Forget ballet, hip-hop, contemporary and swing – there are only two real types of dancing: professional and amateur. Think back to all of those times in the club, pub or, on occasion, the work place when someone whips out their best, idiot savant moves. Whether or not it's stylistically good or in time is irrelevant; you're either too drunk anyway, or about to puke from giggling so much. Australian dance company, Lucy Guerin Inc, taps that primal urge to groove in their new piece, Untrained, which pits two highly skilled dancers against two blokes who are anything but Mr Astaire. All four performers carry out the same movements, from the abstract through to the mundane, and do their best to show that sometimes a sloppy box step can be as entertaining as an angelic pirouette.
How do you shoot the most shot beach in the country without it looking like a postcard you might send to your granny? Hitch a ride in a helicopter and view it as the Gods do. That's exactly what renowned surf photographer and owner of Aquabumps Gallery, Eugene Tan, did when he took to the skies in an attempt to capture the iconic Bondi beach from a rarely indulged angle. The result is a stunning series of vivid aerial shots that showcase our oceanic landscape in all its epic splendor. In the spirit of inclusion, Tan notified all 29,000 ocean-lovers on his database of his intentions for the shoot before he took flight. "Some people brought lurid towels and umbrellas, or placed themselves in ridiculous poses, so they would be able to identify themselves later" said Tan. It's this merging of dwarfed beach goers and their paraphernalia with the sweeping expanse of sand and sea that makes these images so visually compelling, taking surf photography quite literally to a whole new level.
Semi-useful fact: 'babooshka' is a widely but incorrectly used term for Russian Dolls. 'Babooshka' means 'grandma' in Russian and 'Kate Bush in a body suit' in English, and nothing else. The correct term for the hollow dolls of varying sizes that nest inside one another is 'matryoshka'. Not unlike a matryoshka itself, this year's Russian Resurrection Film Festival comprises multiple layers of films in varying shapes and sizes, all put together in a compact little package. Highlights include the premiere of the blindingly colourful retro musical Hipsters, and the retrospective program which dips into Russia's rich history of cinema and pulls out treasures like the elaborate 1936 Circus (one of Stalin's favourite films) and the eccentric 1960's comedy Peculiarities of the National Hunt. The opening night will feature special guest Nikolai Lebedev who directed Soundtrack of Passion (which is billed as Russia's 'very first erotic-thriller'), and following the screening there will be a cocktail reception at the Coachman. Unless you are Kate Bush or a babooshka or a matryoshka or some other kind of superhuman/Russian, we wish to remind anyone planning on joining in of Garrison Keillor's forewarning words: "Vodka is tasteless going down, but it is memorable coming up." 


Image: Circus, 1936. Dir. Grigorii Aleksandrov
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery is making the most of its garden with an exhibition of billboards titled Collide-O-Rama by Australian artist, Maria Kozic. Kozic has worked across many mediums of art since beginning her practice in the late 1970s, and these billboards are not her first expression in this form. In 1990, she created Maria Kozic is Bitch, a billboard artwork in which a lingerie-clad Miss Kong (only pretty, and human) glares threateningly at passersby, crushing Ken dolls in her giant hands.Kozic shot the images for Collide-O-Rama in her adopted home town, the Big Apple, and while they are somewhat indistinguishable, being cropped and close-up, the images retain a classic NYC grittiness. Kozic’s four photographs are scattered through the gallery’s Aussie bush garden and car park, and part of their meaning is derived from this placing: they are discovered by stepping with trepidation through ferns and hedges, a moment at once artistically contrasting and straight out of an episode CSI. Collide-O-Rama is curated by artist Daniel Mudie Cunningham, and forms part of the ongoing garden billboard project at the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery.
A friend of mine believes that you should always lose yourself in an unknown city; when you wander around you take in so many details, see all of those hidden locations that would otherwise be lost behind your tourist guidebook. It's a lovely idea, but when that sun starts to set and the temperature drops into the bone-chilling territory, I'm a sucker for knowing the quickest route possible back to my warm bed.Further We Search, the debut film by Melbourne director/writer/producer Darius Devas, follows Age (Xavier Samuel), a young man who doesn't necessarily have the option of his own bed, but manages to link up with a cast of curious, flawed souls in his quixotic explorations of an underground Melbourne.Shot on a budget of only $8000, this is an extremely independent feature - so much so that there's only one screening of it in Sydney. If you find yourself needing a dose of fresh, homegrown cinema, this is certainly a great way to get your midweek fix.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_dqKXufyE3A
Araby Steen is the first to admit that her work is a little difficult to describe.In her first show since finishing at the National Art School – who failed to give her a certificate of graduation, although they did remember to award her a prize – Steen will exhibit fifteen oil-on-canvas works as part of her artist residency at the Trophy Room gallery.While the delicately rendered paintings seem straightforward at first, a closer look will show that the boy in a set of three small canvasses is actually pissing, and that the ibis filling a larger canvas is actually dead. At the same time, the paintings, all of which were photographs in their first incarnation, sustain softness in their sense of time and place. This contradiction is the closest Steen’s show gets to a theme – unsurprising for a show simply entitled New Work, but a lovely un-surprise all the same.
David Griggs is a contemporary artist from Sydney who documents the seamy underbelly of the third world, Australian style. Which means his works are bold, garish and larger than life. For his latest exhibition, opening this Thursday at MOP Gallery, he just got back from spending four months in a Manilla Jail working with the inmates on typically massive canvases representing their gang emblems. The work promises to be politically charged, very beautiful and, well, big ... you get it. If that's still not enough of a Griggs fix, in the next room there's a group show he also curated. The man's unstoppable.
In a universe with an immutable timeline it is still possible to travel into the past, but doing so results in the creation of a new, alternate timeline, occupying a separate reality. So, when Sooners took their instruments and hopped back into the 1940s, they spawned a new world of hope crushed beneath institutional collapse. Likewise, Gideon Bensen and the Preachers have crashed through underground clubs, breaching the turn of the Fifties and powering through the Sixties in their own timeline of decadence and delight. Nostalgia, for a newborn world of dappled light and muddy tears, is at its strongest in the words and melodies of A Casual End Mile.Take this free trip into worlds that are old and yet new, and perhaps you will tear away your own trinkets of times gone by.
Axes do not fall silently and men die neither quickly nor quietly; their life splutters out of them in a mixture of breath and blood. It may well be that butchering a man is ‘easier than cutting sheep’ but it is, whatever your sensibility, far more gruesome.The story of notorious convict Alexander Pearce has been told many times before. Marcus Clarke’s 1874 novel For the Term of His Natural Life was made into a silent movie (1927) and a mini-series (1983). Paul Collins’ Hell’s Gates (2002) is a comprehensive history of Pearce’s journey. Never mind also the folk-stories whispering through Tasmania since Pearce’s capture in 1824. But Van Dieman’s Land, the first feature film of director Jonathan auf der Heide, tells it like no other. Apart from being an incredible exercise in filmmaking, from the precise scriptwriting and cinematography to the pared-back performances, Van Dieman’s Land is breathtakingly brutal. Eight men escape from Van Dieman’s Land, a penal settlement for re-offending convicts, where ‘Abandon all hope ye who enter here’, is plastered over the gates. One man, Pearce (Oscar Redding), survives the journey through an unforgiving Tasmanian landscape. Auf der Heide contends that this is a story too often exaggerated, that it is rather one about survival â€" kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. But whatever humanity these men had, even the process whereby it was beaten out of them, lies beyond the boundaries of this film. So why tell this particular part of this particular story? There is nothing to empathise with; little to illuminate what causes a person to do what it is these men do. Yet this, I think, is the poetry of the film. Auf der Heide believes that a man, no matter how low he has fallen, is still human â€" perhaps violence is in fact the very essence of humanity? Van Dieman’s Land takes no liberties with emotion or spectacle, it appears more honest than confronting and if you are made of sterner stuff than I, it might just be one of the best films you’ll see this year.https://youtube.com/watch?v=o546hUrs8FQ
Self-proclaimed ‘acid ninjas of the inner-west’, Sticky Fingers, are launching their EP. (Remember the cover The Rolling Stones did for their album of the same name? The zipper? Awesome. Well these guys have nothing to with that except that they’re pretty awesome as well). You might call their music a kind of blues-inspired psychedelic reggae, but then you might not. Just when you think you’ve got them pegged, they surprise you. And they do it so nonchalantly you’ll forget you were ever trying to peg them at all. Just relax. There’s an easy difference between songs and with lyrics like ‘the cheese might be cut but the moon is whole’, their sense of humour only makes them smoother. Sticky Fingers are fun, not in a giggly, lollipop way, more in an it’s almost morning, no-one’s leaving and the VB’s still cold kind of way. These guys are better than any pithy metaphor I can come up with. Share them around. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Al5983G0Kmw
If you’re not familiar with Vivian Girls, get acquainted. When the Brooklyn band released their debut album last year, a combination of 60’s girl-group harmonies, scuzzy garage guitar riffs and shoegaze and surf-punk sounds, the music industry went a little berserk. The vinyl-only LP sold out in weeks, leading to a CD reissue through In The Red later in the year and a heap of support slots and festival appearances. Earlier this month the all-girl trio released their new album Everything Goes Wrong through Inertia on September 8th and are celebrating by coming to Australian for the first time with a show at Spectrum. I’ll be there, front-row centre.
When the Pixies last came to Australia for V Festival, they thought the festival and the audience wasn't the best fit for their sound. So, to make it up to us, they're coming back! The tour is also celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their classic album Doolittle. The band will be performing all the album tracks (including hits 'Debaser' and 'Wave of Mutilation') as well as B-sides and more unreleased material. Tickets for the third show — Tuesday 16 March — are still available. https://youtube.com/watch?v=JLuNemggM9I
I’m currently listening to Merryweather Post Pavilion, the latest album by Brooklynites (now globally based) Animal Collective. There are so many bands ripping off this sound at the moment, but I guess that just reinforces the age old saying that from little things, big things grow.Animal Collective are here in December for the Meredith Music Festival, but if you missed out on tickets to that don’t worry because they’ve just announced solo sideshows! Say it with me now: “WOOOOO HOOOOO!!†Watch the video to My Girls and be thankful you’ve got four walls and some stable foundations, keep it real and shout out after listening to Brother Sport.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zol2MJf6XNE
If there’s a band I know well and have seen many times, it is ‘the juice’. I watched them 14 times last year when my band The Paper Scissors (plug!) toured with them so we've shared many a sweaty van, band rooms and bottle of booze. Seeing them this many times I have bared witness to the fact that they are a pillar of entertainment and musicality, every show putting on an amazing performance; they literally put their lives on the line (I have been concerned for Jake Stone’s safety watching him treat lighting rigs like monkey bars). You would have heard them a lot recently as their single Broken Leg has been like an ugly stadium-rock strongman in the way of every radio and video wave recently. Their album title track Head Of The Hawk takes the sound, size and vibe of Broken Leg and applies less irony, more drunk-guy choral vocals and Jerry Craib’s tasteful synthesizer work and jams it all into the radio friendly length of two minutes fourty four. The Juice have been up down and around Aus of late, playing Splendour and many many festivals and club shows, so they should be polished on their new songs and skipping routine when they hit Sydney to launch Head Of The Hawk. It would be an idea to get there early as the great young Sydney siders The Jezabels are opening.Seeing as this show is on Halloween, Bluejuice would like everyone attending to dress in the spirit of the holiday. Email photos of your costume after the event to be featured on their online gallery.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fqnagz41NTU
For those unsatisfied with skiing double black diamond runs, or daring off-piste, then heli-skiing must surely be the final frontier. This October, the award-winning producers at Teton Gravity Research (TGR) are bringing their newest skiing/snowboarding film extravaganza Re: Session to tour around Australia. Having gathered together the best of the best to tackle some of the world’s toughest terrain in Poland, Italy and the USA, TGR has captured their fearless antics on both 16mm and in glorious HD with the cutting edge RED camera. The trailer (below) is a mere hint of the sheer insanity of these extreme athletes. So, while spring may have sprung in Sydney, head on over to The Seymour Centre October 16 and 17 to experience a very different kind of winter wonderland.TO WIN ONE OF FIVE DOUBLE PASSES EMAIL YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS TO HELLO@CONCRETEPLAYGROUND.COM.AU WITH 'RE: SESSION' IN THE SUBJECT LINEhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=KWuPcbrKwzs
Lisa Mitchell is everywhere at the moment - on TV, on radio, playing in video stores... I even spotted her getting a take away coffee from my local cafe over the weekend... (can you say oversaturation?!)Oh Mercy are a Melbourne duo who are supporting Miss Mitchell on her upcoming National album launch tour. They are also much more deserving of your attention than the miniature songstress. Their pop songs are simple, catchy and heartfelt, and display real promise. People are already tagging them as "Australia's answer to The Shins" and the "new Augie March" and while I usually hate those comparisons, in this case they're quite accurate. Considered, mature indie pop for young people too often served Idol starlets for breakfast - they've definitely got my tick of approval!
One World. One Week. One Festival. Cremorne’s charming Hayden Orpheum is the Sydney venue for this unique festival of short films and lots of numbers: of 428 entries from 36 countries, the ten selected semi-finalists will have their films screened 532 times in 173 cities across five continents. Sydneysider Sandy Widyanata is one of the lucky ten; her image-conscious short Plastic will compete against films from Europe, the UK, USA, Israel and Mozambique. Read more about the film in an interview with Widyanta here (and to avoid any hints of nepotism, interviews with the other semi-finalists can be accessed here).So to be part of the 100,000 strong worldwide audience voting for the winner, be at the Orpheum on September 20. The winner will be revealed from New York on September 29 and announced on the festival website.
“So many things I did.â€This whispered utterance from Valentino â€" as his moves through the racks of 45 years of couture â€" said with such simplicity and almost incredulity, perfectly encapsulates his brilliant career. And yet the Emperor was not without his entourage, as Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary so telling reveals. Indeed the film is almost evenly divided between the fashion and the business of Valentino â€" run (aside from the financiers) by his, “friend, lover, employee,†of some 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti. The pair are often captured bickering more like an old (un)married couple, than the creative and business brains behind a billion dollar fashion franchise. While the documentary is certainly celebration of Valentino’s illustrious career, it is also in part a reverent eulogy. The spectre of loss â€" in this case Valentino’s retirement from the dizzyingly detailed world of haute couture â€" hangs over the film. Every interview, every star studded conversation becomes a discussion of, “will he or won’t he?†And as the story builds to the climax of his 45-year retrospective, and the truly astonishing party at the ancient Temple of Venus, it all becomes poignantly apparent that once again the sun is setting on a Roman Empire.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Na05gIgZWfQ
The heartbeat is the blueprint for the oldest musical instrument - the drum - and since its discovery percussion has returned the favour; new beats and rhythms contort our bodies into dancing blurs, and even now in the jaded generations there's still a strong cord linking us back to our most primitive, tribal foot-thumpers.Fritz Hauser, the Swiss drummer par excellence, will reboot our souls with his solo piece Stillifes before reconnecting with his long-time collaborators, Sydney ensemble Synergy Percussion to present new work inspired by The Annunciation. Taking place in the blessed belly of the Old Newington Chapel, Hauser and Synergy's alchemical marriage weaves a plethora of sensual elements, from poetic artworks and seraphic lights through to gut-rubbing bass rhythms and extraterrestrial electronica.Definitely take this special opportunity to achieve enlightenment for one weekend.https://youtube.com/watch?v=iBiEw-5VdDQ
Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, has long rewarded her chosen children with gifts of green and brown. Of course, there are the lucky five in every generation who are granted rings of elemental power (...heart? What?) and Captain Planet as their pal, but for the rest of us there are the ultimately more wondrous essentials of... "BASIL!", "THYME!", "ROSEMARY!", "MINT!" and "SAGE!".With these powers combined you have: amazing pesto, great roasts, delicious salad dressings and a garbled Simon & Garfunkel ballad.As sustainability becomes the biggest issue facing our generation, join the green community down at CarriageWorks for the free launch of their Kitchen Garden project. Everyone is welcome to learn how to become their own herbaceous Planeteer and those who are quick enough can also check out the documentary The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.For those extra keen about their green, there will be an ongoing workshop project with strictly limited numbers - to get involved you MUST attend this opening info session.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-VHt5QchfdQ
Sounding like a crook’s name from Cluedo, or an 18th century lady killer, events space The Red Rattler certainly evokes an old-school charm. And so it should. Its ethos is outdated by some standards. Not for profit? Community based? Green? All of these things, in Sydney? Yes, they say – and what’s more, it’s here for good, which is something that a lot of other independent venues can’t promise. They’ve got a full calendar to prove it, with an end to fungiphobia, a tree-planting revolution, a provocative zoo and a sustainable craft market, all housed in a quaint, age-worn factory in Marrickville. And to clear up the name mystery, it’s actually a reference to the clinkety-clanking old dames of the railway, with some revolutionary red thrown on top. That’s probably more on the right track ...
As a child, there is one animated series I was obsessed with above all others: The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Visions of ships sailing into storms, ancient Incan medallions and brightly woven ponchos have haunted my dreams to this day. Lost Valentinos were apparently fans of the series too. Their debut album, Cities of Gold, is filled with references to conquistadors, voyages of discovery, ancient technologies and undiscovered treasures. Dave Ma’s stunning video for the album’s first single, Serio, depicts the band gradually transforming into shamanistic creatures, dancing and drumming their way through a primordial forest. They’ve even minted a coin, a pure slice of Incan gold, which awards the possessor a chance at a trip to Peru when they register through their website, designed by the band’s own Patrick Santamaria. The album’s release is auspiciously scheduled for 09/09/09, but you can peer into Lost Valentinos’ elaborate world on August 1st before they embark on their Conquistadisco tour.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pYWno5wCG3s
The first thing the lizard brain wants is shelter and food. Though our mental chassis have been polished up, we can’t hide the fact that there’s a primitive engine powering our motives. It’s the most basic tool in any storyteller’s box, and British playwright Martin Crimp has put it to fiendish use in Dealing with Clair.Connecting Britain’s 80s property boom to the current mood in Sydney, Cristabel Sved’s slick production tempts and teases her audience with the tale of a young real estate agent’s doomed seduction. The tragedy of this not-moral tale is that the greed and ambition we see on stage is the result of natural, uncontrollable factors – the grim reality of economics.Led by Laura Brent as the eponymous Clair, Sved’s cast deftly use Crimp’s poetry to draw a stark and gripping image of Sydney’s aspirant culture. Though sometimes the energy drops, there is enough of a foreshadowing atmosphere to draw you on to the dark climax.We are giving away 2 double passes, courtesy of Griffin Theatre. Email you name, phone number and address to hello@concreteplayground.com.au with 'Dealing With Claire Giveaway' in the subect line.
Spain is full of exquisite buildings and women, dramatic landscapes, and strange characters who give you obscure clues and instructions in matchboxes, right? Jim Jarmush's new film is an exploration of perception, memory, reality and consciousness which marks something of a departure from his earlier work. The film lacks the refined potency of his brilliant Ghost Dog: The Way of The Samurai or his earlier New-York-new-wave classics (Down By Law, Stranger Than Paradise, Permanent Vacation), but it's a matter of giving in to the film's odd rhythm, which is enhanced by a striking aesthetic and vivid soundscape. Jarmush's casting is as exceptional as ever with the brilliant Isaach De Bankolé as the enigmatic outsider alongside fleeting appearances from the filmmaker's other favourites including Tilda Swinton, Youki Kudoh (who he last worked with 20 years ago on Mystery Train), Gael GarcÃa Bernal and Bill Murray. But the real star of the show is the cinematography by one of Australia's finest exports, Chris Doyle. His compositions and subtle camera work are what really transport us to the strangely focused but dreamlike state of this intriguing film. https://youtube.com/watch?v=7AUFMGAck6A
Another exciting gig to complete the August line-up at the Metro is Aussie band Faker who are touring with the JD Set throughout August. While Concrete Playground are always very excited to see successful Aussie bands, and Faker’s high rotation on Triple J is always a good sign of Australian success at least, we’re also secretly worried that they won’t be able to top their set that this writer saw at the Falls Festival in 2006. ‘Hurricane’ is one of the best songs. Ever. But hey, we can’t live in the past. Check out Faker at the Metro Friday August 7, 8pm.There are limited guaranteed entry, no door charge tickets available for this gig.http://www.metrotheatre.com.au/tickets/mtickets.php?gigid=1534
Beginning as a physical trek to the isolated Australian outback, Beautiful Kate is the first feature length film to be directed by Rachel Ward. Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) is a forty-something author who returns home after a long absence with his young trophy girlfriend, Toni (Maeve Dermody). He is there to farewell Bruce, his dying and estranged father (Bryan Brown), at the request of Sally, his long-suffering sister (Rachel Griffiths).An emotional journey begins as Ned’s memories of his last summer at home with his late brother Cliff and the precious but dearly departed Kate (a scene-stealing Sophie Lowe) are evoked by the scenery. The centrepiece in the flashbacks is a clandestine and taboo love affair, and a devastating accident taking place in a family marred by scandal and tragedy.An adaptation of American author Newton Thornburg’s novel, Beautiful Kate is ultimately a tale of forgiveness and redemption, and a dysfunctional family story that explores teenage sexuality with great dignity. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MALGsIuXvgY
The world begins behind your neighbour's walls... Tatia Rosenthal's film is a coarse series of vignettes about a group of characters who are linked predominantly by their apartment block. The characters include a lonely old man; a beggar turned angel; a model with a hairless sexual fetish and her obsessive quick-to-please lover; a juvenile man who chooses his tiny mates over his fiance; an unemployed guy; a depressed man and a naive child who thinks his piggy bank is alive. The narrative is jerky (perhaps the result of being adapted from short stories by Etgar Keret) but this is an intriguing pastiche of the ordinary, unusual and surreal. The excellent stop-motion animation is enhanced with an all-star cast of Australian talent lending their voices (including Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Claudia Karvan, Samuel Johnson, Joel Edgerton, Barry Otto and Ben Mendelsohn lending their voices) but $9.99's biggest drawback is that the social observations made lack much insight or depth. We have 10 double passes to give away thanks to ICON films! Email your details to hello@concreteplayground.com.au for your change to win. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pYVldJuB5Zc
Sustain you. Sustain me. Sustain it for always. That’s the way it should be. Sustainability may be the buzzword du jour, but my, what an excellent thing to be buzzing about. Sustain Me: Contemporary Design is a group exhibition of Australian and international designers who are engaging with ideas of sustainability in their work. This involves designing objects from would-be landfill and the use of earth-friendly materials such as clay and natural fibres over less renewable alternatives. Karmic brownie points aside, these objects are also very easy on the eye and will have you wondering if you might be able to sneak one out the back door. Sustainability is a necessity nowadays. How wonderful to see it cha-cha with style and function.Sustain Me: Contemporary Design opens at Ivan Dougherty Gallery on Thursday 30 July at 6pm and is part of Sydney Design 09: 13th International Design Festival, running until 22 August.
When Sir Allen Lane stood daydreaming on an Exeter station in 1935, letting the seeds for Penguin Books take hold, he probably didn't imagine that his range of, intelligent books at a low prices would one day be roughed up, played with, and soaked in semillon at a ramshackle flat above a convenience store on King St, Newtown. But he'd probably approve, as both Penguin Books and Penguin Plays Rough, a monthly night for writers, share an abiding love for literature and low prices. We caught up with the co-creator, Elly King, to find out more Why did you start Penguin Plays Rough? We wanted Sydney's emerging writers to have a place to tell their stories. A place for fans of the written word to get cosy, drink wine and soak up something new. Who runs it? It's run by myself and Pip Smith but it's kind of a family affair. Our flatmate Tarik is our poster design genius and you can probably catch the fourth and fifth members of the household, Monika and Vincent the cat, manning the door at some stage. If you could bully one book in an alley, what would it be? A Tale of Two Cities. That book gave me ample grief in high school to justify being bullied. Every time I hear the opening line, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, I want to cry. Hang on, I am bullying it, or is it bullying me? Word of advice to young Sydney writers? Carry a notebook. People watch. Find the fascinating. Come to Penguin Plays Rough every third Monday on the month. Bag a wildcard spot and read us a story! This month PENGUIN plays ROUGH is teaming up with Monthly Friend to bring you Working Title, with five writer/performers unlocking the stories behind seven slides from one motel room...
Actors who announce, with much ado, that they have decided to work on such-and-such a film for free tend to get on my nerves: as if film stars who deign to play at make-believe pro bono deserve special veneration. And then along comes an actor like Anthony LaPaglia, in a film like Balibo.Director Robert Connolly’s unabashedly political third film is that rare feat of Australian cinema, one that manages to hold a mirror to some dark stain on our country’s past without setting audiences on the defensive. It plays out, in chilling detail, the fates of the now-infamous ‘Balibo Five’, the young western journalists who were murdered for covering Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975. But it also tells the story of a sixth Balibo journalist, who tried to investigate the men’s disappearances and was brutally killed for his troubles; as well as the story of our own country’s complicity.Both confronting and deeply human, the film’s potency lies in its conviction, in its integrity, and in its urgency. There are, of course, violent scenes, and there are times when it is tempting to turn away. But if nothing else, Balibo is a tribute of those who would not turn away.https://youtube.com/watch?v=EApB2ndekZg
You’ve heard of sit-ins. But what exactly is a knit-in? It too requires a bottom, a healthy handful of creative thinking … oh, and some 4mm knitting needles. Tied into the not-for-profit initiative Wrap with Love, and running in various venues for the whole of July, the knit-ins hope to generate enough knitted squares, and then wraps, to thaw the tootsies of those suffering from extreme cold the world over. So far, 184 000 wraps have been sent to over 75 countries. And yes, it’ll warm their hearts and yours a little too. Plus, if any waylaid naked hippies turn up, you’ll even have a modesty patch on hand.
Our antipodean cousin is officially recognised as a foremost composer with a career spanning seminal post-pop-punk band Blam Blam Blam; art experimentalists The Front Lawn; platinum-selling pop-rockers The Mutton Birds; and several film soundtracks.McGlashan was recently a guest musician at Neil Finn’s 7 Worlds Collide project and he had some added Finn-fun opening for Crowded House on their recent American tour. In July his second solo album, Marvellous Year, will be released to coincide with his first solo dates in Australia, including a special one-off concert as part of the Winter Wonderland series at the Opera House Studio.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Px9-fJJzYrI
With a voice so high you picture him as a cartoon character, Michael Angelakos fronts the Massachusetts wonky popsters Passion Pit. After the release of the Chunk Of Change EP - purportedly a Valentine's offering to the singer/songwriter's then girlfriend, the band went on to explode from relative obscurity with the release of their debut Manners. As is becoming increasingly the way for bands to get known these days, the Pit also licensed their catchy single Sleepyhead to countless advertisements and TV shows. Now they are touring as part of The Big Day Out and stopping by The Metro for their first ever Australian headline show. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off the big, thick layering and heavily built up vocals of their album - but they must be doing something right as they've opened for everyone from The Killers to Death cab For Cutie and are being praised from press and public worldwide.
This is really very exciting. It isn't often that a platform for collaborative thinking and making is given enough time to find its roots and address something specific. Too often 'collaboration' is ceremoniously trumpeted around as though it deserves praise as a word regardless of the activity it is meant to encompass. Edge of Elsewhere is different - this three-year (2010-2013) collaborative project will in fact produce some fruit. Organised to be part of the Sydney Festival, Edge of Elsewhere brings together artists from Asia, Australia and the Pacific to develop new work in Sydney. Specifically, the artists will address the city itself - the citizens, the geography and the various communities - enabling art to be responsive rather than premeditated. Among the many artists involved are the Korean text/net-based team YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Australian image-architect Brook Andrew, as well as the Chinese anthropological video maker Wang Jian Wei. The Asia/Pacific Cultural Futures Forum will be held as part of Edge of Elsewhere at Capbelltownn Arts Centre on January 16 at 2.00pm, and the project is also taking place at Gallery 4A (181-187 Hay Street, Haymarket) from January 16 - February 6.
If you're not already an excited fan, what you may know about Kaki King is that Rolling Stone named her a "Guitar God" in 2006, and that most live reviews could be filed under: 'guitar tech drool dream'. I'm not kidding. She plays acoustic, she plays electric, she plays lap steel, she does something called tapping, and another thing called fanning. And when she tires of those things that I do not understand, she plays the piano. What no review seems to mention is that, ok, so she's a bonafide guitar god in that bordering-on John Fahey way, but hoo doggy does she have a pretty voice. So when she played in Sydney Festival's Spiegeltent a few years back, I was crushed when she didn't sing the whole time. But then she did that thing with the fanning and the tapping and I was happy once more, just like the rest of the sold out audience. Since then she has collaborated and toured with The Mountain Goats, Foo Fighters, and contributed to the soundtracks of Into the Wild (Golden Globe nomination) and Twilight (don't hold that against her), as well as releasing a handful of new EPs and — critic's favourite alert! — 2008's Dreaming of Revenge LP. See her because you understand those noodler's terms I used in the first paragraph and want to pray at the alter or whatever it is you do – or see her because you're a sucker for a pretty voice, but do see her.
Now, I know what you're thinking: mind readers are full of shit. British mind-reader Phillip Escoffey does not want you to believe that he's a psychic, in fact he's a cynic. Obsessed with the human mind and its eagerness to be swayed, Escoffey has developed a beguiling act that questions the foundations of mental manipulation while astounding audiences with the acuity of his revelations. What makes Escoffey so appealing is that he tells his audience how the trick is performed...and then still gets away with it. Couple this with a dash of James Bond debonair, and Six Impossible Things Before Dinner begins to sound more like a mass seduction than a night of light entertainment. http://www.thegreyman.com/
Hanging for some peyote-infused psychfolk, tinged with communal love vibes and the sounds of the desert winds as interpreted by swirling organ tones? Turns out you don't have to go to New Mexico, because New Mexico is coming to you this autumn, thanks to Mistletone. A collective based in NM's rural mountainscape, headline band Brightblack Morning Light are all heavy love, a bevvy of shaman showmanship rooted in the bliss out zone of washed out sunset rock. For this tour, Brightblack will be a trio consisting of founder Nathan Shineywater aka Nabob, Danielle Stech-Homsy of Rio En Medio and the percussionist Cannupa Luger. Sounds like a fully formed meditational tripod to me. Their most recent album, Motion to Rejoin, was one of the very best of 2008, its slow unravelling of a mix of complex orchestrations and simpler, feathery atmospheric jams forming a beautiful and cohesive record for a midsummer night's dream. For those wanting more, I recommending reading an interview they did with Trinie Dalton for the much missed (in print) Arthur Magazine, available online. It's just as exciting that Rio En Medio is touring, Stech-Homsy's folk offerings deserving of a double-headline tour. Having released a debut record on Devendra Banhart's Gnomonsong label, this solo project has the ethereal sound of a feathered dreamcatcher and the fixed confidence of an Ojo de Dios. Between them, Brightblack Morning Light and Rio En Medio have performed with Os Mutantes, Vashti Bunyan, Joanna Newsom and Grizzly Bear, amongst many others. To win one of two double passes to see Brightblack Morning Light, just visit our Facebook page, click 'Suggest to Friends' then confirm your entry by leaving a comment on the wall. Winners will be contacted by DM on Wednesday morning. https://youtube.com/watch?v=F0vgBbuG5E8 https://youtube.com/watch?v=wGJBXc5o-YU
Two years ago Contemporary Dance wunderkind Shaun Parker astounded Sydney Festival audiences with his show This Show Is About People. It cleverly blended contemporary and classical dance with operatic singing and acrobatics to make a story about ordinary people stuck in a mundane transit lounge feel exhilarating. The show won the Australian Dance Award for Best Independent Production and was nominated for four Green Room Awards. This year he’s back with his follow up Happy as Larry. It explores the "9 archetypal personality types" and debuts at the Parramatta Riverside as part of Sydney Festival with a score composed by Nick Wales (CODA) and Bree van Reyk (Holly Throsby/Darren Hanlon).
I can’t believe the Severed Heads are playing Sydney Festival’s Becks Bar. It’s mental. How did that even happen? I'm sure that somewhere deep within the bowels of the Sydney Festival H.Q. there’s an acid casualty candy-raver giggling hysterically into their Hello Kitty backpack. Most people would remember Sydney based Severed Heads from their seriously terrifying single Dead Eyes Opened. It featured on Triple J’s Hottest 100 back in 1994. It was their only commercial “hitâ€, but they’d already been using lo-fi analog computers and loops to make uncompromising and extraordinary electronica since 1979. They broke up in 2008 and now they’ve reformed, John Farnam style, just for this one gig. Supporting them are another awesome 80’s band, The Reels, who’s song Quasimodo's Dream was voted by APRA as one of the Ten Greatest Australian Songs of All Time. Just like Dead Eyes Opened, that song also gives me the willies. Prepare yourself for a spooky night. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mj6_IGjTUA0
The Rev is in town! When I was a sad and creepy 16 year old the only way I could deal with a particularly harsh break-up was to lock myself in my bedroom and listen to Simply Beautiful and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart on repeat. As cheesy as he may be, Al Green's smooth soul has helped many of us through the hard times. The man’s a phenomenon. Now he’s hitting Australia for the first time ever! He’s also playing all his old hits, which is a nice change to some has-beens who come over here and expect us to politely sit through their sub-par new work. (I’m looking at you Elvis Costello.) Tickets are a little pricey but I’m determined to see him. I expect to either sell a kidney or else you'll find me with my ear pressed to the back door of the State Theatre, clutching a tear-stained year 10 formal photo to my chest.https://youtube.com/watch?v=QUrghxZpVSw
Confucius thought that everything had it but not everyone could see it; for Kant it was located in our faculty of judgment; for Monet it was to be found in nature; Keats thought it was truth; and plastic surgeons earn money from it. What else could it be but that alternating and persistent obsession known as beauty. Kitagawa Utamaro (c1753-1806) was not inactive on the subject either; a master of Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints, or 'pictures of the floating world'), this mysterious artist illustrated scenes from history, theatre, nature, domestic life, hobbies, and sexual pleasure. To coincide with the exhibition Hymn to Beauty: the art of Utamaro at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a symposium has been organised with international and local speakers examining Utamaro and his world. This world was late eighteenth–century Edo (now current day Tokyo), and Ukiyo-e was at the centre of an active and flourishing consumer market — perhaps similar to the intensity and engagement in which Manga (or 'whimsical pictures') is today. Renowned for his depictions of women, space, and subject matter, as well as his influence on Western artists (especially the impressionist gang), Utamaro's contribution to beauty is sure to be an intriguing and revealing reminder of how this subject both remains and changes through history. Food and fluid is also supplied! Or, if the symposium isn't attractive, Hymn to Beauty: the art of Utamaro runs from 13 February to 2 May 2010.
Metal festivals have for decades skirted around the edges of Australia's abundant shores, teasing fans with European promises of demons, angels, witches and vikings. Now, as the year turns to 2010, the familiar melodies of Auld Lang Syme will finally be drowned out by growling poets and guitar shredders at the inaugural Screamfest. This two-day festival straddles NYE and NYD and boasts a gargantuan collection of international and local acts, including Cynic (USA), Dark Funeral (Sweden), Ensiferum (Finland) and Rotting Christ (Greece). It goes without saying that Metal fans will be goring each other for a ticket to this event, but folks sick of the usual hippy camps, nightclubs, beach doofs and firework picnics should get in for a bout of face-painted rage.Image of Dark FuneralVideo of From Afar by Ensiferumhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=ALrjjJdmxgA
Dance and photography often make for a troubled marriage: one lives for motion and temporality while the other is bent on freezing movement and time. In an attempt to reconcile the differences between the two, Hamish Ta-mé's new series of images of urban dancers captures simultaneous stillness and movement, fleetingness and permanence, weightlessness and powerful athleticism, elevation and coming down. Harnessing a technique that is somewhere between photography and video, he built a special lighting rig that allowed him to shoot bursts of 40 still frames in 4 seconds. The images have been composited into large format prints and video works, which will be on show at Depot Gallery from Tuesday night under a collective title that refers to post-orgasm melancholy.
The little black dress is dead, viva la little brown dress; it’s more dapper, younger cousin. Actually, it’s a project designed to curb textile consumption thanks to a garment re-styled and worn over an entire year.This is one of the many ideas featuring at Fashioning Now, an exhibition and symposium at UTS Gallery during Sydney Design 09. The exhibition will showcase innovative research projects and explore the issue of fashion and sustainability, particularly the way clothing is produced, used and discarded.Another work includes the disappearing dress - one that slowly dissolves over 28 days to become nothing more than liquid. In addition, an array of garments, photography, fashion illustrations and time-based media targeted at the Australian design community will highlight the need for alternative modes of material production.
Oh friends, there is a storm brewing down in Sydney and its thunder-clapping clouds paint the sky in shades of blue. That’s dark blue, like the southern gothic tones growled by Johnny Wishbone, lead singer of Sydney act The Snowdroppers.Born on a stage reeking of burlesque bodices, this rag-tag band blends raw blues with a smirking theatricality. Their live shows have sold out both here and in Melbourne, and now they’re about to explode with the launch of their first album, Too Late to Pray.Dress up like your favourite razor gangbanger, then stomp and dance as the boys spit tunes of whiskey, blood and grave dust across the stage.Baby No More (Live at The Vanguard) from Tenderloins on Vimeo.
Bringing together ten Australian artists who are in touch with their own shortcomings, this exhibition re-examines notions of success and failure through a bit of image, a bit of text and a lot of irony. Anastasia Klose channels The Nanny in her Film for my Nanna, while Emma White cleverly tracks a Saturday night and the nocturnal descent of reason in Decision Time, while Joan Ross ridicules the power of one of the ugliest states of emotion - jealousy - in a ludicrous, fluorescent soft-sculpture. I’m worse at what I do best features video, sculpture and painting and the opening night will see the launch of an accompanying publication including 25 short stories penned by arts journo, Andrew Frost.Image: Anastasia Klose, production still, Film for my Nanna, 2006. Courtesy of the Artist and Tolarno Galleries.
While the title might invoke images of men in pin-stripe suits tapping toes slowly to the beat of a double bass in a dingy smoke-filled bar, A Night at the Jazz Rooms has a bit more to offer. This incarnation of the series of jazz nights will be hosted by Sydney’s coolest jazz club, The Basement, and the talent on offer will explode with more funk, soul, and ‘Afro-Latin Brasil Boogie’ than you could possibly know what to do with. This is a regular event that Russ Dewbury has brought over from London, so get a taste this time and see if it's one to add to your diary.
Entering Drew Bickford's Mongrel, a collection of intricately executed illustrations, is like, as one observer put it, "arriving at the gates of hell". Yet it is a sweet hell. A hell from whose gates you may not wish to be turned away.Humanity's obsession with the mongrel and monster is evident in all cultures, although it manifests in various ways. Bickford contends that this is "a world that embraces monstrosity only as a spectacle to outrage and appall", and so he brings delicacy and beauty to the contorted creatures that underlie the spectacle of this exhibition. The illustrations are oddly sensual even while the subjects are ghastly and horrific. Mongrel's illustrations embrace the deformed and the grotesque, while the exhibition embraces the detailed order of display in a gallery space. This marrying of deformity and order casts the mongrels in a gentle light. Where monsters so often signify chaos, Bickford renders them eerily calming. Mongrel is most certainly worth casting your eyes over.Image: Drew Bickford: Who am I here?, 2009, ink on paper
When he "killed" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival earlier this year, New York based funnyman Jamie Kilstein was called the "Richard Dawkins of standup." Make no mistake, he would probably take this as a compliment. Jamie's brand of comedy is sharp, sarcastic and stimulating in the vein of Bill Hicks, Allen Ginsberg and Henry Rollins. And like Dawkins, he is merciless in his takes on religion, politics, and â€" his favourite target â€" God.Whether it's because you like your laughs served with a side of smarts, or just because you want to see one of the newest talents on the international comedy circuit, make sure you get down to the Comedy Store to catch his Sydney shows.TO WIN ONE OF FIVE DOUBLE PASSES EMAIL YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS TO HELLO@CONCRETEPLAYGROUND.COM.AU WITH 'JAMIE KILSTEIN' IN THE SUBJECT LINEhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=2aozWGWdC6o
More inclined to pet a black cat that crosses their path than break out in heebie-jeebies, artist duo We Buy Your Kids have long been fascinated with the darker side of the astral plane and its ad hoc ethos. Having built up a comprehensive body of illustrative work that has been prominently displayed in Sydney's streets and record collections for the past four years, Biddy Maroney and Sonny Day have carved a niche of fantastical imagery. Their work has graced countless tour posters — recently for Deerhunter, Dappled Cities, often appearing in limited handscreened editions at concerts, much to the delight of fans and bands. WBYK have also made album art for the likes of Youth Group, Paul Dempsey and The Holy Soul, and created incredibly detailed clips for local darlings Washington and Belles Will Ring. In short, there's probably a piece of their work in your house right now.But what of those recurring themes held closest to their (black) hearts — bad luck, nogoodniks and occultish vibes? They spill out across the walls of Monster Children gallery in Trials: Posters-Screenprints-Negativity. Incorporating pulp and DIY printing aesthetics, WBYK have channelled their fascinations into a new series of screenprinted works. Step under a ladder before you view the exhibition just to get the full sensation.
