brutal tyrant — the extremely elderly figure (Jaime Vadell, a Neruda, The Club, No and Post Mortem veteran) is also tired of eternal life. The idea at the heart of El Conde is a gem, with Larraín and his regular co-writer Guillermo Calderón plunging a stake into a despot while showing that the impact of authoritarianism rule stretches on forever (and winning the Venice International Film Festival's Best Screenplay Award this year for their efforts). The execution: just as sublime in a film that's both wryly and dynamically funny, and also a monochrome-shot visual marvel. A moment showing Pinoche licking the blood off the guillotine that's just decapitated Antoinette is instantly unforgettable. As Pinochet flies above Santiago in his cape and military attire in the thick of night, every Edward Lachman (The Velvet Underground)-lensed shot of The Count — as he likes to be called by his wife Lucia (Gloria Münchmeyer, 42 Days of Darkness), butler Fyodor (Alfredo Castro, The Settlers) and adult children — has just as much bite. El Conde's narrative sets its protagonist against an accountant and nun (Paula Luchsinger, Los Espookys) who digs through his crime and sins, and it's a delight that punctures. As seen in the also magnificent Jackie and Spencer, too, Larraín surveys the past like no one else. El Conde streams via Netflix. PEARL 70s-era porn, but make it a slasher flick: when Ti West's X marked the big-screen spot in 2022, that's one of the tricks it pulled. The playful, smart and gory horror standout also arrived with an extra spurt of good news, with West debuting it as part of a trilogy. 30s- and 40s-period technicolour, plus 50s musicals and melodramas, but splatter them with kills, genre thrills and ample blood spills: that's what the filmmaker behind cult favourites The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers now serves up with X prequel Pearl. Shot back to back with its predecessor, sharing mesmerising star Mia Goth (Emma), and co-written by her and West — penned during their two-week COVID-19 quarantine period getting into New Zealand to make the initial movie, in fact — it's a gleaming companion piece. It's also a savvy deepening and recontextualising of a must-see scary-movie franchise that's as much about desire, dreams and determination as notching up deaths. In one of her X roles, Goth was magnetic as aspiring adult-film actor Maxine Minx, a part she'll reprise in the trilogy's upcoming third instalment MaXXXine. As she proved first up and does again in Pearl, she plays nascent, yearning, shrewd and resolute with not just potency, but with a pivotal clash between fortitude and vulnerability; when one of Goth's youthful X Universe characters says that they're special or have the X factor, they do so with an astute blend of certainty, good ol' fashioned wishing and hoping, and naked self-convincing. This second effort's namesake, who Goth also brought to the screen in her elder years in X, wants to make it in the pictures, too. Looking to dance on her feet instead of horizontally, stardom is an escape (again), but Pearl's cruel mother Ruth (Tandi Wright, Creamerie), a religiously devout immigrant from Germany turned bitter from looking after her ailing husband (Mathew Sunderland, The Stranger), laughs at the idea. Pearl is available to stream via Netflix and Binge. Read our full review. SKINAMARINK Age may instil nocturnal bravery in most of us, stopping the flinching and wincing at things that routinely go bump, thump and jump in the night in our ordinary homes, but the childhood feeling of lying awake in the dark with shadows, shapes and strange sounds haunting an eerie void never seeps from memory. Close your eyes, cast your mind back, and the unsettling and uncertain sensation can easily spring again — that's how engrained it is. Or, with your peepers wide open, you could just watch new micro-budget Canadian horror movie Skinamarink. First-time feature filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball has even made this breakout hit, which cost just $15,000 to produce, in the house he grew up in. His characters: two kids, four-year-old Kevin (debutant Lucas Paul) and six-year-old Kaylee (fellow newcomer Dali Rose Tetreault), who wake up deep into the evening. The emotion he's trading in: pure primal dread, because to view this digitally shot but immensely grainy-looking flick is to be plunged back to a time when nightmares lingered the instant that the light switched off. Skinamarink does indeed jump backwards, meeting Kevin and Kaylee in 1995 when they can't find their dad (Ross Paul, Moby Dick) or mum (Jaime Hill, Give and Take) after waking. But, befitting a movie that's an immersive collage of distressing and disquieting images and noises from the get-go, it also pulsates with an air of being trapped in time. It takes its name from a nonsense nursery-rhyme song from 1910, then includes cartoons from the 1930s on Kevin and Kaylee's television to brighten up the night's relentless darkness. In its exacting, hissing sound design especially, it brings David Lynch's 1977 debut Eraserhead to mind. And the influence of 1999's The Blair Witch Project and the 2007-born Paranormal Activity franchise is just as evident, although Skinamarink is far more ambient, experimental and experiential. Ball has evolved from crafting YouTube shorts inspired by online commenters' worst dreams to this: his own creepypasta. Skinamarink is available to stream via Shudder and AMC+. Read our full review. NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU Thanks to Justified, Short Term 12, Booksmart, Unbelievable and Dopesick, Kaitlyn Dever has already notched up plenty of acting highlights; however, No One Will Save You proves one of her best projects yet while only getting the actor to speak just a single line. Instead of using dialogue, this alien invasion flick tells its story without words — and also finds its emotion in Dever's expressive face and physicality. Her character: Mill River resident Brynn Adams, who has no one to talk to long before extra-terrestrials arrive. The local outcast due to a tragic incident from her past, and now living alone in her childhood home following her mother's death, Brynn fills her time by sewing clothes, making models of her unwelcoming small town like she's in Moon and penning letters to her best friend Maude. Then she's woken in the night by an intruder who isn't human, flits between fighting back and fleeing, and is forced into a battle for survival — striving to save her alienated existence in her cosy but lonely abode from grey-hued, long-limbed, telekinetic otherworldly interlopers with a penchant for mind control. With Spontaneous writer/director Brian Duffield's script matched by exacting A Quite Place-level sound design and The Witcher composer Joseph Trapanese's score, this close encounter of the unspoken kind is a visual feat, bouncing, bounding and dancing around Brynn's house and the Mill River community as aliens linger. Every single frame conveys a wealth of detail, as it needs to without chatter to fill in the gaps. Every look on Dever's face does the same, and every glance as well; this is a performance so fine-tuned that this would be a completely different film without her. Bringing the iconic 'Hush' episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to mind, No One Will Save you is smartly plotted, including in explaining why it sashays in silence. Just as crucially — and this time recalling everyone's favourite home-invasion film, aka Home Alone — it's fluidly and evocatively choreographed. There's also a touch of Nope in its depiction of eerie threats from space, plus a veer into Invasion of the Body Snatchers, all without ever feeling like No One Will Save is bluntly cribbing from elsewhere. The result: a new sci-fi/horror standout. No One Will Save You streams via Disney+. TOTALLY KILLER Kiernan Shipka has long said goodbye to Mad Men's Sally Draper, including by starring in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. After her dalliance with witchcraft, she's still sticking with horror in Totally Killer, but in a mix of slasher tropes and a Back to the Future-borrowing premise. There's a body count and a time machine — and 80s fashions aplenty, because where else does a 2023 movie head to when it's venturing into the past? Also present and accounted for: a tale about a high schooler living in a small town cursed by a past serial killer, which brings some Halloween and Scream nods, plus Mean Girls and Heathers-esque teen savagery. And, yes, John Hughes flicks also get some love, complete with shoutouts to Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink star Molly Ringwald. Totally Killer doesn't skimp on knowingly and winkingly mashing up its many influences, clearly, or on enjoying itself while doing so. The end result is a heap of fun, as hailing from Always Be My Maybe's Nahnatchka Khan behind the lens, along with screenwriters David Matalon (The Clearing), Sasha Perl-Raver (Let's Get Married) and Jen D'Angelo (Hocus Pocus 2). Shipka plays Vernon resident Jamie Hughes, who has spent her whole life being told to be careful about everything by her overprotective parents Pam (Julie Bowen, Modern Family) and Blake (Lochlyn Munro, Creepshow) after an October turned deadly back when they were her age. Unsurprisingly, she isn't happy about it. The reason for their caution: in 1987, three 16-year-old girls were murdered in the lead up to Halloween, with the culprit badged the Sweet 16 Killer — and infamy ensuing for Jamie's otherwise ordinary hometown. Pam is still obsessed with finding the murderer decades later, but her daughter only gets involved after a new tragedy. This Jason Blum (The Exorcist: Believer)-produced flick then needs to conjure up a blast in the past to try to fix what happened then to stop the new deaths from occurring. Always knowing that it's a comedy as much as a slasher film (as seen in its bright hues, heard in its snappy dialogue and conveyed in its committed performances), Totally Killer leans into everything about its Frankenstein's monster-style assemblage of pieces, bringing its setup to entertaining life. Totally Killer streams via Prime Video. THEY CLONED TYRONE Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us would already make a killer triple feature with Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You. For a smart and savvy marathon of science fiction-leaning films about race in America by Black filmmakers, now add Juel Taylor's They Cloned Tyrone. The Creed II screenwriter turns first-time feature director with this dystopian movie that slides in alongside Groundhog Day, Moon, The Cabin in the Woods, A Clockwork Orange, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and They Live, too — but is never derivative, not for a second, including in its 70s-style Blaxploitation-esque aesthetic that nods to Shaft and Superfly as well. Exactly what drug dealer Fontaine (John Boyega, The Woman King), pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx, Spider-Man: No Way Home) and sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris, Candyman) find in their neighbourhood is right there in the film's name. The how, the why, the specifics around both, the sense of humour that goes with all of the above, the savage satire: Taylor and co-writer Tony Rettenmaier perfect the details. Ignore the fact that they both collaborated on the script for the awful Space Jam: A New Legacy, other than considering the excellent They Cloned Tyrone as a far smarter, darker and deeper exploration of exploitation when the powers that be see other people as merely a means to an end. On an ordinary day — and amid vintage-looking threads and hairstyles, and also thoroughly modern shoutouts to SpongeBob SquarePants, Kevin Bacon, Barack Obama, Nancy Drew and bitcoin — Fontaine wakes up, has little cash and doesn't win on an instant scratch-it. He chats to his mother through her bedroom door, tries to collect a debt from Slick Charles and, as Yo-Yo witnesses, is shot. Then he's back in his bed, none the wiser about what just happened, zero wounds to be seen, and going through the same cycle again. When the trio realise that coming back from the dead isn't just a case of déjà vu, they team up to investigate, discovering one helluva conspiracy that helps Taylor's film make a powerful statement. They Cloned Tyrone's lead trio amply assists, too, especially the ever-ace Boyega. Like Sorry to Bother You especially, this is a comedy set within a nightmarish scenario, and the Attack the Block, Star Wars and Small Axe alum perfects both the humour and the horror. One plucky and persistent, the other oozing charm and rocking fur-heavy coats, Parris and Foxx lean into the hijinks as the central threesome go all Scooby-Doo. There isn't just a man in a mask here, however, in this astute and inventive standout. They Cloned Tyrone streams via Netflix. M3GAN Book in a date with 2 M3GAN 2 Furious now: even if it doesn't take that name, which it won't, a sequel to 2023's first guaranteed horror hit will come. Said follow-up also won't be called M3GAN 2: Electric Boogaloo, but that title would fit based on the first flick's TikTok-worthy dance sequence alone. Meme-starting fancy footwork is just one of the titular doll's skills. Earnestly singing 'Titanium' like this is Pitch Perfect, tickling the ivories with 80s classic 'Toy Soldiers', making these moments some of M3GAN's funniest: they're feats the robot achieves like it's designed to, too. Although unafraid to take wild tonal swings, and mining the established comedy-horror talents of New Zealand filmmaker Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and screenwriter Akela Cooper (Malignant) as well, this killer-plaything flick does feel highly programmed itself, however. It's winking, knowing, silly, satirical, slick and highly engineered all at once, overtly pushing buttons and demanding a response — and, thankfully, mostly earning it. Those Child's Play-meets-Annabelle-meets-The Terminator-meets-HAL 9000 thoughts that M3GAN's basic concept instantly brings to mind? They all prove true. The eponymous droid — a Model 3 Generative Android, to be specific — is a four-foot-tall artificially intelligent doll that takes the task of protecting pre-teen Cady (Violet McGraw, Black Widow) from emotional and physical harm deadly seriously, creeping out and/or causing carnage against everyone who gets in its way. Those Frankenstein-esque sparks, exploring what happens when humanity (or Girls and Get Out's Allison Williams here, as Cady's roboticist aunt Gemma) plays god by creating life? They're just as evident, as relevant to the digital age Ex Machina-style. M3GAN is more formulaic than it should be, though, and also never as thoughtful as it wants to be, but prolific horror figures Jason Blum and James Wan produce a film that's almost always entertaining. M3GAN is available to stream via Binge and Netflix. Read our full review. THE BOOGEYMAN Teenagers are savage in The Boogeyman, specifically to Yellowjackets standout Sophie Thatcher, but none of them literally take a bite. Grief helps usher a stalking dark force to a distraught family's door; however, that malevolent presence obviously doesn't share The Babadook's moniker. What can and can't be seen haunts this dimly lit film from Host and Dashcam director Rob Savage, and yet this isn't Bird Box, which co-star Vivien Lyra Blair also appeared in. And a distressed man visits a psychiatrist to talk about his own losses, especially the otherworldly monster who he claims preyed upon his children, just as in Stephen King's 1973 short story also called The Boogeyman — but while this The Boogeyman is based on that The Boogeyman, which then made it into the author's 1978 Night Shift collection that gave rise to a packed closet full of fellow movie adaptations including Children of the Corn, Graveyard Shift and The Lawnmower Man, this flick uses the horror maestro's words as a mere beginning. On the page and the screen alike, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian, Boston Strangler) seeks therapist Will Harper's (Chris Messina, Air) assistance, reclining on his couch to relay a tragic tale. As the new patient talks, he isn't just shaken and shellshocked — he's a shadow of a person. He's perturbed by what loiters where light doesn't reach, in fact, and by what he's certain has been lurking in his own home. Here, he couldn't be more adamant that "the thing that comes for your kids when you're not paying attention" did come for his. And, the film Lester has chosen his audience carefully, because Will's wife recently died in a car accident, leaving his daughters Sadie (Thatcher) and Sawyer (Blair) still struggling to cope. On the day of this fateful session, the two girls have just returned to school for the first time, only for Sadie to sneak back when her so-called friends cruelly can't manage any sympathy. The Boogeyman is available to stream via Disney+. Read our full review. KNOCK AT THE CABIN Does M Night Shyamalan hate holidays? The twist-loving writer/director's Knock at the Cabin comes hot on the heels of 2021's Old, swapping beach nightmares for woodland terrors. He isn't the only source of on-screen chaos in vacation locations — see also: Triangle of Sadness' Ruben Östlund, plus oh-so-many past horror movies, and TV's The White Lotus and The Resort as well — but making two flicks in a row with that setup is a pattern. For decades since The Sixth Sense made him the Oscar-nominated king of high-concept premises with shock reveals, Shyamalan explored the idea that everything isn't what it seems in our daily lives. Lately, however, he's been finding insidiousness lingering beyond the regular routine, in picturesque spots, when nothing but relaxation is meant to flow. A holiday can't fix all or any ills, he keeps asserting, including in this engaging adaptation of Paul Tremblay's 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World. For Eric (Jonathan Groff, The Matrix Resurrections), Andrew (Ben Aldridge, Pennyworth) and their seven-year-old daughter Wen (debutant Kristen Cui), a getaway isn't meant to solve much but a yearning for family time in the forest — and thinking about anyone but themselves while Eric and Andrew don robes, and Wen catches pet grasshoppers, isn't on their agenda. Alas, their rural Pennsylvanian idyll shatters swiftly when the soft-spoken but brawny Leonard (Dave Bautista, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) emerges from the trees. He says he wants to be Wen's friend, but he also advises that he's on an important mission. He notes that his task involves the friendly girl and her dads, giving them a hard choice yet also no choice at all. The schoolteacher has colleagues, too: agitated ex-con Redmond (Rupert Grint, Servant), patient nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird, Avenue 5) and nurturing cook Adriane (Abby Quinn, I'm Thinking of Ending Things), all brandishing weapons fashioned from garden tools. Knock at the Cabin is available to stream via Netflix and Binge. Read our full review. Looking for more things to watch? Check out our monthly streaming roundup, as well as our rundown of recent cinema releases that've been fast-tracked to digital home entertainment of late.
Erotica fans Australia-wide are celebrating the return of World Movies Channel's adults only program, Summer of Sin. Starting in December, it's a 62-night festival of all things intimate, with a sexually charged film screening at 9.30pm every single night until January 31. Before you ask, yes, Christmas Day's included. 2011 Spanish film The Sex of the Angels has that one covered. Moreover, New Year's Day will see a coital marathon kicking off at midnight, with 24 hours of films played back-to-back. In December 2012, the initiative saw a 49 percent increase in the channel's audience. This year, the formula that proved so irresistible to so many is being reapplied — a combination of classics and new international films, never-before-seen in Australia. In the words of the organisers, "We've scoured the darkest and dirtiest corners of the cinematic world for a line-up of the sexiest premiere films." Pretty much every fantasy or fetish gets a look-in, from swingers' parties to alien abduction. Here's our top 5. Young and Wild (Chile, 2012) When: Friday, 13 December 2013 (Australian television premiere) & Wednesday, 15 January 2014 This playful, raunchy, stylish film centres on 17-year-old Daniela (Alicia Rodriguez), who can't stop thinking about sex. Raised in a strict, wealthy, religious family, she expresses herself through her blog, Young and Wild, where she records her most outrageous desires and experiences. Call Girl (Sweden, 2012) When: Wednesday, 18 December 2013 (Australian television premiere) Inspired by true events involving Swedish politicians and prostitutes, this crime film is one of the more serious items on the Summer of Sin menu. A teenage girl's entry into prostitution exposes widespread hypocrisy at governmental level. Intimacy (France, 2000) When: Thursday, 26 December 2013 (Australian television premiere) & Saturday 18 January Every Wednesday afternoon, Jay (Mark Rylance), a failed-musician-turned-bar-tender, meets a woman (Kerry Fox) for brief, rough, wordless sex. One day he follows her home and discovers more than he bargained for. Kiss Me (With Every Heartbeat) (Sweden, 2011) When: Wednesday, 8 January 2014 Mia has always lived a straight life, and is about to enter an engagement with her partner, Tim, when she falls in love with her stepmother's gay daughter, Frida. An irrepressible mutual attraction develops between the two women, leading to a sensual affair. Elles (France, 2011) When: Friday, 31 January 2014 (Australian television premiere) Obsessive, middle-aged, unhappily married journalist, Anne (Juliette Binoche), receives an assignment that carries her into the risky yet seductive world of Parisian student prostitution. She gets to know two independent young women whose erotic adventures carry them into dangerous and unpredictable territory. Read our review here.
Darlinghurst's much loved Lankan Filling Station is bringing one of Sri Lanka's famous national dishes to Sydney with its Crab Curry Sundays. The restaurant will serve up its special spicy crab curry brunch on the last Sunday of every month, and you should book into April immediately. Apart from all the crab, diners can expect upwards of ten accompaniments and side dishes. Think chilli devilled eggs, onion relish sambol puffs, asparagus rolls, organic heirloom tomato red rice, dhal and papadums — to name a few. You can check out the full sample menu here. All this will cost $60 per person, not including drinks. There are two sittings — at noon and 2.30pm — and the only way to reserve a table is by emailing this booking form to info@lfsfood.com.au. If you're happy to risk it, the restaurant also accepts some walk-ins on the day. If you miss out this month and simply cannot wait until the next round, the East Sydney restaurant also offers a Sri Lankan-style brunch menu every Saturday (12–4pm) and Sunday (10am–4pm) — expect mango and cardamom lassi, sambol-stuffed milk buns and spicy bacon roti sandwiches, among other dishes, on offer. Crab Curry Sundays sittings are at 12pm and 2.30pm. Image: Parker Blain.
It's one of just a handful of hawker eateries to ever have scored a Michelin star, taking out the honour in both 2016 and 2017. And now, Singapore's legendary Hawker Chan is bringing its famed chicken rice dishes to Australia, setting up shop on Melbourne's Lonsdale Street from Friday, December 8. As with the original, it's helmed by chef Chan Hon Meng, who's had a tidy 30 years of experience perfecting Singapore's national dish: soy sauce chicken. Set to star on the Melbourne Hawker Chan menu, this age-old favourite features chicken poached in chicken stock, soy sauce and ginger, the meat then blanched to give the skin a gelatinous texture, and served on a fluffy pile of jasmine rice. It'll sit alongside a tight collection of just 19 other dishes, including authentic hits like char siew noodles, roasted pork rice, wonton soup and soya sauce chicken hor fun. The space itself will tap into the hawker spirit — it'll be a lively 92-seater where diners will order and pick up their meals from the front counter. It won't be taking any bookings though, given this is Michelin-quality fare, we're betting no one will be too fazed by a bit of queuing. Hawker Chan will open at 157–159 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, from Friday, December 8. For more information, visit Hawker Chan's Instagram.
There you were thinking that marbles, hopscotch and tug of war were just ordinary, innocent activities that everyone enjoyed when they were kids. Then Squid Game came along, instantly became one of the best new TV programs of 2021, and made everyone look at those childhood pasttimes in a whole new green and red light. The South Korean Netflix series also became a huge hit, so much so that Netflix confirmed at the beginning of 2022 that a second season was on the way, and also dropped a teaser trailer for it the same year — and announced that an IRL version, but without the murder, was in the works as well. The latest news worth breaking out the sugar honeycombs for? Finding out exactly who'll be playing Squid Game season two, and also getting a sneak peek at the reality competition show. Announced at 2023's Tudum: A Global Fan Event — aka Netflix's fan convention — the first spans familiar and new names, while the latter does indeed involve the notorious Red Light, Green Light doll. [caption id="attachment_905752" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Squid Game S1[/caption] First, the dramatised series. The second season of Squid Game doesn't yet boast a release date, but it does have a heap of cast members locked in. Lee Jung-jae (Deliver Us From Evil) returns as the show's protagonist Seong Gi-hun, while Lee Byung-hun (The Magnificent Seven) will be back as the masked Front Man as well. They'll be joined by Wi Ha-joon (Little Women) as detective Hwang Jun-ho, plus Gong Yoo (Train to Busan) as the man in the suit who got Gi-hun into the game in the first place. A show about a deadly competition that has folks competing for ridiculous riches comes with a hefty bodycount, which means that new faces were always going to be essential in Squid Game season two. Yim Si-wan (Emergency Declaration), Kang Ha-neul (Insider), Park Sung-hoon (The Glory) and Yang Dong-geun (Yaksha: Ruthless Operations) will all join the series, but Netflix is keeping quiet about their characters at the moment. As for the IRL take on Squid Game, called Squid Game: The Challenge, the streaming service revealed that it'll arrive sometime in November. Again, there's no death in the ten-episode show, but there's still 456 competitors playing games to win big, with $4.56 million on offer — the largest cash prize in reality television history. Yes, those challenges will be inspired by the South Korean thriller, plus a few new additions. There'll be no actors, just ordinary people. Also, competitors will be eliminated as the games go on, forming strategies and alliances will play a huge part, the sets offer spot-on recreations of the fictional version, the guards are all decked out in red and players in green, and it's all overseen by a Front Man. If you somehow missed all things Squid Game two years back, even after it became bigger than everything from Stranger Things to Bridgerton, the Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning series serves up a puzzle-like storyline and unflinching savagery, which unsurprisingly makes quite the combination. It also steps into societal divides within South Korea, a topic that wasn't invented by Parasite, Bong Joon-ho's excellent Oscar-winning 2019 thriller, but has been given a boost after that stellar flick's success. Accordingly, it's easy to see thematic and narrative parallels between Parasite and Squid Game, although Netflix's highly addictive series goes with a Battle Royale and Hunger Games-style setup. Here, 456 competitors are selected to work their way through six seemingly easy children's games. They're all given numbers and green tracksuits, they're competing for 45.6 billion won, and it turns out that they've also all made their way to the contest after being singled out for having enormous debts. Check out Netflix's Squid Game season two cast announcement video below, plus a teaser trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge: Squid Game's first season is available to stream via Netflix — we'll update you with a release date for season two when one is announced. Squid Game: The Challenge will hit Netflix in November 2023 — we'll update you with an exact release date when one is announced. Images: Netflix.
Hoppy and full of flavour, IPAs date back to the mid-19th century. Modus Operandi's version doesn't boast quite that lengthy a history — the northern beaches brewery opened in 2012 itself — but it's a fine addition to the fold. An American-style tipple that has picked up both awards and a hefty following, the Sonic Prayer IPA started as a limited-edition brew; however it has now firmly found its place among Modus' year-round core range. That's great news if you're looking for a malty beer with a hint of citrus, peach, passionfruit, stone fruit and pine, and if you're a fan of Mona Vale-based outfit. When it comes to the latter in general, this brewery takes its US influences seriously — even flying in live yeast from America to use in its beers. Located on Harkeith Street, Modus' HQ also features a brewpub, so you can settle in and drink beers onsite — and tuck into mac 'n' cheese croquettes, salt and vinegar wings, soft shell crab burgers and eight types of pizza. Expect specials each week night, as well as regular ticketed masterclasses.
Interwoven IIIis a group show from the Design Institute of Australia. Jessica Robertson's 'slow palette' designs are felt scarves, jackets and dresses each made from a single rectangular slab of fabric — like a toga, but easier to apply. Megan Jackson's eye motif screenprints aren't complicated, but are well effective, while Kate Ward screen-prints chairs, cushions and curtains in sharp white links over solid colour. Also in present is Steve Woods' Screenhaus, a corner dominated by six giant prints. A native American bust by graffiti artist Sebastian Vicarro Indio, a patched woman at work by Mike Watt, Ryan Bharj's simple and strong Lucha Libre mask, a 1968 French protest banner, Onnie Cleary's relaxed, comfortably lined Get Over Your Hang-Ups: A Young Person's Guide to Call Centres, and Paul Shanta's 'Power Punch' — a fist made out of sound effects from comics. Each is sharp, with strong rough black lines. Each, on a wall, has enough style to centre a philosphy. Catriona Secker's Curious Nature is a collection of oil, acrylic and pencil sketches. Her animals and strange organisms would not look out of place in the background of a Shawn Tan picture book, but her style owes more to kawaii and the microscope than his sharp, weird style. Biology and cell cultures seem to give life to her soft organisms. One black and white image is covered in eyes, while in another, two sharp-faceted viruses menace an embryo in a bucolic collection of seaweeds and nematode plants. The embryo is not sleeping. Her coloured works are bloodier. Though none of them are cut open, each image pulses with the fragile blood of embryonic vessels: fragile, transparent, visceral. She combines the plant with the animal: flowering engorged fronds, tentacles and crinolated viscera. Her pictures are unsettling, organic, soft and cute. Safe from a distance. Image by Catriona Secker.
A new spin on classic pub grub has arrived in the Sutherland Shire, with the relaunch of the Bangor Tavern under a bold new identity: Roberto's. Now open seven days a week, the new-look venue blends Italian flavours with the comforting familiarity of a quintessential local pub. Behind the revamp are Adam and Kylie Micola, the duo behind Cronulla waterfront hotspot Bobby's. They're bringing the same coastal flair and culinary smarts to their newest venture, making full use of the venue's expansive al fresco space. "Our heavily al fresco-forward venue is so well suited for Roberto's to provide our customers a gentle pivot into the regions of Italy," says Adam Micola. "Curated to inject more personality into the venue, Roberto's is promising to deliver on all you love about a pub meal, just with a whole lot more fun." The fun is evident on the plate. You can expect playful dishes like grilled octopus with nduja vinaigrette, chickpeas and oregano; pork schnitzel with pancetta, mushroom and thyme cream; and an elevated chicken parmigiana with prosciutto cotto and stracciatella. There's also a clever selection of pizza and pasta, including a signature pappardelle with a rich beef shin ragu, as well as hearty salads and hefty burgers. On the drinks front, Alex Cameron — owner of vibey Bronte spot Table Manners — has curated a menu balancing Aussie varietals with international gems. Cocktails lean into Roberto's Mediterranean vibe, with a range of Italian-style spritzes, old-school classics and breezy, sippable signatures, while beer lovers can enjoy local brews on tap or a rotating beer of the month that spotlights indie brewers. The tavern's sleek contemporary refresh — led by celebrated design studio Tom Mark Henry — channels the warming tones of the Med, awash with neutral hues, soft terracottas and clean lines. Despite the new look, it'll still be an honest local watering hole — new features include an expanded kids' playground and a sports lounge the boasts a giant 3.5-metre indoor screen. Roberto's at Bangor Tavern open daily from 11am until late at 121 Yala Road, Bangor. For more information, head to the venue's website. Images: James Pellegrino.
Stay tuned, more information coming soon.
Celebrating all things LGBTQIA+ in Australia is easy this summer. In fact, it's historic. For the first time ever both Down Under and the southern hemisphere, WorldPride is heading our way, joining Sydney's already jam-packed lineup of queer events. That's the cultural landscape the returning Mardi Gras Film Festival slides into in 2023 — and it's marking the occasion with a massive lineup of movies to celebrate its own 30th-anniversary milestone. Fans of queer cinema, rejoice: this annual Sydney film fest is screening 166 films at eight venues around the city, running from Wednesday, February 15–Thursday, March 2 at locations such as Event Cinemas on George Street and in Hurstville, Dendy Cinema Newtown, the Hayden Orpheum, Ritz Cinemas, Casula Powerhouse, the Westpac Open Air Cinema and the Alumni Green at the University of Technology. Not in the Harbour City but still want to watch along? As it has done in past years, MGFF is also streaming part of its program online around the country — because catering to movie lovers Australia-wide is fast, and welcomely, becoming a pandemic-era film fest staple. For in-person attendees, the festival kicks off with coming-of-age film Of an Age, which heads to Sydney after also opening 2022 Melbourne International Film Festival, and marks the latest from Australian You Won't Be Alone director Goran Stolevski. Joining it as a MGFF bookend is closing night's The Venus Effect, with the Danish movie about two young women in love enjoying its Aussie premiere. And, just as huge is All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, 2022's Venice Film Festival Golden Lion-winning documentary about queer artist Nan Goldin, her life and career, and her battle against the billionaire Sackler family. With the full fest program including 100-plus sessions in cinema, outdoors and on-demand — as well as panel discussions, workshops, networking events and parties — other highlights include two world-premiere screenings, glimpses back to the past and free sessions. Documentary Trans Glamore and camp comedy The Winner Takes It All will make their bows at MGFF; Vegas in Space and an episode of Aussie soap Number 96 will hit the big screen; retro sessions of Pride and Raya and the Last Dragon also get a spin; and new queer comedy specials by Joel Creasy and Rhys Nicholson will nab a run, without attendees needing to pay a cent. Or, there's a special Westpac Openair session of the Cate Blanchett-starring Tár, which looks set to score the homegrown talent another Oscar; doco The Giants, about Dr Bob Brown becoming Australia's first openly gay member of parliament; Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner Joyland, a Pakistani effort about a romance between a trans woman and a married man; and moving Moroccan drama The Blue Caftan. Plus, other standouts include The Longest Weekend, about three siblings in Sydney's Inner West; inner-city cowboy love story Lonesome; Uýra: The Rising Forest, focusing on trans-indigenous artist Uýra; In From the Side, about an affair between two members of a fictional South London gay rugby club; and My Emptiness and I, honing in on a young trans call-centre worker. Plus, for cinephiles watching on from home, there are 21 features on offer, including Black as U R, a doco about the lack of attention paid to the black queer community; Icelandic spoof Cop Secret; Blitzed!, about the eponymous London nightclub, with Boy George, Princess Julia and Spandau Ballet sharing their memories; Youtopia, which explores the inadvertent formation of a hipster cult; and In Her Words, an ode to 20th-century lesbian fiction. Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 runs from Wednesday, February 15–Thursday, March 2 at eight venues around Sydney — and online nationally. For more information, visit the festival's website.
When a music festival takes place in a winery, it already has two of the three fest essentials taken care of before it even announces its lineup: an ace location and booze. But, that doesn't mean that Grapevine Gathering slouches on talent. The acts hitting its stages around the country are always chosen to impress, and 2023's fests are no different. Leading the charge: Spacey Jane, King Stingray and Vanessa Amorosi, with the latter meaning that 'Absolutely Everybody' will be stuck in your head for weeks afterwards. The Wombats and Hayden James are also on the bill, both doing Australian-exclusive shows at the wine-fuelled festival. Rounding out the list: Cannons, The Rions, Teenage Joans and Bella Amor, plus podcast duo Lucy and Nikki on hosting duties. [caption id="attachment_905845" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sam Hendel[/caption] Grapevine Gathering's 2023 tour will hit New South Wales on Saturday, October 21, taking place at Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley. Naturally, sipping wine is a huge part of the attraction. As always, attendees will have access to a heap of vino given the fest's locations, as well as an array of food options. GRAPEVINE GATHERING 2023 LINEUP: Spacey Jane The Wombats Hayden James King Stingray Vanessa Amorosi Cannons The Rions Teenage Joans Bella Amor Hosted by Lucy and Nikki Top image: Jordan Munns.
Maybe you love getting away, but hate the possibility of noise echoing through the walls from neighbouring hotel rooms. Perhaps you adore nature, and yet camping doesn't quite float your boat. Or, you could be mighty fond of hitting the water, but you're not so fussed about actually sailing anywhere. For all of these situations and more, the Gold Coast has now a new holiday option: Drift Flotel. What's a 'flotel'? It's exactly what it sounds like — and it's really a luxe houseboat decked out for stays, but you get the idea. And if you're wondering what makes the three-storey, 12-metre-long Drift Flotel different from other seafaring vessels, this one only floats rather than cruises. When you arrive, you'll find it anchored in one spot, and it won't move from there during your entire visit. That means you'll get to slumber on the water without needing to worry about operating the boat. You'll also score both water and national park views, too. When you're not taking in the sights, you and five mates — because the flotel sleeps six — can also hang out on the walkaround deck or up on the rooftop terrace. Naturally, they're great place to take in the scenery as well. Available for $680 per night, the refurbed houseboat features two bedrooms and bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, and a lounge and dining space. And, if you're keen to hang out with a few more pals during the day, it can hold 12 all up. Upstairs, there's a bar as well — complete with an ice machine and cocktail-making equipment, aka all the essentials. As for where you'll be anchored, Drift Flotel calls a small inlet 10–15 minutes from Jumpinpin home. To get there, you'll take a 40-minute voyage on a 32-foot flybridge cruiser, leaving from Horizon Shores Marina at Steiglitz near Jacobs Well and travelling through the Southern Moreton Bay Islands National Park. And if you are keen to go exploring by water during your stay, the Drift Flotel comes with a five-horsepower tender — which'll get you to the shore, too, if you're also keen to go wandering on land. For more information about Drift Flotel, or to make a booking, head to the houseboat's website.
The Sydney Film Festival has today revealed its full 2013 program, which features a fierce competition field, an extended Sydney Film Festival Hub program and special presentations of some of the most talked-about new films we thought we'd have to wait much longer to see. This year celebrating its 60th year, the film festival will open with a screening of Mystery Road, the intense newbie directed, written, shot and scored by Ivan Sen (Toomelah) but starring Hugo Weaving, Aaron Pedersen and Ryan Kwanten. "Confident, mature, word-class and compelling – these are words that describe both this wonderful film and this extraordinary festival," said festival director Nashen Moodley. Weaving will also lead the international panel of judges picking the winner of the SFF Official Competition, which recognises the most courageous and cutting-edge films and comes with a $60,000 cash prize. Hot contenders include Nicolas Winding Refn's follow-up to Drive, Only God Forgives, which again promises to use Ryan Gosling, violence and synth to great effect; Australian Kim Mordaunt's Rocket, winner of the Best First Feature award at the Berlinale and Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca; Sarah Polley's family documentary Stories We Tell; and University of Sydney graduate Haifaa Al Mansour's Wadjada, the first feature film shot entirely in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Out of competition you'll find much-anticipated new films as well as surprising wonders from around the world that might never get widely released. A sure highlight (and sell-out) will be the new Michel Gondry confection, Mood Indigo, which stars Audrey Tautou in a romance darkened by illness. If you like your films even more difficult to interpret, you'll be pleased to hear Shane Carruth's follow-up to Primer, Upstream Color, is screening. There's also the decades-coming sequel to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, Before Midnight, as well as Woody Allen-esque comedy Frances Ha from partners in crime/romance Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. TV gets a nod in the Box Set program stream, which will screen HBO Europe's Burning Bush and Japanese broadcaster WOWOW's Penance. Documentaries continue to be a strong suit of the festival, with Vivid co-presentation The Human Scale by cities-are-for-people advocate Andreas Dalsgaard a particular draw. Internet culture is a subject in Downloaded, Kink and We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, while global grrl bands rock in Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls and Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer. Last but not least (and given there's some 190 films in the program, not really last), one of our favourite things, the Sydney Film Festival Hub at Lower Town Hall is back, and now open until midnight daily from June 6-14. This is the place to meet, imbibe and get some feeling back into your legs after a movie marathon. It's also the place to see Jeff Desom's exciting installation Rear Window Loop, which we raved about a few weeks ago. A VHS party, trivia night, fake film press conference, Cinema Burlesque and movie future forecast are among the other interactive and instructive events on the bill. The Sydney Film Festival runs from June 5-16 in a corridor of venues throughout the city as well as the Hayden Cremorne Orpheum. Tickets are available now from the festival website, as is the full program of films and special events. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ulrIWcQOy8o
It's the election promise Queenslanders fond of an evening out had been hoping wouldn't come true. When the state's Labor Government came to power in 2015, they vowed to combat alcohol-fuelled violence, and to change legislation surrounding the service of booze to do so. In the early hours of this morning — the time Brisbanites will no longer be able to order drinks or enter bars, fittingly — the amended laws were passed through. Most of us want to put an end to anti-social behaviour, but unless you're eager to cut your partying short long before you currently have to, the latest developments bear only bad news. From July 2016, last drinks will be served at 2am — or 3am, if you're hanging out in a designated entertainment precinct. Shots will be banned after midnight, regardless of what you're consuming. And, if you're knocking back a few beverages at home, you'd best grab your supplies before 10pm, because any new bottle-os won't be able to trade past then. That's just the beginning, with new lockout times coming into effect on February 1, 2017. Patrons won't be able to re-enter pubs and clubs after 1am, which is a whole two hours earlier than existing restrictions. Casinos will be exempt, so expect the Treasury — or the new Queens Wharf precinct, once it is up and running — to become the most popular place in the city for late-night revelry. Queensland's tough changes come at a time when the concept of alcohol-related curfews continues to be in the spotlight around the country. Sydneysiders keep coming out in force to show their opposition, with another Keep Sydney Open Rally planned for Sunday, February 21. In Melbourne, a trial of 2am lockouts proved unsuccessful back in 2008, causing Victoria to abandon the idea since. Looks like Brisbane residents now have yet another reason to flock down south.
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Sydney’s top Italian restaurateurs are bringing their own brand of Euro disco to Carriageworks during Vivid Sydney's Modulations. Combining a love for music, food and the motherland, the Italo Dining and Disco Club is a collaboration between the guys from Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta, Fratelli Paradiso and 10 William St. They promise to transport you to a different time and place with an immersive dining and dance experience. “We know how to throw a great party,” says Giovanni Paradiso, co-owner and manager of 10 William St and Fratelli Paradiso. “We all have a great vibe in our restaurants, you just don’t want to leave ... we want to get people's conceptions of dining and entertainment to change. You don’t need to go to seven venues to have a good night out, you can just go to one all-rounder.” With exclusive performances from Grace Jones, Pharoah Sanders and Bill Drummond (plus a Kooky party) running concurrently with the disco at Carriageworks, you'll be able to take a holistic approach to your night and get dinner at the club, go see Grace Jones, and head back to Italo to continue to party the night away under the influence of for-real European disco legends like Beppe Loda. Which is good, considering you'll probably have consumed a fair few carbs from the Italian menu. Paradiso's partner in this project is Maurice Terzini from Icebergs and Da Orazio, whose spit-roasted pig and 48-hour pizza dough are often on our minds. Terzini grew up in Pescara on the Adriatic coast, so has a very firsthand reference point for the kind of party they want to create. “We’re doing natural wine out of barrels," says Paradiso. "You’ll be able to order it by the glass, by the half litre ... Maurice will be doing some of his Ciroc things with paired cocktails, and there will obviously be jugs of spritzers. "Food-wise it is going to be pretty much our favourites from Fratelli Paradiso, 10 William St, Icebergs Dining Room and Bar and Da Orazio.” He boasts of a festival vibe and street food set to tempt. Paradiso encourages people to bring their families along early on in the night for a great Italian dining experience. "We know there’s going to be great food and great music,” he says, cheekily adding, “and pretty much you do the rest. You bring the fun.” With the success of the similar food-culture fusion Wild Porteno at Vivid Festival last year, Italo Dining and Disco Club certainly has some big shoes to fill; however, by taking a snapshot of Italy in its disco heyday and putting their own spin on it, Paradiso is confident they will transport club-goers into a simpler time when discos were more about a combination of great food and dance in the one location. "[What’s important is to] take a bit from a great movement, the '70s and '80s, and turn it into something pretty cool and pretty modern,” he says The Italo Dining and Disco Club runs from 5pm till late on May 31 to June 2 and June 5–7. Entry is free and all ages are welcome.
Melbourne's annual arts festival RISING might not return until winter (running from Saturday, June 1–Sunday, June 16), but tickets are already selling out to some of the most-popular events. If you've been thinking about heading to Victoria's capital to catch hidden laneway gigs, free exhibitions and international performances, then you best start making some serious plans. To help you get the most out of this year's festival, we've teamed up with the crew at RISING to bring you three exclusive travel packages that can be booked until Tuesday, April 30. [caption id="attachment_950619" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Damien Raggatt[/caption] First off, we've got our hands on a select number of Day Tripper tickets, which give punters access to a huge day party on Saturday, June 8. For just one arvo, the arcades and laneways surrounding Melbourne Town Hall will be taken over by post-punk, acid house, hip hop and disco tunes, as well as video works and contemporary dance performances. It will be huge. This package gets you access to the block party and afterparty, and includes a two-night stay at The Howey (with a full mini-bar worth $100), which is just a short walk from all the fun. The second RISING travel package will get you VIP access to see Dirty Three's performance at Hamer Hall, which has already sold out to the general public. We're the only ones still offering access if you want to see the trio perform live on Friday, June 14 or Saturday, June 15. This deal also includes a two-night stay at The Howey (again with a full mini-bar worth $100), a couple of drinks vouchers and priority entry to the festival club. Seats are highly limited for this one, so don't wait long to nab them. Lastly, we've secured a few tickets to Sydney drill legends ONEFOUR on Saturday, June 8. The lads' raw stories of crime, poverty and social dislocation have clocked over 500-million streams, with rap stars like A$AP Ferg and The Kid LAROI also fans. Book this RISING travel package for $549 and you'll receive two tickets to the show, plus a two-night stay at Causeway 353 (with $50 of mini-bar credit). Head to Concrete Playground Trips to book these exclusive RISING packages, which are only available up until Tuesday, April 30. Top image: Ian Laidlaw.
In a year that's seen us all pondering holidays close to home, the New South Wales National Parks department has just gifted the state's residents with a trio of new reasons to book a local trip. Perhaps you feel like heading north and enjoying a coastal getaway? Maybe you'd rather go south and roam around the bushland? Either way, there are now three refurbished cottages across both spots ready and waiting for reservations. The first — and perhaps the one you'll be instantly enthusiastic about with the weather warming up — is Davies Cottage, which is located in Myall Lakes National Park on the mid north coast. It was built back in the 50s, on the eastern headland at Seals Rock village, and boasts views out over Boat Beach and Sugarloaf Bay. Here, you can vacation in a group of up to six, and spend plenty of time sitting on the timber deck and staring out at the water. The self-contained abode also comes with an outdoor barbecue and sun lounge chairs — or, for when you'd rather relax inside, a fully equipped kitchen and an open-plan living space. In terms of things to do, you'll be less than a kilometre from Sugarloaf Lighthouse. Or, you can indulge in a bit of dolphin-spotting at Lighthouse Beach or wander through Treachery Headland. Drive over to Wallingat National Park and/or Booti Booti National Park, and you'll find more places to bushwalk, more lookouts and more beaches. [caption id="attachment_784630" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Davies Cottage via Brent Mail, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment[/caption] The second two refurbed places to stay are located in Kosciuszko National Park, in the Thredbo-Perisher area. It mightn't be ski season at present, but the Creel Bay cottages are open year-round in the Snowy Mountains region. Both — Creel Retreat and Creel View — are surrounded by eucalypt woodland, and boast views over Lake Jindabyne. Three-bedroom abodes that can sleep six guests each, and feature new kitchens and bathrooms, large outdoor decks and barbecues, they're actually former staff lodges that have been repurposed. On the agenda here: peering over the lake and up at the mountains, and, in winter, using it as a base to get to Perisher Valley (which is less than a 30-minute drive away) and hit the snow. In summer, you can take a bushwalk via the nearby waterfall, through the Main Range or along the Mount Kosciuszko Summit. On Lake Jindabyne, you can also fish, paddle and boat — while the Thredbo Valley Track is also ten minutes away by car. [caption id="attachment_784626" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Creel Bay cottages via Murray Vanderveer, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.[/caption] If you're eager to kick back by the sea, Davies Cottage's rates start at $1400 — for a seven-night stay (which is the minimum booking period) for up to six people. For those who'd rather a mountain trip, the Creel Bay cottages start at $265 per night, with a two-night minimum stay. Both Davies Cottage and the Creel Bay cottages are now available for bookings. For more information, or to make a reservation, head to the Davies Cottage and Creel Bay cottages pages on the NSW National Parks website. Top images: Davies Cottage via Brent Mail, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment; Creek Bay cottages via Murray Vanderveer, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
If you'd said five years ago that Matthew McConaughey was one of the finest actors of his generation, you'd have been a laughing stock. As it turns out, you'd also have been right. After spending most of last decade taking his shirt off in rom-coms and exhibiting poor equilibrium in film posters, the Texan has undergone a total reinvention in recent times, and his role in Dallas Buyers Club is his most transformative yet. With Christian Bale-like commitment, the actor is down to skin and bones as Ron Woodroof, a real-life AIDS patient who, at a time when the legally permitted treatments were proving totally ineffectual, ruffled the feathers of the Federal Drug Administration by smuggling unapproved medicines in through Mexico. Even more emaciated than McConaughey is Jared Leto, nigh unrecognisable as an AIDS-suffering transgender woman named Rayon. Together, she and Woodroof thumb their noses at the medical bureaucracy by forming the 'Dallas Buyers Club', providing patients with imported drugs in return for a $400 monthly fee. Even discounting their weight loss, both actors are in phenomenal form. Leto disappears completely into his part, creating a kind, funny, heartbreaking character whose unlikely friendship with Woodroof gives the movie its beating heart. Dallas Buyers Club is in cinemas on February 13, and thanks to Pinnacle Films, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au. Read our full review of Dallas Buyers Club here. https://youtube.com/watch?v=F5YQh7qsGNQ
As culture, technology and entrepreneurial spirit intertwine ever tighter, REMIX Summit's Sydney edition is on hand to present the world's most forward-thinking industry leaders and creative minds. From December 7–8, over 100 visionaries will discuss the future of the creative economy, cities and the arts, offering up insight into the companies and individuals shaping the future. Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell headlines REMIX Sydney Summit 2017; the much-loved hedonistic festival that has gone from strength-to-strength as a cultural keystone with more than 70,000 partygoers attending in 2017. There will be too many gifted folks present to name, but to spotlight a few special speakers, you'll hear from Lonely Planet Global CEO Daniel Houghton, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab's Dan Goods and Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Disney Australia Kylie Watson-Wheeler. Plus representatives from the likes of Airbnb, the Royal Shakespeare Company and London's National Theatre will all be in attendance. Are you a budding entrepreneur with big ideas but a small budget? We're here to help. To celebrate the return of REMIX Sydney Summit 2017, we're giving away one two-day pass valued at $695. To enter, see details below. If you don't manage to snag the golden ticket, you can still attend at a discounted price. We're offering Concrete Playground readers a 25 percent discount on this year's event, just head to the REMIX website and enter 'concrete25' at checkout. [competition]646456[/competition]
If last summer was the summer of seltzer, we're ready to call the upcoming season the summer of canned cocktails. And if the seltzer wave showed us anything, it was that convenience will almost always win out over taste. So the next natural step? A convenient sip that tastes great. Here at CP, we think the espresso martini is an ideal canned candidate. The frothy, caffeine-infused libation holds a special place in the cocktail canon. While it's not considered a classic in the traditional sense — legend has it that it was created in the 1980s by a London bartender who was asked by a young female patron for something that would "wake me up, and then fuck me up" — a case could certainly be made that it is perhaps the most influential of cocktails. Think of the last time you had one when you were out and about — chances are, you spotted someone else with one in hand and decided it would be a good idea to have one yourself. Then, your crew decided it would be a good idea too, and so did the crew next to yours, and all of a sudden it was espresso martinis all round. Does any other cocktail have this kind of effect on people, friends and strangers alike? Unlikely. Beloved though it is, the espresso martini is notoriously tedious to make. Enter Mr Black — that equally beloved Australian producer of the eponymous coffee liqueur — which is bringing your dreams of espresso martini o'clock that much closer to reality with its new canned version. This velvety smooth blend of Mr Black, vodka and cold brew arabica coffee is supercharged with nitrogen, meaning that just a couple of shakes is all it takes to have a picture-perfect pour every time. The only question: where will you be having your canned, ready-to-serve espresso martini this summer? We've asked our editors for how they'll be enjoying theirs, so read on for inspo on how to drink yours. [caption id="attachment_872385" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Declan Blackall[/caption] AT A DINNER PARTY A beautifully set table, salty snacks to start, multiple courses, delightful company: the recipe for a stellar dinner party. Honestly, I'll live a happy life if it's filled with good food and good company. Add an expertly balanced espresso martini — that sits pretty in the fridge till the minute I want its frothy topped pour in my hand — and we're talking peak enjoyment. Whether you're hosting or attending, you'd be a goose to miss a minute of the tableside vibes. Measuring nips and the risk of spills? Trust me, stay seated with a coffee-laden tinny. Be it for the ease of the sip or the few extra hits of caffeine you'll squeeze into your day. (Or, level up the experience with a martini glass kept icy in the freezer till the second you're ready for it — a serve that's still miles easier than the 'real' deal.) Grace MacKenzie, Branded Content Manager [caption id="attachment_871106" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dave Kan[/caption] AT A MUSIC FESTIVAL For the first time since 2019, festival season is here. I had the privilege of enjoying a couple of espresso martinis at this year's Festival of the Sun, taking full advantage of the fest's BYO policy to enjoy a cold can of Mr Black in the campsite before heading off to catch Middle Kids. If you're heading to any of this summer's BYO events — whether that's Victoria's Meredith Music Festival or Jungle Love in Queensland — I highly recommend doing the same. If you're not one for camping, you could also pick up a four-pack of espresso martinis to enjoy as the perfect pre-festival tipple for any one-day gatherings you might be heading to. You best believe I'll be cracking a can before catching Fred again.. at Laneway, TISM at Good Things and the Boiler Room stage at Mode Festival on Cockatoo Island. Ben Hansen, Junior Editor [caption id="attachment_872384" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Declan Blackall[/caption] AT A GAMES NIGHT My friends and I are not the types to stay out late — we prefer a reserved night of dignified card games that, inevitably, devolve into screaming at each other over a Monopoly board. Personally, I find that the tactical and economic strategies of board games need an energised and level head. That's when a good espresso martini comes in handy. But, why bother making one when I can keep an emergency reserve in my fridge? That way, there's more time for me to clearly present my case as to why I should be the new owner of the Kings Cross Station card. Alec Jones, Junior Writer [caption id="attachment_872387" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jael Rodriguez (Unsplash)[/caption] ON A HOT-GIRL WALK The post-work, summer-evening hot-girl* cocktail walk is a wordy but delightful concept I now have down to an artform — after years of practice — so let me share my secrets. This divine intersection between exercise and cocktail hour is a way to decompress after work and celebrate summer — while still hitting those steps, getting a little fresh air and soaking up some Vitamin D. I like to pop a chilled canned espresso martini or two into my fanny pack, along with sunglasses, keys and phone (tip: this one from Kmart is the perfect size), and trot along with a friend discussing the week's scandals. If possible, find a nearby hill to scoot up so that when you reach the peak, you're perfectly glowing for golden hour. (We are always glowing darling, sweating). Find a grassy spot to park up, crack your bevvies, watch the sunset and cheers to being healthy — but not too healthy. That's balance, baby. *hot-boy and general hottie walks also firmly encouraged, all other aspects remain the same. Sarah Templeton, Aotearoa New Zealand Editor [caption id="attachment_872388" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Declan Blackall[/caption] AT HOME WITH A GOOD BOOK For me, one of the few good things that came out of two years in and out of lockdown was the discovery that I really appreciate my own company. And maybe it's a sign that I'm getting older, but I've come to realise that solo time can be a genuine indulgence. My favourite way to spend time on my own: switching off my phone and sitting down with a good book for an uninterrupted afternoon of losing myself in a fictional world of my own choosing. This process will also involve making myself a fresh pot of coffee in my French press and taking long, slow sips — but, next time I'll be trading out the beans for a velvety smooth and perfectly frothy espresso martini poured from the can. This way, I can get the caffeine buzz I need with far less effort and a little extra kick — I'm already indulging after all, so I may as well go all out. Nik Addams, Branded Content Manager For more info on Mr Black Espresso Martini, head to the website. Top image: Declan Blackall
One of Sydney's most visually and sonically impressive venues, the City Recital Hall is always looking to complement its stunning acoustics with an equally exciting program. While its bread and butter are orchestral performances, the venue will often go on a streak of booking more contemporary performers, pushing the boundaries of the type of music you might expect to see in such a classy environment. That's exactly the case with the hall's new contemporary music series 02 | 23, which is not only pulling together a diverse group of musicians ranging from hip-hop legends to upcoming singer-songwriters but will also include the venue's first-ever standing gigs. Following the installation of removable seating in the hall, the inner-city music hub can now accommodate general-admission standing gigs for those that need to move their feet when they're catching live music. Director of Programming at City Recital Hall Stuart Rogers said: "Great music sounds better in a great venue, and as musicians create new ways of presenting new sounds, venues must improve and grow with the culture and technology they're built on. By increasing City Recital Hall's capabilities as a performing arts centre to allow for standing shows, we look to open the venue up to an infinite variety of expanding genres along with a whole new segment of Sydney's live music scene and cultural fabric. More music for the people. Come dance with us." The three shows that will claim the title of the prestigious venue's first standing shows come from three very different musical worlds. On Thursday, June 8 you can catch French disco pioneer Cerrone bringing the inaugural dance floor to the hall. The next night, Friday, June 9, one of the most influential hip-hop duos in the history of the genre, The Pharcyde will be taking to the stage with Masta Ace and Marco Polo in support. And, on Saturday, June 10, local legends Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever will be arriving with their signature indie rock tunes. [caption id="attachment_899537" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Pharcyde[/caption] They'll all be joining an eclectic cast of characters on the 02 | 23 program that will run throughout June. The lineup includes breathtaking Icelandic folk singer Ásgeir, breakout Nigerian pop musician Obongjayar, plus Cash Savage and the Last Drinks, Ichiko Aoba, Laura Jean, Yazmin Lacey and Amanda Brown. Alongside the removable seating, the City Recital Hall also recently installed a 360-degree spatial audio system, so you can expect these gigs to sound crisp and all-encompassing. It's the same sound system that Bjork used for her Cornucopia shows which she called "the most gorgeous sound I have ever heard in a room". If you're looking to grab a bite to eat after the show, you're also in luck, with the hall sitting directly next to one of the best restaurants in Sydney, Ragazzi. [caption id="attachment_782835" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption] Head to the City Recital Hall website to check out the full program of June gigs — including the venue's first-ever general admission standing shows — and to purchase tickets to the shows. Top image: Keith Saunders
A carbon neutral city in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, is emerging. Masdar City is a leading sustainable development project designed by Foster & Partners. Buildings take inspiration from traditional Arab architecture and feature undulating curves. Alternative energies power the city, like solar roof panels which capture the noonday sun. Last week 8,000 visitors flocked to get a first glimpse of the city as part of the Organic Market launch event. “The event aimed at creating awareness among the UAE community, highlighting the benefits of sustainable living at one of the world’s most environment-friendly urban developments,” said Ahmed Baghoum, Director of City Zone, Masdar City. [Via PSFK]
It seems like Merivale have gone a little loco lately. First the insanity of Freaky Tiki, now this: a downtrodden Surry Hills pub transformed into a Mexican cantina. El Loco is a temporary solution to the reinvention of this venue, a prequel to a fully blown Mexican restaurant. But we think the wild mishmash of this whirlwind transition is the best part about it. Gone is the band room and, while we deeply regret the loss of another live music venue in Surry Hills, it's looking good. The previously sound-proofed walls have been pulled apart and repainted with brightly coloured cacti and skulls in Mexican hats. Lights hang from exposed beams and the busy kitchen stands open for observation. While there's a few options on the menu, this place is all about the soft tacos (all $5). Don't expect an entirely traditional offering, however. While this place is conceptually Mexican, the food's strength is its subtle Asian twist. I loved the Carne Asada, with lemongrass beef and salsa verde, and the Queso de Soya, chilli marinated tofu with pico de gallo. The front room remains more recognisable as a pub-style bar, with classic tap beers, wine and spirits still on offer. The new addition here is the tequilas, with over twenty varieties to pick and choose from. The cocktail menu is a little pricier than the food, with all options at $13.50, but the margaritas are justifiably delicious. With opening hours that stretch to 3am on weekends, this is a great late night option for a drink and a bite. Remember that it's only temporary though, so make the most of these tacos and get in quick.
Situated a couple of streets back from surfer haven Manly Beach, Deus Ex Machina's tiny cafe-retail space doesn't look like much at first glance. It's a light-washed timber-filled corner, with expansive open windows that welcomes in morning sun. There's a smattering of outdoor stools where locals clutch bright red coffee cups, and most of the time, there is a four-legged friend peering over the coffee window, desperate to catch a glimpse (and a pat) from their favourite barista. All of this is somewhat standard in Sydney's vibrant coffee scene. What is unusual about Deus is its commitment to reducing single-use waste, which has culminated in giving patrons $1.50 off coffee, as long as they bring a reusable cup. Owner of Deus Manly, Roland Davies, has worked as a barista for over a decade and says the discount has seen an unprecedented number of BYO cups come through their doors. "I've always had quite a hard time feeling responsible for the amount of single-use cups I'm sending out, standing on a coffee machine. Even though it's not me ordering them, and I can't force people to use reusable," Davies says. Now, Davis estimates at least one in three coffees go into an environmentally-friendly cup. "Being able to run my own business, I could do exactly what I wanted to do which is really reward the people who bring their own cups," Davies explains. Deus Manly also has their own collection of glass jars, which are wrapped in recycled neoprene sleeves. The makeshift KeepCups are ideal for keeping hot coffees warm, and the team will give the jars away if their regular caffeine-loving patrons forget their own BYO. "If I see people who are coming in, and just don't know where to get one — we give a lot of those away. We distribute a lot of those cups, or if people forget their cups once in a blue moon," Davis says. The issue of disposable coffee cups is no storm in a teacup either, with an estimated 1 billion coffee cups ending up in landfill across Australia every year. 300 million of those cups can be attributed to New South Wales alone. There's been a push across New South Wales and Australia more broadly to reduce the amount of single-use plastics by 2025. Supermarkets were one of the first to implement charges for single-use plastic bags, and soon, thick plastic carriers will be phased out in order to make way for their environmentally-friendly, reusable counterparts. When asked if he would consider charging customers for disposable coffee cups, Davis is firm: "I deeply, deeply disagree with this [idea]." "I did think about this for a while — as far as charging for packaging instead of discounting for not using packaging, but this is hospitality after all. People don't want to be lectured, people don't want to be told what to do, or made to feel bad," Davis explains. "Going about it in a punitive way like that is not a sensible move in my opinion. There's so much psychological research to show that people's behaviour changes a lot more meaningfully after positive reinforcement than with negative reinforcement." As for Deus Manly's generous $1.50 discount, Davis has no intention of dropping the incentive anytime soon. So the next time you're in Manly, or if you're a local looking to support a feel-good business doing the environment a solid, pop your head into Deus. Deus Manly is located at 1/18 Raglan Street, Manly. They are open Monday–Saturday, from 6:30am—2pm.
It has been eight months since Petersham bid farewell to its iconic 1950s-style diner Daisy's Milkbar. And while they were always going to be big shoes to fill, the suburb might just have found a worthy successor in the Stanmore Road site's newest resident, The Sunday Baker. A cheery bakery cafe with a striking pink facade, this one's helmed by a mother-daughter-daughter trio and it's specialising in fun, feel-good food. Inside, you're greeted by an upbeat pastel colour palette, with an offering of brunches, lunches and signature sweet treats to match. Floral bouquets top the tables, while the words 'you bake me happy' adorn one wall. It's the suite of house-made baked goods that takes centre stage here, with creative options like golden Gaytime cupcakes and Iced VoVo-inspired mini cakes beckoning from the front cabinet. That said, you'll find plenty more tempting creations on the all-day cafe menu, from maple baked beans served with coconut yoghurt and savoury granola, to the 'Boujee B&E; roll featuring smoky tomato relish and Japanese mayo on a soft milk bun. There's also a raft of fun choices for pint-sized diners, and dishes aplenty for vegan and gluten-free guests. This newbie is throwing some serious support behind its inner west producer fam, too, showcasing locally-made wares right throughout the menu. Keep an eye out for brined delights from I Made A Pickle, artisan tea by T Totaler, relishes and jams courtesy of Dulwich Hill's Drunken Sailing Canning, and coffee from Newtown-born roasters Campos amongst them. Find The Sunday Baker at 340 Stanmore Road, Petersham. It's open Tuesday to Sunday, from 7am–4pm.
Whether it's for a a gift or a personal treat, it's hard to go wrong with chocolate. But if you happen to purchase from artisan chocolate shop Haigh's, you'll definitely get it right. Originally from Adelaide, this family-owned company has been churning out chocolate delights for over a century. This store, in the Strand Arcade, is one of three in Sydney (the others are in the QVB and Chatswood Chase). It certainly provides a grand shopping experience, reminiscent of old-fashioned chocolate shops with golden and deep-wood finishes. The staff are also dressed the part — white gloves and all. Haigh's sources quality cocoa beans from around the world and uses artisan skills to turn them into premium chocolate liquid. We would happily take a gallon of it like that, but instead Haigh's transforms this liquid gold into the diverse range of products you'll find in store. Glass cases showcase the vast individual chocolate collection featuring the usual suspects - peppermint and caramel — as well as some unique flavours like the wattleseed crunch and stout ganache. If the pressure to choose is a bit much, pre-packaged boxes are available. There are also bars, blocks and novelty-shaped treats including a milk chocolate Murray cod — a tip of the chocolatier hat to Haigh's Australian roots. And at Easter, forget the chocolate bunny — it's all about the famous chocolate bilby. Image: Wiki Commons
Violent Soho are responsible for some of the rawest local grunge-rock anthems, most notably, 'Jesus Stole My Girlfriend', which peaked at #21 on the 2010 Billboard Alternative Songs chart. The Brisbane four-piece are about to unleash their next beast of a record, Hungry Ghost, which is due out on Friday, 6 September, and will be celebrating the news with three intimate shows along the east coast of Australia. These shows will be the first place to hear their new material live. Although it's been nearly three years in between albums, the outfit has dropped some treats to keep their fans' interest piqued, with 2011's double A-side which featured 'Tinderbox' and 'Neighbour Neighbour' and, more recently, the hilarious video for the first single off the new record, 'In The Aisle', which follows Dario Western cycling nude around the streets of Brisbane. But it's time for more new material, and Holy Ghost is described as a diverse yet typically Soho record. Expect no bullshit, and a hellova lotta hooks and riffs. https://youtube.com/watch?v=nWj8bcmMZ5U
It's finally here, a permanent Sydney cat cafe you can actually visit, right now. We've teased you with news of Sydney's upcoming (and wonderfully-named) Catmosphere cat cafe, set to open in July. We squealed triumphantly petting little fluffballs at Sydney's first pop-up kitten cafe, raising funds for the upcoming Sydney Cat Cafe. But one crafty feline establishment has beaten them all to the punch, with the opening of Cafe Purrfection in Roseville. Officially dubbed Sydney's first cat cafe, Cafe Purrfection boasts the tried and true cat cafe formula: you can book in a cuddle with specially selected and completely adorable rescue cats and kittens (yep, they've got both) living at the Chatswood Cat Palace (a rescue organisation for homeless kitties). The coffee is free (free!) and the whole thing hinges around a win-win situation: people get therapeutic companionship, cats get affection — and could potentially be adopted. "The cats don’t just offer companionship to anyone who wants it, but also to those who need it, giving comfort to people who have either lost their cat or can’t have one because of where they live," says Sydney feline veterinarian and manager of Chatswood Cat Palace Dr Kim Kendall, on their website. "We have picked cats who love people and with the routine we provide and the regular interactions... I think they will be happier at Café Purrfection than most cats in private homes." Each formerly homeless or rescue kitty is handpicked by the rescue team for their temperament and people-friendly level. The cafe opened to the public for a test run on March 1, but is finally open to your cat-loving self to visit. You can nab a free coffee or bring your own nosh. There's no age restriction for entry, but poor petals with allergies are encouraged to wait outside. Enough talk, how do you cuddle a kitty? Choose a friendly feline from the 'Cafe Purrfection Cat Gallery' and phone (02) 9417 3329 to book your ‘cuddle time’. It'll cost you $20 per hour, which includes treats for the cats and goes towards the cafe's maintenance. You can even book a table, (three people maximum to one cat). And to celebrate the launch, Cafe Purrfection is giving away a mystery prize with every cat booking during May and June (from cat treats to free Cafe bookings). Find Cafe Purrfection at The Chatswood Cat Palace, Unit 18, 30-32 Barcoo Street, Roseville. Phone (02) 9417 33 29 to book your snuggle. Opening hours are Monday and Friday 8am - 8pm, Tuesday 10am-7pm, Saturday 9am-4pm and Sunday 12-4pm. For updates, visit The Chatswood Cat Palace Facebook page. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
"I've had it with these Marvel tales without Nick Fury as the lead" isn't something that Samuel L Jackson has publicly uttered, with or without Snakes on a Plane-style expletives, but viewers might've thought it over the past 15 years. The character that masterminded the Avengers Initiative initially appeared in 2008's very-first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. When Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reached cinemas earlier in 2023, the franchise hit 32 cinema outings to-date, many with Fury playing a part. And yet, none have had his name in their moniker. That remains the case now, and on the small screen as well, where the MCU has also been spreading its exploits. Secret Invasion is still exactly what Marvel has needed for over a decade, however: a Fury-centric story. Announced back in 2020, and arriving on Disney+ from Wednesday, June 21, this six-part miniseries has clearly been a long time coming. As hit and miss as it is so many years and titles in, and no matter whether it's unleashing superhero antics in picture palaces or at home, the MCU hasn't lacked highlights — Black Panther remains astonishing, Thor: Ragnarok is a comic wonder and Moon Knight brims with intrigue, for instance — but it's been doing itself a disservice by using Jackson as a supporting player. He's a post-credits scene mainstay. He's the saga's most familiar face, and a Marvel movie didn't feel like a true Marvel movie for quite the spell if he didn't pop up. He had more to do in Captain Marvel, which Secret Invasion uses as its key MCU touchstone. He's such a presence in Marvel's first small-screen series for 2023, though, that the last 15 years seem like a missed opportunity. Perhaps Disney realises that, too; Secret Invasion's first two episodes feature laments aplenty about Fury's absence. Within the ever-sprawling MCU's interconnected narrative, he's been AWOL lately for two reasons: The Blip, aka Avengers: Infinity War's consequential finger-snapping; and a stint since working in space, which'll get more attention when The Marvels drops on the silver screen in November 2023. Extraterrestrial race the Skrulls has noticed Fury's departure keenly, after he promised to help them find their own planet in Captain Marvel but hasn't followed through so far. Cue two factions of the shapeshifting refugees in Secret Invasion: those still waiting and others now willing to fight to take earth as their own instead. Cue far more Skrulls on Marvel's main base than humans, including Fury, know about as well. On the page, Secret Invasion was a crossover storyline, filtering through its own comic-book series plus other tie-ins, and involving many of the caped crusaders that've reached screens in recent decades (and not just in the MCU). When your adversary can ape anyone's face, even the most famous figures can be impersonated — and were. That isn't the spin that Mr Robot alum Kyle Bradstreet has given the scenario for Disney+, with the show's creator focusing on espionage, and the political ramifications, over faux superheroes. As helmed by The Calling's Ali Selim, Secret Invasion is a Cold War-esque, John le Carré-influenced spy thriller. Inciting conflict between Russia and the US is one of the rebel Skrulls' key aims, after all — and thanks to Berlin Station and The Looming Tower, respectively, Bradstreet and Selim know their chosen genre well. Marvel does adore picking a style and asking "what if the MCU did it?". Even just on Disney+, WandaVision riffed on family sitcoms, Hawkeye toyed with Christmas flicks, Ms Marvel went all in on coming-of-age narratives and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law opted for a case-of-the-week lawyer setup. Cloak-and-dagger activities aren't new to the saga — see: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Black Widow — but, without the dark comedy, Secret Invasion is almost in Slow Horses mode. Again and again, Fury is told that he's no longer in his prime. Among those with such harsh words: James 'Rhodey' Rhodes (Don Cheadle, White Noise), who now works for US President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney, Scream VI). And, although MI6's Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman, Empire of Light) is an old friend, she's skeptical that Fury still has what it takes. In the veteran's corner is the trusty Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders, How I Met Your Mother), plus his old Skrull pal Talos (Ben Mendelsohn, Cyrano). Working out of an old nuclear power plant and planning a dirty-bomb attack, insurrectionist leader Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami) sides with the naysayers, while fellow revolutionary G'iah (Emilia Clarke, Last Christmas) is caught in the middle. Of course, in any spy story, allegiances are never simple or straightforward — and, along with its serious mood, ample talk of global threats, dripping tension and paranoia, coded messages, stolen weapons, clandestine meetings, surprise reveals and rampant conspiracies, Secret Invasion leans heartily into that espionage-genre staple. Jackson, Cheadle, Colman, Mendelsohn, Clarke, Ben-Adir: that's a dream cast, and just the roster of talent that any movie or show would want battling over the fate in the world in heated conversations in murky corners. Bradstreet and Selim know this, with Secret Invasion capitalising upon it even when little but talk fills the screen, which is often. It's no wonder, then, that the series' best early moments spring from letting its on-screen stars bounce off each other. While Jackson is the first reason to press play, seeing his one-on-one pairings with Cheadle, Colman, Mendelsohn and Ben-Adir — especially Fury's initial reunion with Falsworth, and quite the showdown with Rhodey — plus Mendelsohn and Clarke together as well, is the reason to stay watching. In the MCU in general, and in the plethora of on-screen caped-crusader realms — the X-Men and Fantastic Four flicks, the DC Extended Universe and Sony's Spider-Man Universe — the fact that every actor ever is now part of the fold, or thereabouts, can feel dispiriting. With some talents in multiple role across multiple sagas, too, it's usually easier to name the stars that don't have a spandex-adjacent credit in today's predominant form of mass entertainment on their resumes. Like the Spider-Verse franchise, however, Secret Invasion inspires gratefulness about its cast. Even when Marvel's latest series is at its most formulaic, everyone here shines. They'd all achieve the same feat in a spy effort with zero MCU links, but whatever is bringing these performers together — and particularly letting Colman have such fun with a slippery part — is welcome. Check out the trailer for Secret Invasion below: Secret Invasion streams via Disney+ from Wednesday, June 21. Images: photos courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
This Mosman boutique knows what kind of lifestyle its shoppers are looking for: beachside chic. Offering modern and minimalist homewares, Pond (Home) is the type of store where you can drop $500 on a bamboo lampshade or $39 on the latest copy of Cereal. After you've upgraded your kitchenware, pop two doors down to Pond (Fashion) to select a dinner party outfit from racks of striking sequinned pants and linen blazers. Finish off the look with some jewellery — some wallet-friendly options include diamond-cut rings from $20. Pond (Fashion) is located at 583 Military Road, Mosman.
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When you think Australian culture of the 1970s, you probably get a stodgy, insular, Chiko-rolls-and-panel-vans kind of picture. But somewhere in Melbourne, a young John Romeril was kicking around La Mama, building a performing arts collective in a converted pram factory and writing The Floating World. His most well-known play, it features a war vet, a cruise ship, a Malay waiter, an in-your-face comedian and an unstable reality that lurches with the throes of its main character's mind. Les Harding (Peter Kowitz) is on the 1974 Women's Weekly Cherry Blossom cruise to Japan with his wife, Irene (Valerie Bader). They're meant to spend their days in sun loungers and nights in the bar with their dapper new friend, Robinson (Tony Llewellyn-Jones), and the hired entertainment (Justin Smith as emcee and Justin Stewart Cotta as one-man band). And they do do some of that. But the closer they get to their destination, the stranger Les starts to behave, ruining these idyllic moments as memories long buried are stirred to the surface. As a young private, Les fought in Japan with the Australian Imperial Force, and the traumas he experienced there have managed to go unexamined for nearly a lifetime. The most startling achievement of The Floating World is its vivid, violent, sometimes comic and usually unsettling portrayal of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, written at a time when PTSD was not yet known and defined (it was among the goals of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrators at about the same time to get the condition recognised and treated). In The Floating World, you experience reality in the same malleable, untrustworthy way Les does, and it's heartbreaking. The breakneck, bewildering comedy in the writing is also a treat to discover in this, the only 'classic' Australian play in Griffin Theatre's otherwise all-new-writing season. Director Sam Strong has done great justice to the work, crafting smooth transitions and interjections as well as a layer of uneasy hyperreality that ties it all together. If you have a parent or grandparent who fought in one of Australia's wars, this play will strike the heart, paving a bridge that crosses what years of pain and stoicism may have made distant. If you don't, it might be a bit harder to connect with the play. Les is a disagreeable old sort, and Kowitz plays with him with such gruff perfection that his yammering can be realistically hard to listen to. There's too much full-tilt Australiana in here for it to be a play that communicates beyond the limited bounds it's set in. But as a voyage into the Australian wartime legacy, The Floating World is highly effective.
Spring is here, and with it comes longer, warmer days that are perfect for catching up with mates at the pub — with a cocktail in hand, of course. Luckily this October, the Paddo Inn is delivering the spring vibes in spades, with flowers taking over the pub's usual sleek interior. The seasonal transformation is thanks to Paddo Inn's collaboration with Hendrick's Gin to give you a taste of spring — and its new floral gin, Midsummer Solstice. And, to match its new look, the pub's got a new name: Paddo Ginn. This 'Floral Universe', it's running for the entire month of October and is like stepping into a beautifully strange and extremely colourful wonderland, created by local flower artist Dr Lisa Cooper. As you kick back in this one-of-a-kind installation of blooms, bows and feathers, you'll be sipping on Hendrick's new of new limited release gin, too. So, you can expect plenty of fun, floral frivolity. You'll be sipping on top-notch Hendrick's cocktails, with Paddo Ginn shaking and stirring up a bunch of gin-based concoctions. You can elevate your go-to G&T with a nip of Hendrick's new small-batch gin or opt for the Midsummer Solstice Spritz — a specialty blend of gin, sparkling wine and tonic water. Plus, throughout the month, there'll be a bunch of events in and around the pub to celebrate the collaboration, including pop-up bars and roving Victorian-inspired performers at William Street Festival on Saturday, October 19.
The Rocks' free live jazz sessions have become so popular they're back for an extended season. Get down to The Rocks Square any Thursday night between April 3 and September 25, and you'll be kicking back to the sounds of some of Sydney's best jazz acts — while sipping on gin cocktails. Launching the season on April 3 is trumpeter and recent Sydney Conservatorium graduate Bernice Tesara and her trio. Then, on April 10, catch guitarist Aaron Flower — winner of the 2007 National Jazz Award — alongside vocalist Kate Wadey. They'll be dueting on a range of jazz standards, plus songs from their upcoming album. Hickson House Distillery will be onsite serving creative gin-based cocktails, made from spirits brewed onsite at its stunning headquarters just up the road. Try a Hickson House Classic Dry, made with classic London tonic and garnished with lemon, olive and marjoram, or an Australian Dry, made features pink citrus tonic, finger lime, pink grapefruit and fresh basil. Rain or shine, you can take a seat from 6pm every week, with the first set starting at 6.30pm and the second at 7.30pm. If it does happen to be a wet evening, you'll find everyone at 6-8 Atherden Street, a short stroll from The Rocks Square. Images: Anna Kucera
