There's a time for coffee and there's a time for cocktails — and, sometimes, there's a time in the day when you want both. Australia's caffeinated booze expert Mr Black ticks both boxes with the release of its new bottled beverage: a pre-batched coffee negroni. The company's first bottled cocktail, the coffee negroni is made with Mr Black coffee liqueur, Campari, sweet vermouth and Moore's dry gin, which is produced at the same distillery as Mr Black, Distillery Botanica. Each bottle is going for $49 and can be used to make five cocktails (yes, that's a very reasonably $9.80 a drink). To make said cocktail, you just need to pour 100 millilitres of the sweet stuff into a glass over ice and garnish with a citrus twist — if you want to get a little fancy. No stirring (or shaking) required. It's the second new product the Mr Black team has released during lockdown, with the company launching a hand sanitiser in late March. As well as selling thousands (and thousands) of bottles to the public, the team donated hundreds to front-line medical workers, not-for-profits, testing clinics and medical centres. It's not the only distillery to launch its own hand sanitiser during COVID-19, either, with Queensland icon Bundaberg and Sydney rum distillery Brix, among others, also jumping on the trend. To get your hands on a bottle of coffee negroni, which, knowing Mr Black's track record, will sell out fast, head over to the Mr Black website. It's currently offering free shopping on all orders over $80. Mr Black's coffee negroni is on sale now for $49.
If you've ever landed overseas only to be slapped with eye-watering roaming charges, Holafly wants to make your next trip a whole lot easier. The global travel tech company has just launched its unlimited data eSIMs for Australian travellers, offering affordable access across more than 200 destinations. According to Holafly, many Australians still pay up to $10 a day for international roaming. Well, Holafly has done the maths, and that means $70 for a week in Bali or $300 for a month in Europe. Not to mention, this often comes with frustrating data caps and speed restrictions, too. Holafly's digital eSIM helps cut that cost by as much as 60 percent. Travellers can activate a local plan before flying out, connect instantly upon landing and avoid bill shock altogether. No SIM swaps, no surprise charges and unlimited data wherever you go. Founded in 2018, Holafly has already connected more than ten million travellers worldwide. Its eSIMs are delivered instantly by email, with activation taking just a couple of minutes. From there, you've got unlimited data at maximum speeds, plus round-the-clock customer support. Coverage spans more than 200 destinations, including Japan, the United States, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and much of Europe, with 5G available in select countries. Plans run up to 90 days, making them ideal for long-haul escapes and extended stays. You can grab a plan directly through Holafly's website or mobile app before you fly.
Earlier this year, the Newtown legends at Young Henrys took the sustainable brewing game to the next level. The beer brand added a glowing bioreactor among its tanks, with the plan to drastically reduce the brewery's carbon emissions. The 400-litre bioreactor is filled with microalgae, which consumes carbon dioxide (one of the main byproducts of the brewing process) and produces as much oxygen as one hectare of Australian forest. Now, as part of National Science Week, Young Henrys has teamed up with the UTS Deep Green Biotech Hub to host Beer & Algae: Brewing a Greener Future. The free online event will take place on Thursday, August 20 from 5.30–7pm. It'll begin with a virtual tour of the brewery, hosted by YH Co-Founder and Director Oscar McMahon and UTS Research Associate Dr Janice McCauley. Then an interactive panel discussion will take over and explore practical steps toward sustainability in various industries — including urban farming, fashion and, of course, brewing. Moderated by Triple J's Lucy Smith, the panel will include Professor Peter Ralph (Executive Director of the Climate Change Cluster (C3) and Founder of the Deep Green Biotech Hub) alongside YH Head Brewer Jesse Seals, Pocket City Farms Founder Emma Bowen and Fashion Designer Dr Mark Liu. While the live streamed event is free, registration is a must.
'Wonderwall' and 'Gold Lion' sing-alongs are coming to North Byron Bay Parklands next winter, when Splendour in the Grass finally — yes, finally — hosts its 20th-anniversary festival. Delayed for the past two years due to the pandemic, the event's milestone celebration had already locked in its July 2022 dates and its headliners — that'd be Gorillaz, The Strokes and Tyler, The Creator — and has now unveiled its full and characteristically jam-packed lineup. Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liam Gallagher help lead the complete roster of acts for 2022, alongside Glass Animals, Kacey Musgraves, Violent Soho, DMA's, Tim Minchin and The Jungle Giants. As usual, it's a stacked and eclectic list. And yes, with international tours starting to ramp up again since Australia's border rules changed, the bill features plenty of overseas names. If you're looking for your gumboots already, your next stint of muddy dancing in a field will take place from Friday, July 22–Sunday, July 24 — and can include soaking in lightscapes and psychedelic art at the fest's Tipi Forest, listening to talks and debates at The Forum, witnessing experiments and taking part in workshops at The Science Tent, and giggling your way through Splendour Comedy Club sets. You can also hit up the Global Village, which'll host the The World Stage, Village Green, bohemian Lounge, Healing Sanctuary and a silent disco, as well as craft markets and culinary options. Plus, the North Byron Parklands setup will welcome a few new bars — including the Rainbow Bar, which'll be big on glitter and host programming by LGBTQI community party markers, and the booze-free Temperance Bar. If you have already purchased a ticket for SITG 2020 or 2021, you'll be happy to know that they're still valid for the 2022 edition. So, that's you sorted. If you don't have a ticket yet, there'll be limited pre-loved tickets on sale from 9am on Monday, December 6. Enough chatter — here's that full lineup you've been literally waiting years for: SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS 2022 LINEUP: Gorillaz The Strokes Tyler, The Creator Yeah Yeah Yeahs Glass Animals Liam Gallagher Kacey Musgraves Duke Dumont Live Violent Soho DMA's Yungblud Jack Harlow Dillon Francis Tim Minchin The Jungle Giants Mura Masa Amyl & The Sniffers Aitch G Flip Ruel Oliver Tree Jungle Tom Misch Grinspoon Orville Peck Parquet Courts Tierra Whack Cub Sport Jpegmafia Ruby Fields Sofi Tukker Methyl Ethel Julia Stone Baker Boy Stella Donnelly Genesis Owusu Surfaces Hooligan Hefs The Chats Confidence Man Biig Piig Holly Humberstone Chillinit Alex The Astronaut Maxo Kream Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Triple One Still Woozy Bad//Dreems Myd Northeast Party House Joy Crookes Wet Leg Mo'ju Pup Miiesha Mildlife Jarreau Vandal Brame & Hamo Shannon & The Clams Babe Rainbow Tai Verdes The Snuts Sycco Tom Cardy Sly Withers Hinds Dayglow Starcrawler Alice Ivy Budjerah JK-47 Jeff The Brotherhood Fazerdaze King Stingray Mako Road Renforshort May-A The Lazy Eyes Adrian Eagle Banoffee Flowerkid The Buoys Moktar Stevan The Soul Movers George Alice 1300 Mickey Kojak Dro Carey & DJ Scorpion Pricie Mylee Grace Andy Golledge Charlie Collins Pink Matter Memphis Lk (DJ) Triple J Unearthed winners Mix-Up DJ's Dena Amy Jordan Brando Shantan Wantan Ichiban Luen Honey Point AK Sports Aywy Carolina Gasolina Munasib Splendour in the Grass will take over North Byron Bay Parklands from Friday, July 22–Sunday, July 24, 2022. All 2020 and 2021 tickets are valid for the new dates, with limited pre-loved tickets on sale from 9am on Monday, December 6. Images: Charlie Hardy.
UPDATE: OCTOBER 3, 2020 — Due to worldwide cinema closures and other concerns around COVID-19, No Time to Die will no longer release on Thursday, November 12. Instead, it will now release on Thursday, April 1, 2021. This article has been updated to reflect that change. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. Shaken (not stirred) martinis are back on the menu, and so are suave secret agents, sinister plots to destroy the world and big-screen espionage thrills. Yes, it's James Bond time again, with No Time to Die finally set to reach cinemas in 2021 — and dropping a brand new trailer to tease the British spy's 25th official cinematic outing. On offer, as fans initially glimpsed in the first sneak peek in 2019, are all the franchise staples. World-in-peril action, savvy ladies, plenty of gadgets, eye-popping stunts and spectacles, an Aston Martin — they're all accounted for. And, because no Bond movie would be complete without a formidable villain, No Time to Die serves up two: an unhinged, mask-wearing new adversary called Safin (Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar-winner Rami Malek), plus imprisoned ex-opponent Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). Daniel Craig returns as 007, marking not only his fifth stint as the spy since 2006's Casino Royale, but his last — and he has company in the 00 stakes. Following the events of 2015's Spectre, Bond has left active service and started a new life in Jamaica, causing MI6 to recruit someone else to cover his turf. That'd be new agent Nomi (Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch), and you can obviously expect the pair to cross paths. Bond being Bond, he was never going to be able to escape his line of work easily, after all. Here, he's brought back in by CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to help with a mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, Maniac) and penned by a team that includes Fukunaga, The Report director Scott Z Burns and Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, this Bond instalment also brings back all the usual Bond offsiders. Ralph Fiennes returns as M, alongside Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw as Q and Rory Kinnear as MI6 head Bill Tanner. Lea Seydoux is back as psychiatrist Dr Madeleine Swan, too — and, reuniting with Craig after co-starring in the fabulously entertaining Knives Out last year, Ana de Armas also joins the cast. Of course, as Bond aficionados won't have forgotten, No Time to Die has had to overcome a few setbacks off-screen on its path to cinemas. Originally it was due to release in April this year, but became one of the first films to delay its opening date due to COVID-19. It was then slated to hit the big screen in November, but has now been postponed until April 2021. Watch the new No Time to Die trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw2FOYjCz38 No Time to Die will no longer hit Australian cinemas on November 12, 2020, with its release date postponed until April 1, 2021. Top image: James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Paloma (Ana de Armas) in No Time to Die, an EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios film. Credit: Nicola Dove. © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Movies can sometimes stick to a formula. Picture palaces showing them can do the same thing. At Moonlight Cinema, one of Australia's summer staples, that means playing Christmas films in December and romantic classics in February, for instance. Celebrating Oscar contenders in March is also on the itinerary, as the just-dropped last lineup for the event's 2023–24 season locks in. We can't know right now who'll emerge victorious at Hollywood's night of nights on Monday, March 11 Australian time, but plenty of nominees are showing throughout the month. Whether you're team Oppenheimer or Barbie, they're both on the program. So are Poor Things, The Holdovers and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. Perth gets Maestro, too, while Sydney and Melbourne can get drawn into the compelling drama of Palme d'Or-winner Anatomy of a Fall. While Moonlight Cinema hits up five locations each year, it winds up in Brisbane and Adelaide in February, hence the March bill is only playing in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The details vary per city, but each will also enjoy a range of recent big-screen favourites, too, such as the Mean Girls musical, Sydney-shot rom-com Anyone But You and the sweet Timothée Chalamet (Bones and All)-led treat that is Wonka. Matthew Vaughn following up the Kingsman movies with new spy caper Argylle, Kingsley Ben-Adir (Secret Invasion) playing a reggae icon in Bob Marley: One Love and wrestling drama The Iron Claw will also get a whirl. For some retro fun, The Goonies, The Princess Bride and the OG Mean Girls are on the lineup as well. And, of course, the movies are just one part of the Moonlight Cinema experience. The setting — at Centennial Parklands in Sydney, Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, and Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth — is just as important. Also on offer: an official Aperol spritz bar, which is new for 2023–24. Nosh-wise, the event lets you BYO movie snacks and drinks, but the unorganised can enjoy a plethora of bites to eat onsite while reclining on bean beds. There's also a VIP section for an extra-luxe openair movie experience, plus a platinum section that levels up a night at the movies even further in Sydney and Melbourne. A beauty cart is handing out samples, too. And, dogs are welcome at all sites except Perth — there's even special doggo bean beds, and a snack menu for pooches. Moonlight Cinema 2023–24 Dates: Sydney: until Sunday, March 24, 2024 in Centennial Parklands Perth: until Sunday, March 24, 2024 in Kings Park and Botanic Garden Melbourne: until Saturday, March 30, 2024 in Royal Botanic Gardens Moonlight Cinema runs through until March 2024 in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, with dates varying per city. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the cinema's website.
With apologies to the many worthy winners at the 2024 Oscars, this year's ceremony will always be known for one thing. When the lights went pink, Ryan Gosling started singing from his seat in the crowd (with Margot Robbie and Billie Eilish giggling around him) and the words "doesn't seem to matter what I do…" rang out, the world began to witness Academy Awards history. His rendition of 'I'm Just Ken' from Barbie was a musical number for the ages. When he made it up to the stage to keep crooning about Kenergy, the man behind the tan and blonde fragility, it wasn't the only time that Gosling stepped up onto the platform that night. He also delivered a tribute to stunts with Oppenheimer's Emily Blunt — and the two couldn't have been better candidates to make the presentation, which doubled as a reminder that their new film was on the way. In The Fall Guy, Gosling blends his action and comedy modes to play a seasoned stunt performer. Blunt co-stars as the director of the latest flick he's working on, and also his ex-girlfriend. The picture is helmed by David Leitch, who famously was in the stunt game himself, including doubling for Brad Pitt on movies such as Fight Club and Ocean's Eleven, and also for Matt Damon, then jumping behind the camera on John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Bullet Train and now this. Gosling and Blunt's shared portion of the Oscars ceremony was also a call to arms: stunts, despite being so crucial to the film industry, are not currently recognised by the Academy Awards. They absolutely should be. Ask Leitch if he sees The Fall Guy as helping to advance the case to recognise the field at Hollywood's night of nights and he tells Concrete Playground "that's the hope". He continues: "I think it is definitely a celebration of the stunt industry, and hopefully it continues to shine a light on how much these unsung heroes contribute to the films you guys love and we all love. You just can't separate the history of action from the history of cinema, and stunt performers have been there since the beginning." Loosely based on the 80s TV series of the same name, The Fall Guy tasks Gosling with playing Colt Seavers, who has spent much of his career making actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, reteaming with Leitch after Bullet Train) look good. He's been out of the business after a workplace accident when he's enlisted to help out on a big-budget sci-fi blockbuster — not just to double for Tom, but to work out why the flick's star has gone missing in Sydney. Making the gig even more chaotic: plenty of nefarious folks on his tail, complete with a chase across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Plus, there's the fact that his ex Jody Moreno (Blunt) is directing, and it's her first stint in the role. Cue an action-comedy from Leitch, plus Kelly McCormick as his regular producer, that doesn't just showcase stunts but is firmly about stunts as well. [caption id="attachment_952101" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Caroline McCredie[/caption] When The Fall Guy's shoot shut down one of Sydney's most-famous landmarks, everyone in Australia knew. It isn't every day that Gosling brings the Harbour City to a halt, after all. The bridge isn't the only part of the New South Wales capital that can be spotted in the movie, however, because this is a film that takes place in Sydney and makes the most of it. The Fall Guy is a love letter to stunts, of course, but McCormick — who also co-founded production and action design company 87North with Leitch — also considers it a love letter to its setting. Using the Sydney Opera House as the backdrop for a sci-fi shoot also isn't forgotten quickly. ("It's still so sci-fi. It's still beyond its time. It's an amazing, amazing building," says McCormick.) Leitch and McCormick returned to Sydney in early April to give The Fall Guy a big local premiere at the State Theatre. While they were in Australia, the pair also chatted with us. Leitch living the dream as a former stunt performer-turned-filmmaker now making a movie about stunts, the challenges on such a stunt-heavy film, ensuring that the movie is a mix not just of action and comedy but also mystery and romance, casting Gosling and Blunt, shooting in Sydney: we asked the duo about all of the above and more. On Living the Dream by Being a Former Stunt Performer Now Directing a Movie About Stunt Performers David: "Absolutely — I mean, the 80s TV show was one of those shows that lit the fuse of me wanting to be a stunt performer. There's a lot of wish-fulfilment in that show as a teenage kid. So it was exciting that this property would come [my way] — and obviously having 20-plus years as a stunt performer and the anecdotes and the real life experiences to go with it, I had a lot to be able to put into it. And I felt I could really talk with the authentic voice and actually give Ryan some notes from a real place." On Whether Making a Movie Like The Fall Guy Was the Plan when Leitch Was Still Doubling David: "I don't know if that was the actual aim, although I did early on get the film bug and really want to tell stories beyond the stories I was telling in the action. So, I really did lean into spending my time on set observing and learning everything I could about filmmaking process so I could move to the director chair. I was excited about directing." On the Challenges of Making a Movie That Isn't Just Stunt-Heavy, But Is Constantly Calling Attention to Stunts Because It's About Stunts Kelly: "I think every movie has its own challenges, action or otherwise. I think safety is obviously something that comes to mind that we are particularly sensitive to. When we're doing an action sequence, bringing a team together that is top of class is essential to make sure that it's as safe as possible and as creative as possible at the same time. That's always the goal. I think that's maybe a bit of extra pressure, but it's exciting in the sense that stunt performers get into the business to do stunts — so the last thing we want to do is not do stuff. It's making their dreams come true and making them viable in the film business. So it's this tricky balance of just trying to make sure that you know you're as safe as possible and you've got excellence around them, and in them, to make sure that you can give them the opportunities." David: "I think it was fun to be on the other side of it. I was a stunt coordinator for so many years that it was fun to challenge the team to do these things. I knew what they were going to have to go through to achieve them. But to be like 'good luck, guys' and just run in there and throw down the gauntlet — 'I need you to recreate some of these classic stunts from history, but just make them bigger' — that was fun for me. So I didn't feel the pressure. I made the stunt team feel the pressure and, again, I felt that for many years as a coordinator, when I've been asked to deliver things. And I certainly didn't have to feel the producorial pressures like Kelly had to feel as well. So I was just telling people what to do." On Making It an Aim to Create a Fun Vibe on Leitch and McCormick's Sets Kelly: "I have this theory that the set atmosphere flows through the film to the audience. And we actively try to keep a happy, congenial family environment on our sets, as big as they are. That's what we're always striving for and hopefully achieving. We work with a lot of our heads of departments again and again and again, and part of that is because we like their energy, we like their creativity and we like to have a family kind of atmosphere around our films." On Balancing the Mix of Action, Comedy, Romance and Mystery in The Fall Guy Kelly: It was like problem-opportunity in a sense. I consider David an atonal director — and that used to be such a dirty word, but I actually think it's such a positive thing because you never know what energy you're feeling or you're going to be having in a David Leitch film. You may be crying one moment and laughing the next, and feeling the stakes in one moment and thinking it's ridiculous another moment later. When you have three movies in the one movie, that is the bigger challenge — to strike that tone and to get all of that right. And so it was a way to challenge David in his filmmaking." David: "I loved it. I loved taking the audience on a ride. I liked what Kelly just said, laughing at one moment, being awed by spectacle the next, then pulling at the heartstrings few minutes later. And to have an a property, an IP, where we could do that and have two actors that can pull it off with you is was really, really fun to do." On Casting Ryan Gosling — and Only Approaching Ryan Gosling for the Part David: "Ryan is obviously an incredible actor. He's great at comedy. He's great at romance. And our early conversations — he was the only person we went to, and we were crossing our fingers and toes that we would get him. It was even before we had a script. But I think he saw the potential in the property and the potential in this underdog hero, and that we could create an action, hopefully, franchise where he could use all those skill sets. I think that's what he was excited about — where he could use romance and comedy, and his new action chops that he had on The Gray Man. So a lot of the DNA of the tone stems from also what Ryan was excited about doing and we all leaned in as well, and it was fun." On Casting Emily Blunt — and Shaping the Role to Suit Her Kelly: "To be honest, we just feel so lucky that we got her. Right before we went to her, we switched the role from a makeup artist to a first-time director, thinking that it raised the stakes for that character and allowed for her to be in a place where she was dealing with some really serious stuff, like the weight of her dream on her shoulders and getting that to take over directing for the first time — and then this person who basically broke her heart and she thought she was over coming in, and the last thing she ever wanted to see, and the one thing that could probably disrupt this big opportunity for her. We went to Emily right after we had come up with that idea with a very, very rough draft and felt so lucky that she saw her way into it, so that she could add so many layers. And so, in a sense, it was really tailored to her as well to like Colt was to Ryan." On Shooting in Sydney, Including on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and at Sydney Opera House Kelly: "It was really exciting, actually, to get the access to both of those two super-iconic locations. I was amazed at how much time we got at the Opera House. And we chose a scene that we could really exhibit the Opera House as something other than the Opera House — Jody Moreno is using it as the sci-fi backdrop of her epic sci-fi love story. That they allowed for us to put a bunch of sand on the beautiful stairs, and bring in waterworks so that we could make it rain, even though the sun was shining that day — and let us yank and pull and show the beauty of what a ratchet looks like in an action sequence — that stuff you don't get to see when you're normally looking at just the film, instead of the movie being made. It was really, really exciting and we just kept pinching ourselves. 'Can you believe we're just at the stairs with the Opera House here and they're letting us do this? This is a thing.' It was amazing. The whole city just really opened their arms, and wanted to solve the problems and give us access and show the town. And we just hope that everyone's really as happy with it as we are in showcasing Sydney. We really consider it a love letter to to this town." The Fall Guy releases in cinemas Down Under on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Read our review.
Summer is a mere few weeks away and there's no better seasonal combo than a weekend barbecue and icy cold craft beer. We’re on mission to inspire and enhance your barbecue experience this silly season by bringing to you recipes that go beyond the simple sausage sizzle. We've searched Sydney's most talked-about restaurants from the buzzing inner west to the slick CBD, the stylish eastern suburbs and all the way to the chilled-out northern beaches for recipes that will earn you a pat on the back and cheers from your soon-to-be-impressed guests. Ten top-notch chefs from across town with a talent for wielding a set of barbecue tongs have matched one of their favourite grill-friendly recipes with a brew from James Squire's solid craft beer range. Crisp pilsners with zesty Hartsyard octopus for the sun lovers. Strong Porters to wash down Neil Perry ribeyes. Golden ales with Pinbone's barbecued duck hearts for the adventurous. Thank us later; your summer barbecues will be talked about for many moons. BARBECUED DUCK HEARTS WITH CUMQUAT AND MUSTARD — PINBONE INGREDIENTS: Duck hearts Handful of cumquats (or oranges and mandarin) Creme fraiche Hot English mustard Bitter leaves METHOD: Brine duck hearts in a 5 percent salt/water solution for 30 minutes. Remove and dry with paper towel. Grill on the barbecue for 2 minutes on each side and rest. Cut cumquats in half and grill on barbecue until nicely charred (orange and mandarin also work nicely if you can’t find cumquats). Mix equal parts creme fraiche and hot English mustard together and lay the mustard base on one half of the plate. To serve: Season generously and garnish with bitter leaves. Pair with James Squire Stow Away IPA. BBQ FREMANTLE OCTOPUS — GREGORY LLEWELLYN FROM HARTSYARD Serves 4 INGREDIENTS: 1kg Fremantle Octopus separate into individual tentacles only 4L Water 300g salt 100g paprika smoked peel of one lemon 4 cloves of crushed garlic tbsp peppercorn tbsp fennel seed tbsp coriander seed METHOD: Heat half the water with the salt until dissolved. When dissolved pour warm solution into remaining cold water. Toast all spices (minus the paprika) together over a medium/high heat until fragrant. Add to liquid mixture. Add garlic, paprika and lemon peel. When mixture is cool add octopus tentacles and brine for 12 hours. Remove from brine, rinse and dry. Place into a heavy bottomed saucepot and cover with extra virgin olive oil. Cook on stove top at about 75-80°C ensuring the oil does not boil for 2-2.5 hours. Remove the octopus from pot. It should be fork tender with a tiny bit of chew. Refrigerate until cold (this should probably be done the day before). Prepare BBQ to about 200°C. BBQ octopus until suction pads are crispy and the tentacles are evenly cooked but not black. When cooked toss into a bowl with the following dressing: DRESSING: 100ml olive oil 2 tbsp sliced garlic 1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves picked 1 tbsp fresh parsley leaves picked 1 tsp crushed red chilli flakes Cook olive oil and garlic until slightly brown. Add the rest of the ingredients until crispy. Remove from heat. Let cool. Season with the juice of two lemons. Pair with James Squire Four 'Wives' Pilsener. STICKY LAMB RIBS WITH POMEGRANATE AND SOY GLAZE — DANIEL SAN INGREDIENTS: 30gm peeled eschallots 0.1gm pomegranate 60gm cos lettuce 5gm flat leaf parsley 5gm mint 2gm extra virgin olive oil 300gm Junee lamb American ribs GLAZE: 50gm peeled garlic 4gm lemons 80gm frozen wasabi tube 150gm castor sugar 15gm sea salt flakes 60gm sesame oil 400gm pomegranate molasses BRAISING STOCK: 2L water 10ml Kikkoman soy 10ml mirin 10ml sake 5gm radish daikon 20gm young ginger METHOD: Place ribs in braising stock and place in oven on 160°C for two hours. Take ribs out and leave to cool in the stock for one hour. Cook ribs on the bbq and glaze with the above. Serve on cos lettuce with pomegranate drizzled on top. Pair with James Squire's The Constable Copper Ale. SMOKED BARBECUE WINGS w/ BULLEIT BOURBON BARBECUE SAUCE — HENRIETTA SUPPER CLUB INGREDIENTS: 2.5L pork (or beef stock in a pinch) stock FOR BARBECUE SAUCE: 250ml Bulleit bourbon 2 cinnamon sticks 3 star anise 2 cloves 1 lime (juice and zest) 2 lemon (juice and zest) 100ml good sherry vinegar 1 x can of coca cola 1 x can ginger ale 25g whole black pepper corn 100ml real Canadian maple syrup 500ml of store bought barbecue sauce METHOD: Place in a large pot on a medium heat-high heat. Reduce until sticky. pass through a chinois or large sieve. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate once cooled. To prepare the wings, poach desired quality of wings in a good-quality wings chicken stock for 25min. Coat with a seasoned flour (we use 'Cajun flour' — corn flour, plain flour, Cajun spices and seasoning). Deep fry for five minutes on 180 degrees or brown on the barbecue hot plate in good quality cooking oil. Place cooked wings in a steel bowl and coat generously with the barbecue sauce. Garnish with chives and serve with chipotle mayo (real mayonnaise with a slug of chipotle hot sauce like El Yucateco or Tabasco). Pair with James Squire Nine Tales Amber Ale. SMOKED PORK RIBS — PATRICK FRIESEN AND CHRISTOPHER HOGARTH FROM PAPI CHULO INGREDIENTS: 4 USA-style cut pork ribs BBQ rub BBQ sauce Apple wood and oak chips METHOD: Try to find pork ribs with the most amount of meat you can. Clean the silver skin off the back of the ribs using a fork to pry it off and a tea towel to hold onto the silver skin when you pull it off. Season both sides lightly with BBQ rub and smoke straight away. Smoke at 120°C over oak and applewood for one hour. Wrap in foil and smoke at 120 degrees for another hour and a half. Brush with BBQ sauce and enjoy. BBQ SAUCE: 50gm Heinz ketchup 16gm Frank's RedHot sauce 20gm Yamasa soy 10gm water 30gm brown sugar 6gm black pepper 3gm smoked paprika 3gm sweet paprika 2.5gm onion powder 2.5gm garlic powder 5gm Korean chilli powder Mix all ingredients in a bowl and let sit for an hour. BBQ RUB: 100gm salt 20gm cracked black pepper 4gm onion powder 2gm garlic powder 20gm paprika 5gm smoked paprika 5gm cayenne Mix in a bowl right before you want to use. Pair with James Squire Sundown Australian Lager. RIB EYE ON THE BONE — NEIL PERRY FROM THE BURGER PROJECT INGREDIENTS: 4 x 360g rib eye on the bone Sea salt Extra virgin olive oil for grilling 4 lemon wedges METHOD: Heat the barbecue or grill — whether using wood, charcoal or gas — until extremely hot. Salt and oil each side of the steaks and allow to come to room temperature. Place steaks on the grill, cook for approximately five minutes, rotate the steak 90 degrees to get the cross pattern on the meat halfway through the cooking. Turn the steak over and cook for another four minutes. Allow the meat to rest for a few minutes off the grill. Place on a cutting board and slice each of the steaks into five or six slices, form the meat back to its original shape and serve on a plate with a sprinkle of salt, drizzle of olive oil and a wedge of lemon. Pair with James Squire Jack of Spades Porter. LAMB BURGER WITH PICKLED EGGPLANT, WATERCRESS AND HARISSA — MICHAEL RANTISSI FROM KEPOS STREET KITCHEN Serves 4 INGREDIENTS: 750gm good-quality coarse lamb mince 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, toasted and crushed 1 bunch coriander, leaves picked and finely chopped 3 - 4 tbsp olive oil 4 tbsp harissa 1 tsp chilli flakes Salt and pepper to season 4 brioche burger buns, toasted ½ cup makdous (pickled eggplant stuffed with walnuts available from Middle Eastern grocers) 1 bunch watercress Harissa aioli METHOD: Combine the lamb mince, coriander seeds, fresh coriander, olive oil, harissa and chilli in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix to combine. Once combined, divide the mixture into four and then gently shape the burger patties with your hand. Don't overwork the patties too much as it makes them tough. These burgers can be cooked in a frypan on the stove top or the grill on your barbeque. Cook to your taste, two to three minutes per side for medium rare or longer for your requirement. To assemble toast the brioche burger buns (inside of bun only). Take the base of the burger bun and add a dollop of the harissa aioli, a spoonful of the pickled eggplant with walnuts, watercress, then the patty, add another handful of watercress and another dollop of aioli and then top with the bun. Pair with James Squire One Fifty Lashes Pale Ale. BARBECUE CHICKEN WINGS — CHUR BURGER INGREDIENTS: 1kg mid cut chicken wings BARBECUE SAUCE: 1 onion, finely chopped 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped 100ml olive oil 150g brown sugar 150ml Worcestershire sauce 500g ketchup Juice of 2 lemons 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme Place chicken wings in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring water to the boil, stir chicken wings gently and then turn heat off. Let wings sit in water for 12 minutes and then pour wings into a colander. Place on trays in a single layer and refrigerate overnight to dry out. Sweat off onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft but with no colour (about 2-3 minutes). Add everything else, bring to a simmer and cook out for about 10 minutes. Cool down and store in refrigerator. Toss in the barbecue sauce mix and then place on hot grill until smokey and charred. Remove from grill and place into a clean bowl and toss with some further barbecue sauce and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Serve. CHIPOTLE MAYO: 1L plain mayonnaise 150ml Melbourne Hot Sauce Chipotle & Cayenne 10g rosemary, chopped 10g fresh oregano, chopped 10g parsley, chopped Mix all together. Pair with James Squire Hop Thief American Pale Ale.
The Cape Byron Lighthouse is the most easterly point of Australia and a necessary part of any trip to Byron. It was operated by resident keepers until 1989, but now has an automated light that's visible from town. The site booms during whale season, when the migration is caught in action from this great vantage point. Apart from whales, dolphins and turtles also migrate through this way and are regularly spotted from the cape. For history around the site and the migration, the Maritime Museum is open 10am to 4pm daily and is well worth a visit. Images: Destination NSW
Looking for something to occupy the final hours of your weekend and ward off those Sunday scaries? Everyone's favourite name-changing Chippendale pub The Lord Gladstone is serving up the ultimate end-of-week party with eight hours of quality music, eats and drinks. Evening Records and The Gladdy have come together to compile a lineup of top-quality local musicians to fill your Sunday with tunes. Accompanying the live music will be a pop-up bar from natty wine specialists P&V and a food truck from Sparky's Jerk BBQ. The four bands gracing the pub's two stages will be synth-heavy indie outfit A.D.K.O.B, country balladeer Lady Lyon, as well as Christian Values and Magic Nic. Joe Liffy will also be on hand covering DJ duties for the day. Doors open at 2pm and entry is free with beer specials from The Gladdy's good friends over at Young Henrys throughout the day.
When the director and lead of one of 2021's best Norwegian films — and best movies from anywhere that year — joined forces again, of course the Scandinavian Film Festival needed to get the resulting picture on its program. Accordingly, Sentimental Value from The Worst Person in the World filmmaker Joachim Trier, once more starring Renate Reinsve (Presumed Innocent), is one of the big highlights at 2025's Australian showcase of cinema from the Nordic region. Stellan Skarsgård (Andor) and Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown) also feature, and the results won this year's Cannes Grand Prix (the award below the Palme d'Or). At the Scandinavian Film Festival, Sentimental Value is getting the centrepiece treatment. Movies from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland are always in the drawcard at this Aussie fest — so a Norwegian spy drama to kick things off in 2025, then an Icelandic black comedy to wrap things up, are both on the itinerary. This year's national tour will hit Sydney across Thursday, July 17–Sunday, August 10 at Palace Norton St, Palace Moore Park, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinema. Launching the fest: Number 24, the latest from The Burning Sea and The Quake director John Andreas Andersen, recounting a true espionage tale from World War II. The aptly named Grand Finale comes in at the other end, spinning a Reykjavik-set story about a struggling chamber orchestra's efforts to endure. Alongside Sentimental Value, Quisling: The Final Days is another of the festival's big-name titles, this time from The King's Choice and Utoya: July 22's Erik Poppe, with the trial of its controversial namesake head of state the film's focus. Cannes favourites, blasts from the past, laughter-inducing fare: they're all on the lineup, then. Add watching Björk's daughter in her first feature role, multiple dates with Danish actor Trine Dyrholm (The Girl with the Needle) and celebrating the 25th anniversary of a Swedish romantic-comedy to the list, too. The first comes courtesy of The Mountain, a coming-of-age and road-trip flick starring Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney. Dyrholm pops up in both the healthcare-centric Second Victims and the David Dencik (Other People's Money)-co-starring Beginnings. And Jalla! Jalla! is marking its quarter-century milestone. Audiences keen to spend Australia's winter feasting their eyes on colder climes from the other side of the world can also look forward to the Faroe Islands-set The Last Paradise on Earth and heading into an Icelandic seafood restaurant with Odd Fish. Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Riders of Justice) leads Way Home, about a Danish father endeavouring to save his loved ones. With heist effort The Quiet Ones, Denmark's biggest-ever robbery makes its way to the screen. Finnish relationship dramedy Sudden Bursts of Emotions, the nation's great Heikki Kinnunen playing 'The Grump' in Long Good Thursday, three siblings returning to the house they grew up in in Everything Must Go, the couch-surfing antics of Live a Little, the beer-brewing sisters of 100 Litres of Gold, My Father's Daughter's focus on a Sámi teenager: add them to your Scandinavian Film Festival list as well.
It's Groundhog Day The Musical — and it's finally making its way to the Australian stages ten years after it was first announced. Back in 2014, Australian comedian, musician, actor and writer Tim Minchin (Upright) revealed that he was making a song-filled onstage version of the Bill Murray-starring classic comedy. Then, the end result premiered in London in 2016. Next came Broadway in 2017, with 2024 marking Australia's turn. Prepare for plenty of déjà vu in Melbourne from January. Feeling like you've been there and seen this comes with the territory with this production, of course, given that that's what the story is all about. Obviously, you've probably seen the film. In fact, you've likely done so more than once. Still, when Groundhog Day The Musical hits Princess Theatre from Wednesday, January 24–Sunday, April 21, 2024, this'll be Aussie theatregoers' first chance to catch the stage show on home soil. The tale remains the same, with Pittsburgh TV weatherman Phil Connors tasked with travelling to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day event — and none too happy about it, oozing cynicism as everyone else around him embraces the occasion. After a cantankerous day, he wakes up the next morning to find that everything is repeating again. And, that's how every day continues, no matter what he does or how he tries to tinker with the cycling routine. On the big screen (and on VHS and streaming queues since), the result proved hilarious, and also one of Murray's best-ever roles. For the stage iteration, Minchin teamed up with screenwriter Danny Rubin — who originally co-wrote Groundhog Day's movie script and won a BAFTA in the process — plus Minchin's Matilda The Musical director Matthew Warchus. Their theatre efforts earned Groundhog Day The Musical Tony Award nominations, as well Olivier Award wins for Best New Musical and Best Actor. Yes, Groundhog Day The Musical's Australian-premiere season runs across Groundhog Day itself, aka February 2. Yes, you can listen to Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe' on repeat now to celebrate. And yes, like the musical version of Matilda, this'll likely return to the big screen at some point — but after the Melbourne season. Groundhog Day The Musical comes Down Under exclusive to the Victorian capital — and if you're wondering who'll step into Murray's (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) shoes, and Andie MacDowell's (Maid) as Phil's producer Rita Hanson, too, the cast for the show's Australian run hasn't yet been announced. "I have waited seven years for this moment! Groundhog Day The Musical, like Matilda The Musical, has a unique mixture of darkness and light, of head and heart, and of complexity and joy, and I've been convinced since its first iteration that Australians will love it!" said Minchin, announcing the Aussie premiere. "I'm so excited that the run is going to be in Melbourne, the city I lived in when I wrote my breakout comedy shows, and the place where — when things weren't going so well — I learned how important it is to find the beauty and hope in the day to day." "Following its celebrated run at London's Old Vic Theatre, where it broke all box office records, I couldn't be happier to be bringing Tim Minchin and Danny Rubin's musical masterpiece to the Princess Theatre in Melbourne (coincidentally, the very venue which was home to Matilda back in 2016)," added Warchus. "Groundhog Day The Musical, I know, will surprise many people. Perhaps the most joy-filled show I have ever directed, this magical tale of redemption somehow manages to be both a truly hilarious romantic comedy and a profoundly moving and inspiring message of hope. I love the original movie and I love this adaptation. It inspires us to be the best possible versions of ourselves, to break free of our repetitive gloom and to learn how to love life. All that plus a rodent who predicts the weather... what more could you ask for?" Check out the trailer for Groundhog Day The Musical below: Groundhog Day The Musical will premiere at Princess Theatre, 163 Spring Street, Melbourne from Wednesday, January 24–Sunday, April 21, 2024, with tickets on sale from 9am on Friday, October 6 — head to the production's website for further details and to join the ticket waitlist.
Now with twice as many allusions to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, it might be assumed that those running Sydney's White Rabbit– the huge and exquisite private art gallery reposing in a quiet-for-the-moment Chippendale nook—have a thing for Carroll’s fable. But nay, while White Rabbit is very likely to make one feel very small amid it’s four tall levels of ample art space, its library, teahouse, and theatrette, the gallery’s name actually comes from the idea that a good artwork can ‘leap out.’ And cause, as director Judith Neilson says, ‘serendipity and surprise’. After all, White Rabbit’s not about proto-trippy literature, but about showing striking contemporary art from the East, having been commissioned by the Nielson’s foundation in 2008 to bring to Sydney the best Chinese art produced this side of the millennial turn. With Down The Rabbit Hole, we are cajoled to take a light-trip to China via Taiwan, and then back again. Artist pair LuxuryLogico (not a high-end corporation of logicians, but a set of twin Taiwanese futurists) bear a penchant for repurposing old technologies to create high tech sculptural forms. For this exhibition they’ve put together Solar, which, comprising a couple hundred recycled lamps individually wired and programmed, turns on to create a spate of meaningfully coded, hallucinatory light patterns. The light show continues with Wu Chi-Tsung’s Wire, a sculptural sleight-of-hand made up of mesh wire fabric and a commonplace light projector. The ultimate effect of which is to bring about a shanshui type landscape that moves, breathes and flexes on the wall. At the more material end of the exhibition, Ashley’s Heart by photographer and multimedia artist Wu Daxin is a giant, cool (read: refrigerated) sculpture of that most vital of human organs, the heart. Daxin’s art practice revolves around a fascination with his own ability, living in China, to make large-scale art objects for a comparably miniature cost (and to make a living from them too). Elsewhere, Wu Jian’an’s landscapes offer a different kind of trance. Here, Jian'an's seemingly thick, swarming and jungle-like landscapes reveal themselves at a close distance as the painstaking layering of many finely-cut, multi-coloured paper cutouts. Lastly, in a huge piece, Michael Lin's Untitled Gathering (pictured) brings together 320 flat-top, wooden stools. Originally ungathered, they create a jigsaw-like patchwork upon which appears a super-scaled swatch from an ancient Chinese floral textile design. Down The Rabbit Hole is open from Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm.
Vivid is coming up, and you may be eyeing off some spots around Sydney to book in a meal illuminated by the iconic festival lights. If this applies you, one more option has just sprung forward with Taronga Zoo announcing it will open its elegant Wildlife Retreat dining room Me-Gal to the public for the first time on Thursday, March 30. Me-Gal is set among the zoo's one-of-a-kind eco-retreat that pairs the touches of luxury you'd expect from a five-star hotel together with koala habitats right out your bedroom window — it's one of our picks for the best hotels in Sydney. The restaurant offers a seasonal menu of modern Australian dishes showcasing local produce and native ingredients but its biggest drawcard is the harbour views it serves up. Thanks to Taronga Zoo's location on the head of the lower North Shore and Me-Gal's floor-to-ceiling windows, diners are treated to sweeping panoramic views of the Sydney skyline, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. While you can easily lose track of time staring across the water at the CBD, you'll eventually have to turn your attention to the menu. Executive Chef Stefan Schröder has worked with local farmers and producers to create a sustainably sourced and flavour-packed selection of eats. "When crafting the offering for Me-Gal we drew inspiration from its unique location and the Australian native fauna that surrounds it," says General Manager Hoanh Giang. "An unexpected dining destination on the lower North Shore, the focus at Me-Gal is on sustainable dining, a passion we share with our local community of producers." Take your pick from a la carte standouts like stuffed zucchini flowers with wattle seed ricotta and macadamia crumble, beetroot and whipped lemon myrtle ricotta risotto, and sautéed Hawkesbury calamari served with kipfler potatoes, nduja and wild rocket. If you're dining with a group of four or more, you can leave it in the hands of the chefs and order the shared feast which comes with eight different highlights from the menu and dessert for $120 per person. The wine list is designed around well-rounded Australian classics like Henschke, Penfolds, Yabby Lake, Leeuwin Estate and Oakridge, alongside a selection of vegan, organic, biodynamic and sustainable wines — most of which are available by the glass. If you want to make a real night out of it, you can still book a stay at the Wildlife Retreat, with rooms starting from just over $500 a night. Taronga Zoo is also bringing back its Wild Lights activation as part of Vivid this year. The luminous event will run for 18 nights giving visitors the opportunity to explore the zoo after dark with a light walk guiding you through the park past large-scale animal lanterns and large-scale actual animals. Plus, it's also introducing an intimate new immersive tour called Nura Diya Australia that will take you up close and personal with kangaroos, dingos pups and koalas. [caption id="attachment_853669" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wild Lights at Taronga, Destination NSW[/caption] Taronga Zoo's Me-Gal is located at 2A Bradleys Head Road, Mosman. It will open to the public on Thursday, March 30, opening for lunch Thursday–Sunday and dinner Monday–Sunday.
As far as pastimes go, staring upwards ticks a heap of boxes. The sky is always there, the stars put on a show every night of the year, plenty of special celestial events like supermoons and meteor showers keep popping up, and everyone can do it — without or without specialised equipment. But if you've ever had the experts talk you through the wide blue yonder come evening, including at Sydney Observatory, you'll know that the inky heavens take on a whole new dimension when you get the lowdown from folks who study it. That's one of the key ideas behind Sydney Observatory's soon-to-launch new late-night series — because chatting attendees through the atmosphere's wonders is one part of the program. Set to kick off this spring, the free events will pair astronomy talks with stargazing, as well as tunes, performances, and drinks and bites to eat from leading New South Wales producers. [caption id="attachment_866238" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul Haese[/caption] The debut session on Saturday, October 8 doubles as the launch of Dr Nick Lomb's Australasian Sky Guide for 2023, too. It's the go-to resource about the southern night sky, complete with details of starry happenings to look forward to, viewing tips, and monthly sky maps. In this latest version, there's also an article on Wiradjuri constellations by Wiradjuri woman and PhD astrophysics candidate Kirsten Banks — and she'll be there on the night as part of the lineup of speakers, who'll chat between telescope views of Saturn, Jupiter and the moon. From there, Sydney Observatory's late-night program will return monthly — except in December, when the city is too busy looking at Christmas lights rather than the shining heavens. The November date, on Tuesday, November 8, is timed for a total lunar eclipse, while the Sunday, January 22 event will celebrate Lunar New Year, the Wednesday, February 22 session links in with World Pride, and the Saturday, March 25 fun will coincide with Earth Hour. Dates have been set until mid-2023, in fact, including a rare daytime event on Thursday, April 20 for the partial solar eclipse, backing it up a few weeks later on Saturday, May 6 for the full moon, and returning on Thursday, June 22 for 2023's winter solstice. While entry is free, bookings are still essential — everyone loves peering upwards, no matter what Hollywood satires tell us, so expect tickets to be popular. You'll be paying for whatever you eat and drink, of course, and also hanging out in one of Sydney's historic and most important spots. The Observatory dates back to 1859, sits on the highest point of Sydney Cove and keeps the time for NSW. It's also pivotal for meteorology and astronomy Australia-wide, and has catalogued 430,000 stars of the southern sky's stars. Sydney Observatory's late-night program launches on Saturday, October 8. For more information, or to book a free ticket, head to the venue's website. Top image: Scott Donkin.
Infamously the craziest time of the year when it comes to discounts, Black Friday sales can be hard to navigate at the best of times. To help you get prepped, we've narrowed down some of the best bargains from Amazon. You can expect to see some epic deals across homewares, beauty, shoes, electronics and fitness with brands like Samsung, Maybelline, Hugo Boss and Garmin. It's time to get shopping and make the most of the deals while they last. Homewares Stocking up on things for around the house and grabbing some homewares for a gift is never a bad idea. And with these discounts, you'll finally get your hands on those top-quality frying pans you've been putting off or actually replace that pillow you've had for an embarrassingly long time to admit publicly. Corelle Dinnerware Set for $51.99 – 60% off. Tontine Allergy Sensitive Pillow for $17.89 – 61% off. TEFAL Non-Stick Induction Wokpan for $61.19 – 49% off. PetSafe Staywell Aluminium Pet Door for $109.62 – 49% off. Tontine Single All Seasons Quilt for $31.96 – 70% off. Electronics Whether you're a Samsung or a Google person, these Black Friday discounts on all your electrical necessities are enough to make you drop everything. Google Nest Cam Wireless Camera for $166.00 – 50% off. Samsung Galaxy Buds FE Wireless Earbuds for $104.99 – 47 % off. Yamaha TW-E3C True Wireless Earbuds for $45.00 – 65% off. JBL FLIP 6 Portable Waterproof Speaker for $99.99 – 41% off. Rocketbook Core Reusable Smart Notebook for $29.90 – 46% off. Beauty For all the beauty queens out there, we know how expensive it can be to get your hands on the best makeup, moisturisers, perfumes and all the other essentials to keep you feeling at your best. Our recommendation? Stock up while you can. Vera Wang Princess Eau de Toilette for $28.13 – 68% off. Hugo Boss Boss Bottled Eau De Toilette for $84.93 – 59% off. Maybelline New York Matte Lipstick for $8.91 – 58% off. Garnier Brightening Serum for $16.63 – 55% off. Aveeno Daily Moisturising Body Wash for $11.10 – 57% off. Maybelline Superstay Vinyl Liquid Lipstick in Peachy for $11.47 – 58% off. Maybelline Multi-Use Concealer for $9.77 – 58% off. Shoes Finding durable, hardy shoes at a low price can feel almost impossible. However, you can get your hands on everyone's favourite brands including Dr. Martens, Keen, Salomon and Tevas for almost half-price with these spicy Black Friday deals. Dr. Martens Unisex Embury Leather Chelsea for $139.99 – 50% off. Skechers Women's Sneakers for $78.99 – 47% off. Salomon Men's XA PRO 3D Trail Running and Hiking Shoe for $120.00 – 48% off. Teva Men's M Forebay Sandal for $79.99 – 53% off. Nike Sneaker for $44.88 – 55% off. KEEN Women's Waterproof Hiking Boot for $153.06 – 49% off. Timberland Men's 6-Inch Waterproof Boot for $179.99 – 48% off. MERRELL Men's Moab 3 Hiking Shoe for $101.99 – 49% off. Fitness Get active, running, swimming or whatever kind of movement you prefer with these nifty fitness accessories. With these kinds of discounts, there's really no excuse not to. Speedo Men's Endurance + Aquashort for $31.99 – 42% off. Garmin GPS Fitness Smartwatch for $998.00 – 46% off. Buzio 1180ml Insulated Water Bottle for $29.58 – 44% off. Step One Men's Bamboo Trunks for $17.50 – 50% off. TriggerPoint GRID TRAVEL Foam Roller for $23.98 – 60% off. This article contains affiliate links, Concrete Playground may earn a commission when you make a purchase through links on our site. Images: supplied.
There couldn't be a better spot to gather for a feast after a day's exploration than in the mess hall of The Shearers Quarters at Kimo Estate. A 12-person gaggle of friends can spread out in this rustically renovated shed that sits within 7000 acres of rolling sheep- and cattle-grazing land. The earthen, knobbly kitchen benches are ideal for cooking up a storm after touring the Gundagai wine region or dropping lines in the Murrumbidgee and Tumut rivers searching for a catch of trout, Murray cod, yellowbelly or bream to bring to the barbecue. If you're an adventurous lot, consider planning your trip around the estate's five-day horse riding program, or jump out the front door and into a helicopter for a stunning flight through the Snowy Mountains foothills. Top image: Destination NSW
A round of drinks is the best way to kick off your night. Even better? Not paying for it. That's why the team behind coffee liqueur Kahlúa is taking its espresso martini game to the next level — with an espresso martini cocktail van slinging a round of complimentary drinks for you and all your mates. The Espresso Martini Express will be popping up around Sydney at surprise locations throughout November. Behind the wheel will be Kahlúa brand ambassador Ben Parton, who'll be posting clues to his whereabouts throughout the night on Instagram. If you're the first to figure out where Ben (and his truckload of caffeinated cocktails) is, you'll win a free round of drinks for you and your whole crew. Once the truck finishes its rounds, you can still find Kahlúa espresso martinis on tap across the country — meaning no more standing around while the bartender painstakingly shakes. To find out where you can get a caffeinated martini (quickly), head here. In the meantime, get ready to decipher those clues, grab your mates and prepare for a night out on the town, with a free espresso martini in hand.
A huge celebration of Greek food, music and culture is returning to Carss Bush Park near Blakehurst for the second iteration of the Greek Summer Festival on Sunday, February 12. Run by St Basil's NSW and ACT, the free festival program has been curated to highlight authentic Greek culture, with a heap of top-notch eats, live performers, workshops and kids' entertainment coming together for one massive day. The culinary section of the lineup is a big highlight, with David Tsikeras heading up the festivities and cooking up Australia's largest Greek barbecue. Other feeds on offer include golden-brown loukoumades from Yiayia's, Greek pastries from Christopher's Cake Shop, souvla, souvlaki, biftekia and sheftalies. If you want to get involved, there will also be cooking demonstrations throughout the day so that you can take home a recipe that'll impress your friends and family. When it comes to entertainment, there'll be live bouzouki and Greek Island instrumental performances and traditional dancers. Plus, the little ones will be entertained by donkey rides and jumping castles, plus mascots roaming the festival. The event will wrap up at 9pm, but before its conclusion, Foti Fireworks will be ending the nights with a bang, literally. A massive fireworks display synchronised to Greek music will light up the sky, with guests encouraged to take in the spectacle or dance the night away.
Local distilleries have become a regular facet of the Sydney hospo scene, and the latest of these is just about to launch in Potts Point. Headed by distiller Odelia Potts, Kings Cross Distillery is set to swing open its doors tomorrow, Thursday, October 1, on Macleay Street near the corner of Darlinghurst Road. The new cocktail den and distillery features house-made gins, cocktails and Spanish snacks — plus personality aplenty. As with many old buildings in the area, the venue's past lives are varied and salacious. These include an illegal gambling den and an adult bookstore with a hidden vault. That vault is no longer home to questionable activities, but the distillery's precious bottles of gin. The fit-out pays homage to the building's history and emulates speakeasies from the 1920s — think dark green leather booths, exposed brick walls and gold details aplenty across the split-level bar. The distillery's 200-litre pot also sits front-and-centre. Expect seats for 120 all up and a kitchen serving mezze-style bites like garlic prawns, meatballs in tomato sauce, grilled chorizo and anchovies. You can also order caviar by the ten-gram servei can'. Apart from the gin, the distillery will also make its own vodka and whisky, and pours other spirit and wine brands from around Australia and the globe. Guests can even keep specially selected drops in personalised spirit lockers, where bottles can be stored between visits and then used in any concoction on the menu. Eager punters can pre-purchase those spirit lockers (for a cool $400–1350) and have one all ready to go for opening night. On the bar's cocktail menu, you'll find a bubble-topped Impeachment, a Sin and Tonique and gin old fashioned dubbed Pepperation Makes Perfect. All made with one of the distillery's house-distilled gins, of course. And you can leave with a bottle of that gin, too, with the classic dry gin and Garden Island navy strength gin available online and in-store. Find Kings Cross Distillery at Shop 8, 127 Macleay Street, Potts Point from Thursday, October 1. It's open from 11am–11pm daily.
Darling Harbour favourite Bungalow 8 is celebrating its 21st anniversary in style with a grand reopening following a $3-million renovation, splitting into two venues – Bungalow 8 and Bungalow Bar and Balcony. Serving King Wharf visitors since 2003, the revamped day-to-night destination, which reopened to the public on Saturday, October 19, boasts a fresh look throughout the two-level venue complete with a new rooftop dining area, tropical courtyard seating and an upstairs cocktail lounge. While this revamp is set to mark a new era of the popular day-to-night venue, Bungalow 8 will still retain its signature tropical charm that attracted celebrities and revellers alike in the early 2000s. For midday diners, the waterfront venue's updated ground floor and courtyard provide the perfect setting for casual lunches or corporate meetings. An oasis in the bustling harbour precinct, Bungalow 8 will feature an array of lush, tropical plants, cabanas with banquet seating and glittering festoon lighting. Upstairs, the newly renovated cocktail bar and balcony provide a stunning view of Darling Harbour, perfect for late-night drinks and glamorous private events. An homage to the original fitout, the bar retains its signature botanical wallpaper and lush green flooring while melding the old with the new using contemporary seating and sleek LED lighting. Don't let this polished new look fool you though — there is fun and mischief to be had at the waterfront venue once the sun sets over Darling Harbour. At night, Bungalow 8 will become a party destination, playing host to a variety of weekend events. With the addition of a custom DJ booth, curated lighting and a top-of-the-line sound system, local DJs and musicians will keep the tunes pumping late into the night every Friday and Saturday. To close out the weekend, the King Street Wharf venues will hold new Sunday Sessions from 2pm, featuring DJ sets accompanied by a live saxophonist. The venue's decor isn't the only part of Bungalow 8 getting a makeover. Curated by Executive Chef Jason Roberson, a new lunch-till-late menu will be launched, featuring crowd favourites like burgers, sandwiches and salads. The menu will also feature a wave of new dishes such as Thai chilli wings dipped in lime crème fraiche or the Bungalow club sandwich on focaccia. Those dining in large groups will find options such as a charcuterie board featuring a selection from LP's Quality Meats, or a shared snack platter with truffle fries, eggplant parmigiana 'arancini', char-grilled corn cob, and salt and pepper calamari. The menu will also include a wide selection of local and international wines and new cocktails to match Bungalow 8's playful and tropical revamp. Try Sandy's Big Night Out on Kings Street Wharf, featuring citron vodka, cream of coconut, pineapple, lemon and mint, or the Picante de la Casa with blue agave tequila, lime, agave, coriander and green tobacco. Venue Manager Teddy Hepworth says customers will have a lot to look forward to from the venue's new era. "There's a lot to love about Bungalow 8's new chapter and we're excited to swing our doors back open to show everyone! New cocktails to shake, a delicious food menu and curated spaces that compliment both our iconic location and atmosphere." Find Bungalow 8 at 3 Lime Street, Sydney CBD, or via King Wharf. For more details, go to the Bungalow 8 website.
Every inner-city suburb needs a garden respite and for Redfern, the centrally-located Redfern Park is it. While the park is dotted with palm trees and water fountains, this is far from a secluded oasis. It is brimming with facilities, including basketball courts, playground and a skate park. Pups can get some off-leash action in the early mornings and evenings. If the agenda is a bit more relaxed, grab a coffee and pastry from Breadfern and nestle up in the shade with a novel. The adjoining oval was the home ground for the South Sydney Rabbitohs for many years and still serves as one of the clubs primary training grounds if you're keen to observe. Image: Wiki Commons
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are back in business — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T4GIqEYyNk&feature=youtu.be RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON Featuring a vibrant animated spectacle that heroes vivid green and blue hues, a rousing central figure who is never a stock-standard Disney princess and lively voice work from an all-star cast, Raya and the Last Dragon boasts plenty of highlights. Directed by Don Hall (Big Hero 6) and Carlos López Estrada (Blindspotting), co-directed by Paul Briggs and John Ripa (both Disney art and animation department veterans), and penned by Qui Nguyen (Dispatches From Elsewhere) and Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians), the Mouse House's new all-ages-friendly release also embraces southeast Asian culture with the same warm hug that Moana gave Polynesia and Pixar's Coco sent Mexico's way — and it's always detailed, organic, inclusive and thoughtful, and never tokenistic. But perhaps its biggest strength, other than the pitch-perfect vocal stylings of Awkwafina as the playful, mystical half of the film's title, is its timing. Disney first announced the feature back in August 2019, so the company can't have known what the world would suffer through from early 2020 onwards, of course. But a hopeful movie about a planet ravaged by a destructive plague and blighted by tribalism — and a feature that champions the importance of banding together to make things right, too — really couldn't arrive at a more opportune moment. COVID-19 has no place in Raya and the Last Dragon; however, as the picture's introductory preamble explains, a virus-like wave of critters called the Druun has wreaked havoc. Five hundred years earlier, the world of Kumandra was filled with humans and dragons living together in harmony, until the sinister force hit. Now, only the realm's two-legged inhabitants remain — after their furry friends used their magic to create the dragon gem, which saved everyone except themselves. That's the only status quo that Raya (voiced by Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran) has ever known. Her entire existence has also been lived out in a divided Kumandra, with different groups staking a claim to various areas. With her father Benja (Daniel Dae Kim, Always Be My Maybe), she hails from the most prosperous region, Heart, and the duo hold out hope that they can reunite the warring lands. Alas, when they bring together their fellow leaders for a peaceful summit, Raya's eagerness to trust Namaari (Gemma Chan, Captain Marvel), the daughter of a rival chief, ends with the Druun on the rampage once again. A movie about believing not just in yourself, but in others, Raya and the Last Dragon doesn't shy away from the reality that putting faith in anyone comes with the chance of peril and pain — especially in fraught times where the world has taken on an every-person-for-themselves mentality and folks are dying (or being turned to stone, which is the Druun's modus operandi). If the narrative hadn't been willing to make this plain again and again, including when it picks up six years later as Raya tries to reverse the devastation caused by Namaari's actions, Raya and the Last Dragon wouldn't feel as genuinely affecting. Raya and the Dragon is screening in Australian cinemas from Thursday, March 4, and will also be available to view via Disney+ with Premier Access (so you'll pay $34.99 extra for it, on top of your usual subscription fee) from Friday, March 5. It'll hit Disney+ without any extra fee on June 4. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSFpK34lfv0 NOMADLAND Frances McDormand is a gift of an actor. Point a camera her way, and a performance so rich that it feels not just believable but tangible floats across the screen. That's true whether she's playing overt or understated characters, or balancing those two extremes. In Fargo, the first film that earned her an Oscar, McDormand is distinctive but grounded, spouting midwestern phrases like "you betcha" but inhabiting her part with texture and sincerity. In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, her next Academy Award-winning role, she's an impassioned mother crusading for justice and vengeance, and she ripples with deep-seated sorrow mixed with anger so fiery that it may as well be burning away her insides. Now, in Nomadland, McDormand feels stripped bare and still a commanding force to be reckoned with. She's tasked with a plucky but struggling part — defiant and determined, too; knocked around by life's ups and downs, noticeably; and, crucially, cognisant that valuing the small pleasures is the hardest but most rewarding feat. It'll earn her another Oscar nomination. It could see her nab a third shiny statuette just three years after her last. Along with the attention the movie received at the Golden Globes, both are highly deserved outcomes because hers is an exceptional performance, and this was easily 2020's best film. Here, leading a cast that also includes real people experiencing the existence that's fictionalised within the narrative, she plays the widowed, van-dwelling Fern — a woman who takes to the road, and to the nomad life, after the small middle-America spot where she spent her married years turns into a ghost town when the local mine is shuttered due to the global financial crisis. A slab of on-screen text explains her predicament, with the film then jumping into the aftermath. Following her travels over the course of more than a year, this humanist drama serves up an observational portrait of those that society happily overlooks. It's both deeply intimate and almost disarmingly empathetic in the process, as every movie made by Chloe Zhao is. This is only the writer/director's third, slotting in after 2015's Songs My Brothers Taught Me and 2017's The Rider but before 2021's Marvel flick Eternals, but it's a feature of contemplative and authentic insights into the concepts of home, identity and community. Meticulously crafted, shot and performed, it truly sees everyone in its frames, be they fictional or real. Nomandland understands their plights, and ensures its audience understands them as well. It's exquisitely layered, because its protagonist, those around her and their lives earn the same term — and Zhao never forgets that, or lets her viewers either. Nomadland screened in Australian cinemas during a two-week preview season in 2020, starting Saturday, December 26. From Thursday, March 4, 2021, it's back on the big screen for its general release season. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ICPoXlmTO0 CHAOS WALKING Adapted from the book series of the same name, Chaos Walking has weathered a difficult path to cinemas. The tedious and generic space western releases ten years after the rights to turn Patrick Ness' novels into films were first acquired, four years since the movie was originally shot and two years after major reshoots following unfavourable test screenings. It went through a plethora of rewrites, too, with I'm Thinking of Ending Things' Charlie Kaufman on scripting duties at one point, and Ness (A Monster Calls) and Spider-Man: Homecoming's Christopher Ford getting the final credit. Navigating such a mess rarely bodes well for a movie, so the fact that Chaos Walking proves dull and derivative shouldn't come as a surprise. Even with its cast filled with impressive talent, and with Edge of Tomorrow filmmaker Doug Liman begin the lens, it's hard to see how it might've fared better, with its premise an instant struggle. Set in 2257, the film follows colonists from earth on a planet called New World, who are plagued by a strange phenomenon. A multi-coloured haze hovers around men's heads — and only men — showing their every thought. The sensation has been dubbed 'the noise', and experiencing it while watching sure is rackety. Indeed, 'noise' is the absolute right word for the entire movie. In his pioneer village, teenager Todd (Tom Holland, The Devil All the Time) can rarely control his noise. While the Mayor (Mads Mikkelsen, Another Round) is able to filter the words and images that project from his mind — and also rock a furry red coat and wide-brimmed hat far better than anyone should — few others have the same ability. Seeing what everyone is thinking is a tricky way to live at the best of times, and it applies to the entire population, because women have been wiped out in a war attributed to the planet's original inhabitants. But Todd's troubles multiply when he discovers a spaceship, as well as Viola (Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker), its sole surviving occupant. The mayor and his followers don't take kindly to the first female in their midst for years; however, supported by his adoptive fathers Ben (Demian Bichir, The Midnight Sky) and Cillian (Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter), Todd isn't willing to surrender the only girl he's ever seen to an angry mob. Cue a tale of toxic masculinity that dates back to 2008, when first instalment The Knife of Never Letting Go hit bookshelves, and feels timely in the current social, political and cultural climate. That said, this isn't a complex, layered or thoughtful film. Instead, it's content to stress its themes in such a broad and easy manner that getting Holland to hold up a sign saying "the patriarchy is bad" would've been more subtle. Indeed, Chaos Walking really just uses these notions as a backdrop for a predictable and formulaic dystopian story, and as a handy reason to motivate its conflicts, in a movie that plays like a hodgepodge of far better sci-fi and western fare. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCvQzzKdgV4 ABOUT ENDLESSNESS The latest feature from acclaimed and always distinctive Swedish auteur Roy Andersson (Songs From the Second Floor, You, the Living, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence), About Endlessness plays like the filmmaker's response to an oft-used — and overused — piece of worldly wisdom. Relishing the little things has become a greeting card-level piece of advice that's trotted out far too frequently and easily, but this vignette-fuelled drama contentedly peers at and contemplates everyday occurrences, flitting from one snippet of story to another across its brief 78-minute duration. It sees the happy moments, and the bleak ones. It has time for inconsequential instances, for clear flights of fancy and for real-life events that changed the shape of history. It spies the magical, the mundane, the merciful and the menacing, gives them all their time in the spotlight, and weaves them into a moving catalogue of the human condition. And, although the writer/director remains in his comfort zone, he crafts this latest treatise on merely existing into a movie that cuts deeply and feels bold rather than familiar. With Andersson's renowned eye for the sublime and the absurd, the film sees the juxtaposition at the heart of living. It knows that, in some shape or form, life is bound to continue on forever. It's also aware that individual lives are inescapably finite. When pondering mortality, these two truths can be hard to reconcile, especially given that the minutiae that makes up each and every day lulls us into a false sense of feeling as if it'll never end — and About Endlessness embraces all of this thorniness and complexity in its own way. Via poetic parcels of narration that declare "I saw a man begging to be spared", "I saw a woman who had a problem with her shoes" and "I saw a man who wanted to save the honour of his family, then regretted it" — plus other such short descriptions — About Endlessness works through instance after instance of people searching for meaning, happiness, and a reason to see their existence as anything more than a parade of breaths and heartbeats. The voice offering such narration is female, proves choosy about which scenes she decides to comment on, but is clearly affected by everything that plays about before her all-seeing vision. When it comes to anything approaching an explanation, though, Andersson remains sparse and careful. And yet, this is a detailed film that overflows with intricacy, intimacy and emotion, and with glorious artistry in every single frame. Every shot looks both naturalistic and staged, as is the filmmaker's custom, which evokes the feeling that you're stealing glimpses of life that are equally rich and routine in tandem. Whether a dictator, a man of faith or someone crying on public transport takes temporary pride of place (or, in the latter's case, if a fellow passenger is asking why he can't just be sad at home like everyone else), these short moments have a cumulative effect that's striking and profoundly insightful. Take, for example, an oh-so-short clip of young women spontaneously dancing outside a cafe, which is delightful, instantly touching and speaks firmly to the fact that life is as consistent in its joys as it is in its woes. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on November 5, November 12, November 19 and November 26; and December 3, December 10, December 17, December 26; and January 1, January 7, January 14, January 21 and January 28; February 4, February 11, February 18 and February 25. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as The Craft: Legacy, Radioactive, Brazen Hussies, Freaky, Mank, Monsoon, Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie's Dead Aunt), American Utopia, Possessor, Misbehaviour, Happiest Season, The Prom, Sound of Metal, The Witches, The Midnight Sky, The Furnace, Wonder Woman 1984, Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, Nomadland, Pieces of a Woman, The Dry, Promising Young Woman, Summerland, Ammonite, The Dig, The White Tiger, Only the Animals, Malcolm & Marie, News of the World, High Ground, Earwig and the Witch, The Nest, Assassins, Synchronic, Another Round, Minari, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, The Truffle Hunters and The Little Things.
No one wants to get married, then feel like they need to add more spice to their relationship. But if you've always wanted to tie the knot with help from some secret herbs and spices, there's a solution. Don't just pick up some KFC for your nuptials — get the fried-chicken chain to throw the ceremony for you, all thanks to the return of KFC Weddings. So, you've found that special forever someone — someone who deals with your drama, puts up with your quirks and shares your passion for all the important stuff, like, say, finger-lickin'-good chook. Clearly there's just one thing left to do, and that's to seal the deal at your very own official KFC nuptials. After cooking up an idea we never knew we needed and launching its own wedding service in 2019, the chain is back at the romance game again. Fried chook obsessives across Australia now have another opportunity to get hitched via KFC's unique service; however, there is a caveat: you must propose using the Colonel's wares. The brand has brought back its weddings to promote its new BBQ onion ring burgers, and it wants you to pop the question using its onion rings as rings. The burgs feature two onion rings, so that's one for you and one for your other half. All couples are invited to apply, as long as you're both over 18. There's just one wedding up for grabs this time, which you can try to score by going to KFC, getting a BBQ onion ring burgers, proposing using its onion rings and taking a snap to prove it. You'll also need to provide a 15-second-long video that introduces you and your partner, and sum up your need for a KFC wedding in 100 words. There's no time to waste — if you want to be the lucky duo that gets a call-up, you need to enter before Monday, November 27. So what's involved in the ultimate KFC nuptials, you ask? Well, you can bank on KFC theming via a KFC stylist, KFC chicken for catering thanks to a KFC food truck, and also a budget to take care of a venue, entertainment and photos. All up, the prize is worth $80,000, and you'll need to get hitched within 12 months of winning. We can only hope the bride will be throwing buckets instead of bouquets, and that there'll be plenty of wet wipes to go around. If you're keen to kick off married life with some secret herbs and spices, you can apply for your own KFC wedding online until Monday, November 27, 2023.
Landing on the Newcastle scene in Lambton, Crumb sees two industry vets launch a long-awaited collaboration where creativity and community set the tone. Guided by the Autumn Rooms' owner Ben Richardson and renowned pastry chef Gareth Williams, formerly of Covered In Crumbs and EXP, expect hand-crafted pastries and abundant coffee to give your morning a mouthwatering lift. Starting with the food, Williams has been hard at work shaping French-inspired bread and baked goods using top-tier ingredients and uncompromising technique. Think real butter, stone-milled flour and high-end chocolate going into every bite. Made in small batches according to the season, a background in fine dining has given Williams the skills to lead a frequently changing menu with a sharp focus on quality and minimal waste. Contrasting sweet and savoury options, the menu features elevated staples like plain croissants and picture-perfect pain au chocolat. Yet things quickly step up, with maple bacon and sea salt scrolls, strawberry tarts, and danishes adorned with cheesecake crème and seasonal fruit. Over on the savoury side of life, expect chorizo and hot honey croissants alongside Vegemite scrolls. Plus, there's a lineup of stacked sandwiches, with one creative option combining brandy and orange salami with parmesan, stracciatella, roasted garlic and pickled zucchini. Supported by a host of limited-run weekend specials that are bound to make this spot a go-to ritual, there's little chance of getting bored with the menu. As for the coffee, Crumb is driving single-origin specialty beans, ensuring you can get a top-notch morning brew to pair with your pastry or sarnie. Situated on a sunny strip on Elder Street, Richardson and Williams have made sure the aesthetic of the place lives up to the food and coffee. Designed with a minimalist approach in mind, they've left room for a few imaginative touches that give the space a dynamic contrast. As you wait for your order, vinyl records spin throwback hip-hop tunes like De La Soul and Naughty By Nature, and a merch stand is filled with upcycled vintage clothing that's been screenprinted with hand-drawn designs and Crumb's graffiti-inspired logo. Crumb is now open Monday–Tuesday from 7am–2pm (coffee only), Wednesday–Friday from 7am–2pm, and Saturday–Sunday from 7.30am–12.30pm. Head to the website for more information. Images: Sophie Tyler.
We've come to expect a little more from a Japanese restaurant than simply delicious teriyaki. Japan is all about aesthetics, so why not Japanese dining experiences? Sometimes, though, those animated order screens are a little too intense. This is where Wa steps in. More Hokkaido than Tokyo, Wa's interior is all pale wood and marble, with everything minimal and in its right place. The true gem however, is the courtyard. Seated amongst greenery and delicate dried fronds, you can pick a table and pass the time watching the large screen flick through peaceful moonlit landscapes. The atmosphere is perfectly balanced and as unobtrusive as the service. The menu offers an enviable range of choices, authentic dishes retouched slightly to make the most of fresh Australian ingredients. My picks are the Miso Eggplant, with hearty halves of eggplant and a delicious blend of two sauces, and the Agedashi Mochi, sticky rice balls in agedashi sauce. A comprehensive set menu is an alternative to picking and choosing, offering six courses with options. Vegetarians will also be at home, with loads of dishes to choose from or a set menu of their own. Alcohol is BYO but with a bottle shop right next door, this isn't an inconvenience. The only tricky part, in fact, is making sure you get a table. I'd recommend booking, particularly if you're looking to bring a group.
During lockdown, Tacos Muchachos transformed a Surry Hills cafe into a pop-up Mexican restaurant, serving up exciting Mexican street food dishes to anyone within five-kilometres of the shop. It proved a hit with locals — people flocked to their quesabirria tacos, takeaway margaritas and al pastor nights. Following lockdown, the cafe took back custodianship of the Surry Hills space, so Tacos Muchachos went looking for a new home. Now, they've settled on the ground level of Chippendale's new Mexican-inspired boutique accommodation, Hotel Hacienda. The menu has stayed consistent with the pop-up: nachos ($18), consommé ($4), street-style burritos ($18) and quesabirria tacos ($18). These tacos are what will keep you coming back. The rich and cheesy showstopper are a must-try. And, Sydneysiders are sure to be excited by the unique flat and crispy burrito packed filled with refried beans, sautéed onions, jalapenos, cheese and your choice of fillings. An exciting rotation of weekly specials are continually popping up, with tortas and al pastor to be added to the menu soon. The Tacos Muchachos crew sourced their al pastor machine from Mexico and marinate their pork shoulder in achiote, pineapple juices and citrus. As for the drinks, a classic margarita ($10 during happy hour) or agua fresca ($5) spiked with tequila are currently on offer as well as a selection of beers and Jarrito sodas ($6). Head in between 5–6pm and you'll be treated to a happy hour special on drinks, with more cocktails soon to be offered. Tacos Muchachos is located at 179 Cleveland Street, Redfern. It's currently open 5.30pm until late Thursday–Saturday.
Finally, here's a place to direct your writing skills, firsthand research on Sydney's small bar scene and excessive feelpinions on that latest play or movie. Concrete Playground is looking for interns. You'll be able to put your knowledge to use while learning the real ins and outs of producing arts, culture, food and lifestyle editorial in a fun and fast-paced online environment. Interns will work within our Redfern office one day per week for a set period of time. Working with the editorial team, you will be exposed to tasks such as writing, subediting, content production, photography and using social media. To apply for the role, you will need to demonstrate excellent writing skills as well as a love of and engagement with Sydney's cultural life. Expressions of interest should be addressed to editor Rima Sabina Aouf at contribute@concreteplayground.com.au. Include a short bio, CV and 2-3 samples of your written work. Image from Girls. Does not resemble real life, where you won't be kept in limbo for two years but will probably go on to a life of freelancing for us and radness.
The idea that you can't have too much of a good thing has been part of The Office franchise ever since an American version of the UK-originated hit was initially locked in. As well 188 episodes of the US take on the workplace comedy, more iterations have followed around the world, including in Australia. An American spinoff called The Paper led by Domhnall Gleeson (Echo Valley) also arrives in September 2025. Here's another way that "the more, the merrier" applies to The Office: via the Superfan episodes. Extended scenes, bloopers, deleted moments: they're all included, alongside other bonus content — and for the first time, these lengthier instalments are available Down Under. [caption id="attachment_1018235" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chris Haston/NBC[/caption] As at Thursday, August 21, 2025, Binge has dropped the Superfan episodes across seasons 1–8 of the US The Office, spanning 170 episodes — and an extra 28 hours, 55 minutes and 20 seconds material. This is the first time ever that they've not only been made available in Australia, but outside of the US. Get ready to see the beloved sitcom in an entirely new way, then, no matter how many times you've watched and rewatched it before. For everyone who has ever had a cringeworthy boss, annoying co-worker or soul-crushing office job, this comedy franchise has understood for more than two decades now. It was back in 2001 that the original UK version of The Office arrived, introducing the world to the literally paper-pushing David Brent. And, in 2005, an American series featuring the also-awkward Michael Scott hit the small screen as well. The US iteration of The Office proved one of the rare instances where a TV remake is better than the original. It was also immensely easy to just keep rewatching, as fans have known since the 2005–13 show finished its run. Of course, that's what you get when you round up Steve Carell (Mountainhead), John Krasinski (Fountain of Youth), Jenna Fischer (Mean Girls), Rainn Wilson (Home Delivery), Mindy Kaling (Velma), Ed Helms (Family Switch), Ellie Kemper (Happiness for Beginners), Craig Robinson (Hot Frosty) and more in the same show, and let all of them break out their comedic best. As for The Paper, it streams from Thursday, September 4, 2025, also on Binge, and is set at a midwestern newspaper publisher. As its predecessor was, it's a mockumentary series. The setup: the same documentary crew that turned their cameras towards Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch have found a new workplace to explore. Their time pointing their lens the Toledo Truth Teller's way coincides with Ned Sampson (Gleeson) joining the publication as editor-in-chief, with the paper's newest employee underwhelmed with the status quo and brimming with ideas about how to change things. Check out a trailer for The Office season one's Superfan episodes below: The Office Superfan episodes are available to stream in Australia from Thursday, August 21, 2025 via Binge.
Whether you're a seasoned green thumb with a blooming garden or a gardening novice with only a balcony to work with, get all your gardening needs met at That Plant Shop in Rozelle. Operated by plant whisperer Edwina, affectionately known as 'That Plant Lady', the shop stocks an extensive collection of rare and common indoor and outdoor plants — hand-selected by Edwina. Whether you're looking for something specific or just looking for advice, like which soil works best for each plant or watering dos and don'ts =, That Plant Shop is the place to be. Check out the Saturday workshops held in-store for potting and terrarium building. Not limited to plants, this plant nursery also has a range of homewares, pots and products to ensure your plants thrive. If you can't make it into the store, you can also shop online on the website.
Whatever else the past couple of years have served up, it has been an impressive time for folks who like staring up at the sky. 2016 ended with a huge supermoon that had everyone looking to the heavens, then 2018 began with an extremely rare super blue blood moon (a supermoon, a blue moon and a total lunar eclipse all at once). Next, at the end of July, an epic lunar eclipse will mark the next notable celestial happening. In fact, the Saturday, July 28 event will be longest lunar eclipse of this century — with the penumbral eclipse lasting just shy of four hours (236 minutes, to be exact) and the total lunar eclipse spanning 103 minutes. If you're wondering what the difference is between the two (because we're all more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, aren't we?), a penumbral eclipse is when the earth's outer shadow falls on the moon's surface, while a total lunar eclipse involves the moon passing directly into the earth's actual shadow. During the main event, which is expected to kick off at 5.30am local time, the moon will also turn a blood-red shade thanks to sunlight that's filtered and refracted by the earth's atmosphere. So yes, as well as a total lunar eclipse and a full moon, it'll be a blood moon as well. Australians will be able to spy the penumbral eclipse from 3.14am and the partial eclipse from 4.24am, before the full thing at 5.30am, with the maximum eclipse occurring at 6.21am. We won't be able to see the end of it, however, as the moon will be below the horizon when the full, partial and penumbral eclipses end (at 7.13am, 8.19am and 9.28am local time, respectively). While it's a great excuse to go stargazing, the 103-minute total eclipse only just pips the 100-minute event that took place on June 15, 2011 — and falls just short of the 108-minute event on July 16, 2000. Still, when the super blue blood moon did come around earlier in 2018, its full eclipse only lasted 72 minutes. If you miss it, 102-minute total lunar eclipses are expected in 2029, 2047 and 2094 — but nothing this long will occur again this century. Via Space.com and timeanddate.com.
Youtube is one of the great purveyors of human achievement with performances from Gaga to this guy. But the rule is, you have to share. Call me old-fashioned but I get a dirty feeling after watching a video thats been seen by 100,000,000 others. I don't feel special or loved and there's always the chance of catching a virus. I like something unique, something undiscovered, something never-before seen. On July 31st BondiFM is hosting The World's Largest Busk for all those who want to reconnect with their performer — more than 230 of them in fact. A day to appreciate human performance with everything from singing and dancing to gaga-impersonating and magical orchestras. It will be the last day of Bondi's Winter Magic Festival, a month long festival with films and ice-skating on the picturesque sands of Bondi. It's all for a good cause too. Not only can we steal the world busking record from the British, but also donations are going to the music-teaching SoundSchool. So sign-up to share your talents with the world or just come along and watch. And come prepared with loose change and a video camera to record any impromtu Fails.
Public demand for multi-disciplinary, multi-media, multi-sensory, cross-genre events is insatiable right now and Carriageworks is about to take them to a whole new level. Introducing Birdfoxmonster, an epic, immersive dining experience combining food, theatre, music and art, created in collaboration with Erth and Studio A. You'll be sampling dishes inspired by the artists' passions and idiosyncrasies, served on Australian ceramics hand-painted by the artists, while watching video projections and interacting with masked performers. Studio A artists involved include Meagan Pelham, a hopeless romantic whose works are full of wedding cakes, bridal parties and wedding dresses, Thom Roberts, a skilled draftsman and creator of transformative installations, and Skye Saxon, a performance and visual artist who draws her ideas from dreams, memories and metaphysical worlds. Meanwhile, Erth's Scott Wright is taking care of direction, while composer James Brown is providing sound art and Elias Nohra digital art. "We have been working towards this point in our relationship with Studio A for the past five years," said Wright. "We have taken considerable time to find a non-physical space in which we could work together, where we could 'remove the expert'. Birdfoxmonster is a beautiful meeting of minds inviting the public to share the love, wonder and perspective of three incredible artists." Birdfoxmonster is part of Carriageworks' New Normal National Strategy and is one of ten new commissions from artists with disability.
We're almost halfway through 2022 but Brisbane is just getting warmed up. There's a jam-packed schedule still to be enjoyed, from new gallery exhibitions and boundary-pushing immersive art experiences to international sporting events and the return of pandemic-postponed festival celebrations. This year, the Queensland capital will continue to attract world-renowned creators and performers while spotlighting the best local talent, too. The biggest food festivals are still to come — serving up the best of southeast Queensland on a platter — as well as a brand new brew fest that's exclusive to Brisbane. Adrenaline junkie? Football fanatic? Culture vulture? Fervent foodie? Here are nine must-do events happening in Brisbane in 2022.
Right before International Women's Day, embrace and celebrate the power of women on Sunday, March 4 with the Sydney Opera House's sixth iteration of All About Women. Following 2017's event — which included speakers such as Academy Award-winner Geena Davis to Newsweek Middle East reporter Janine di Giovanni — the 2018 festival has 20+ events for you to choose from. Prepare to be blown away by a downright inspiring lineup of female-identifying storytellers, thinkers and game changers. Curated by Edwina Throsby, formerly the TEDxSydney Head of Curation and founder and producer of ABC TV's Big Ideas, this year's All About Women will host events and discussions surrounding transgender politics, disability and intersectionality, Trump, climate justice and much, much more. The stellar cast of speakers includes humourist and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Fran Lebowitz speaking about cultural nostalgia and leading a panel on women in the age of Trump, and Tarana Burke, the US-based founder of the #MeToo movement, in conversation with veteran Australian journalist Tracy Spicer. Nakkiah Lui and Miranda Tapsell will record an episode of their podcast Pretty for an Aboriginal live and activist Manal al-Sharif will discuss the freedoms (and lack thereof) of women in Saudi Arabia. This is all supplemented with some really fun hands-on stuff too, like a morning yoga class, wine tasting with sommelier Georgina Larsson, a feminist choir and a pickling workshop led by Cornersmith. Image: Prudence Upton.
Last year, Sydney got its first ever vegan market — and this year, after hopping around town, it's heading to a new home. Conscientious consumers will be able to wander through the stalls at Entertainment Quarter from this Sunday, August 19, completely free to sample, sip, browse and buy, without having to worry one iota about flesh, leather or cruelty. The happening is an initiative of Vegan NSW (previously known as The Vegan Society) and, for the most part, is all about food. Across more than 100 stalls, you can expect to see Sydney's most popular vegan brands, peddling everything from burgers and wraps to cheese, chocolate and coffee. When you're done eating and drinking, you can spend time perusing fashion and homewares or kicking back to live entertainment. Other items on the agenda include a free talk series, free yoga and pilates sessions, and a sausage roll-eating competition. Entry is free and, after running from 9am–4pm on its first day in its new digs, the market will return on the third Sunday of each month.
Defying the notion that, post-lockouts, most Sydneysiders are tucked up in bed by 10pm will be Sydney Fringe's 2018 Fringe Club. From 10.30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights throughout the month-long festival, level three of the Kings Cross Hotel will be buzzing with live performance, comedy and DJs — all free. Arrive on time and on Thursdays you'll catch Andy Dexterity's physical theatre, while on Fridays you'll get a showcase of show from the Fringe program. On Saturdays, grab a cheap pint of Young Henrys during happy hour (10.30–11.30pm) before DJ Glamour Toads start spinning non-stop hits from the nineties and noughties from midnight, taking inspiration from Video Hits, So Fresh and Hit Machine. Plus, from 11.30pm each night, potential comedians will take the stage when the mic opens to amateurs.
Melbourne's Holiday Inn COVID-19 cluster continues to grow, with 13 cases linked to the outbreak as of 11pm on Thursday, February 11 — and it's starting to have an effect beyond Victoria's borders. In a new public alert issued today, Friday, February 12, NSW Health has advised that some folks who've arrived in the state this week will immediately need to go into isolation, get tested, and then remain in self-quarantine for 14 days regardless of the result. Last night, Victorian authorities added Brunetti, at Terminal 4 in Melbourne Airport, to their exposure list. The airport cafe was visited by a positive case on Tuesday, February 9 between 4.45am–1.15pm. Victoria issued an isolation and testing mandate overnight, so NSW is now following suit. It's broadening the requirements, however, both in terms of location and timing. Accordingly, anyone currently in NSW who was at Melbourne Airport's Terminal 4 between 4.45am–2pm on Tuesday, February 9 will need to self-quarantine, get a test, and keep in isolation for a fortnight. It doesn't matter where in the terminal you were, or for how long you were there during that period — the requirement still applies. If someone you live with falls into the above category, you'll also need to go into isolation immediately. You'll only have to stay there, though, until the person in your household who has been at Melbourne Airport receives a negative result. And, NSW Health has also advised that anyone who was at Melbourne Airport at all on Sunday, February 7 and Monday, February 8 must also get tested straight away. That applies to all terminals, and all day on both of those two dates. After your test, you'll need to stay in self-quarantine until a negative result comes back. https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1360039480443293700 NSW authorities expect that today's health alert will impact around 7000 people, with NSW Health currently in the process of contacting folks who've entered the state from Victoria from February 7–9. NSW residents are also asked to keep an eye on Victoria's full rundown of exposure sites, which can be found at the Victorian Government Department of Health website. If you've been to one of the venues listed at the dates and times specified, you're asked to get tested, isolate, and obtain further advice by calling your local NSW Public Health Unit. Victoria had previously been 28 days without any new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, before a hotel quarantine worker at the Grand Hyatt Hotel tested positive to the virus on Wednesday, February 3. Just four days later, a second hotel quarantine worker, this time at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport also tested positive. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website. For further details on the latest exposure Victorian sites, see the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services website.
If Justin Gignac's success in selling garbage as art is anything to go by, doing something (and doing it well) because others thought you couldn't, actually works. Gignac's New York City Garbage is just that, except packaged nicely in transparent cubes and sold as art. Selling between $50 online and $100 at selected stores in the U.S, the handpicked NYC Garbage has owners in 29 countries, according to Gignac's website. The New York City-based artist and entrepreneur has been selling garbage since 2001 and has said he wanted to prove packaging could sell anything. Gignac has also sold commemorative editions of NYC Garbage cubes including St. Patrick's Day in Ireland and President Obama's inauguration. It sounds ridiculous but you’ve got to love a guy who can make a profit out of garbage at a time where newspaper sales are declining. Image: nycgarbage.com
From writer and director Luc Besson (of The Professional and The Fifth Element fame), comes Lucy, a highly anticipated sci-fi thriller starring cinema legends Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman. Johansson plays Lucy, who unwillingly becomes the centrepiece of an international drug trafficking scheme after a brutal kidnapping. After some drug residue leaks into her stomach, she is able to exploit the full potential of her brain capacity — surpassing the limited 10 percent urban legend tells us we usually have available to us. Suddenly, she has some pretty enviable superpowers: she can absorb information instantaneously, move objects with her mind and choose not to feel pain, among other handy skills. Lucy brings up ideas of cognitive enhancement, while exploring paradigms of mind versus body. The film is the epitome of an action thriller, complete with some pretty nifty special effects and a cargo pants-clad Johansson kicking some serious arse. Lucy (© 2014 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved) is in cinemas on July 31, and thanks to Universal Pictures Australia, 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 Follow Lucy at facebook.com/universalpicturesau and www.lucymovie.com.au.
Online retailer My Chameleon is set to host its biggest IRL sale yet over three days this weekend. The sale will take over a warehouse space along Rosebery's Mentmore Avenue — just down the block from The Cannery foodie precinct — and offer up refined designs from some of the world's biggest names at dangerously discounted prices. How discounted? Well, we're talking up to 80 percent off an array of designer threads from both homegrown and international brands. New additions from the likes of Mansur Gavriel, Toteme and Jacquemus will sit alongside designs from Dion Lee, Commes des Garcons, Christopher Esber, Ellery, MM6 by Maison Margiela, Hope Stockholm, R13 Denim and Adidas by Stella McCartney — to name just a few. The shop will sell not only threads but also shoes, bags and accessories, with one-off samples up for grabs, too. Plus, if you show up from 10am–1pm on Saturday, you'll get a free coffee to boot. The sale will be open on Thursday, August 23 from 12–7pm, Friday, August 24 from 10am–6pm and Saturday, August 25 from 10am–4pm.
Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation has been taken over. Hanging from scaffolding is an enormous cardboard structure, a slum created by husband-and-wife team Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan. The sheer scale of this installation is staggering. From the ceiling to the floor, the shantytown takes over the gallery with hundreds of tiny, modular cardboard elements tacked on and expanding like tumours. The houses expand in every direction and dimension into a floating, horizonless, living city. This is an abstracted version of a real place: a nomadic, seafaring indigenous people called the Badjao live in the Phillipines. A documentary tells us the Badjaos live in houses on stilts so their beds stay dry. The people and their houses are in a constant state of flux: Alfredo and Isabel are in fact from the Phillipines and have since moved to Australia. Their identity swims in a no-man's-land between the two countries. Peeking out from cardboard windows are videos of Badjao children rapping and drumming (busking is their main source of income, and their sound recalls early M.I.A.). The concept is carried out to it’s maximum potential: miniature bamboo skewer ladders connect tiny apartments, there are tiny Badjao drums scattered around the place, and even the hooks that hold the headphones are made from tape and card. Audience members, especially kids, are provided with the means to create their own little cardboard structures which they take home or give to the gallery attendants to add on to the installation. The artists' choice of second-hand cardboard as their main material is genius. It recalls the Depression-era ghettoes where vagrants made their makeshift homes. It's also metaphor for the slum's invisible inhabitants: the Badjao people have been discarded by the rest of society and relegated to the fringe between the land and the sea. The Aquizilans have visually distilled the essence of the migrant experience and ideas about refuge, displacement and poverty. Though it comes from a place of personal experience, In-Habit can't help but be deeply political. Ducking and weaving to explore the massive shantytown, I realised how rare it is for artists to actually transform an entire gallery. The Aquilizans have morphed a cold, white cube into an entire new world that is exciting and treacherous and fun to navigate. Many contemporary art projects employ the idea of “community engagement” as a token afterthought, a measure of lip service, when in reality, they just continue to relate to the same art-going minority. In-Habit is not like that. Though the project is in part aimed at children, it’s not for kids as such: it’s for everyone, and it shows that art at its most excellent can engage anyone, regardless of their art-world knowledge and familiarity. Image: detail from In-Habit by Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan.
Heartbreak High obsessives, your time is now: the 90s favourite has been revived by Netflix, bringing a new generation of Hartley High dramas into your streaming queue. Let's be honest — if you loved the show since way back when, it's always been your time; however, now you can experience the ups and downs of the Aussie series' next batch of high schoolers. A fan since the OG run, and always wished you lived in the show when you were at school? Just discovered the homegrown classic via the new version? Either way, if you're in Sydney on Saturday, September 17–Sunday September 18, you can nab some free threads to look the part. Netflix loves launching its big titles with pop-ups, and this one's no different — joining its The Gray Man barber, Stranger Things rift and Squid Game doll over the past 12 months. One thing that this boasts that those others didn't? That free clothing, with 1000 pieces up for grabs all up. Head along and you too can look like you've just stepped out of class — at a school that doesn't have a uniform, aka most teenagers' dream. Netflix has badged the pop-up a 'uniform shop' to fit the theme, though, but the range includes local designers and keenly sought-after thrifted items. Sydneysiders and folks who happen to be in town for the weekend just need to make a trip to 520 King Street in Newtown, where the thrift shop will be handing out pieces by HoMie, Clothing The Gaps, Jody Just, Off White and more. It's a first come, first served affair, and there'll be 500 pieces on offer each day. So, as always with give aways, getting in early during the shop's 10am–6pm operating hours is recommended. Given that the new version of Heartbreak High decks out its characters in everything from bursts of colour to grunge 90s attire, expect a variety of styles on offer. And, expect free temporary tattoos, too, as well as a photographer capturing high school portraits.
Usually, February is the month that gets hearts all aflutter. But if you're in the mood for romance this March and April, Sydney is about to welcome a new pop-up museum on that very topic. Called The Museum of Love, it's the latest venture from the folks behind the sweet-themed Sugar Republic. Expect the same kind of photogenic setup, but this time swapping out lollies galore for pink hues and oh-so-many hearts. Remember the cartoon way of representing romance, where animated figures see hearts in front of their eyes as they go weak at the knees? That's what you'll be seeing, too, if you head along to the three-level installation. Open from Thursday–Sunday each week during its seven-week season, The Museum of Love will fill a warehouse with words about love, tokens of love, neon signs to fit the theme, rosy-coloured streamers, teddy bears and more. Yes, there'll be a heart-shaped ball pit that you can hop into, because of course there will be. Among the pieces of art and lovestruck backdrops, plenty of different facets of types of love will be covered — including first crushes, weddings, platonic relationships with your mates, family bonds, self-love and heartbreak. From the 'rose-tinted glasses room' to the life-sized wedding cake, it has all been developed by Creative Nation, the aforementioned team behind Sugar Republic, in conjunction with emerging Sydney artists Jade Goodwin and Madeleine Golden. Other highlights span a wall filled with scents of romance, a mirrored room so you can adore your own reflection, a confetti shower, and a swing surrounded by flowers that's designed for attendees and their best mates. There's also a Las Vegas-style Chapel O' Love, and you can play the 'Perfect Pair' TV game show as well. Or, walk through the Teddy Bear Tunnel, take an awkward family portrait, then settle in at the Heartbreak Cafe. If you're keen to fall head over heels for the pop-up, each ticket gets you an hour inside the museum, and costs $35. Also, The Museum of Love is the first attraction as part a year-long Sydney program — so it seems that you can look forward to other yet-to-be-revealed pop-ups to follow.
Rainbow Studios sits on a bright corner in Darlinghurst, delivering a chameleon-like space that celebrates community, art and the fusion of both. The creative gallery is born from the minds of jewellery designer Brent Gold and his partner Jade Gillett (pictured at top), who together platform artists and their work with regular exhibitions, as well as house an expertly curated array of jewellery, homewares, fine art and more ready to come home with visitors. First up in 2023? Being, an exploration of our collective human experience via the use of colour, form and composition by Noosa Hinterland-based artist Kate Florence and Melbourne-based multi-disciplinary artist Clare Dubina. From Thursday, February 23–Thursday, March 9, the painted works from this vibrant duo will be gracing the walls of Rainbow Studios — an excellent reason to get yourself to this delightful slice of Sydney (a morning visit perhaps, with pancakes being flipped at bills just across the road). Feel free to drop in during opening hours (10am–3pm Wednesday–Friday and 10am–2pm on Saturdays), or arrange a private viewing by appointment. Rich, earthy hues and elongated figures are fused with floral forms in the pair's abstract compositions. While created separately and from unique lenses, when explored in tandem, the artists' bodies of work are perfectly complementary. Rainbow Studios' inaugural duo show will be celebrated with an opening night event on Thursday, February 23 at 6pm. The event is free to attend, though you're encouraged to register your attendance prior. Top images: Clare Dubina, Katy Louise Photography (first, third).
First came Mov'In Bed Cinema, the outdoor movie-watching experience that acknowledged just how much everyone loves viewing flicks in bed — even if they're out of the house. Then, adapting to 2020, came Mov'In Car Drive-In Cinema, which is obviously self-explanatory. Now, with summer almost upon us, Mov'In Boat Floating Cinema is splashing down at Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour. It also describes all its basics in its name, so get ready to float in the ocean and glue your eyes to the 15-metre-long big screen. Boats are obviously a big part of this new excuse to watch a movie under the stars. But, when it kicks off on Thursday, December 3 — running through until the end of March next year — Mov'In Boat Floating Cinema will give film buffs multiple options. You can hire one of 40 rowboats ($119.90 for up to two adults and two kids), or BYO boat (and spend $49.90 for access to the event and movie). If you'd prefer to laze about on one of 65 beds on a 1000-square-metre floating platform, you can do that too (for $99.90 for two people and $109.90 for three). And, you can also watch from the VIP area, which includes a bed, butler service, and free soft drinks and popcorn ($149.90 for two people and $169.90 for three). Movie-wise, plenty of titles on the program have been picked with the location in mind. Where better to watch The Meg or Free Willy? Or, to revisit Dirty Dancing's lake scene and The Notebook's rainy embrace? You can also head to everything from action-thriller Tenet and likeable rom-com The Broken Hearts Gallery to Knives Out's whodunnit twists and The Matrix's "whoa!"-inducing sci-fi. If you're hungry, beer-battered fish and chips, buckets of prawns, pizza and Nutella-slathered waffles will be delivered to you via jet ski, from a menu that also includes pizzas and dairy floss as well. To wash all of that down, there'll be a floating bar serving beer, wine, cocktails and soft drinks, too.
UPDATE, March 18, 2022: Spencer is available to stream via Prime Video. With two-plus decades as an actor to her name, Kristen Stewart hasn't spent her career as a candle in the wind. Her flame has both blazed and flickered since her first uncredited big-screen role in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas but, by Elton John's definition, she's always known where to cling to. After jumping from child star to Twilight heroine and then one of the savviest talents of her generation, she's gleaned where to let her haunting gaze stare so piercingly that it lights up celluloid again and again, too. Spencer joins Stewart's resume after weighty parts in Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper, Certain Women and Seberg, and has her do something she's long done magnificently: let a world of pain and uncertainty seep quietly from her entire being. The new regal drama should do just that, of course, given its subject — but saying that director Pablo Larraín has cast his Diana well, pitch-perfect head tilt and all, is a royal understatement. Larraín also trusts himself well, making the kind of movie he's made three times now — not that Jackie, Ema and Spencer are carbon copies — and knowing that he does it phenomenally. Both essaying real-life figures and imagining fictional characters, the Chilean filmmaker keeps being drawn to tales about formidable women. His eponymous ladies could all be called strong female leads, but Larraín's features unpack what strength really means in various lights. Like her predecessors in the director's filmography, Diana faces searing traumas, plus ordinary and extraordinary struggles. She scorches away tradition, and values letting her own bulb shine bright over being stuck in others' shadows. Viewers know how this story will end, though, not that Spencer covers it, and Larraín is just as exceptional at showing how Diana's candle started to burn out. The year is 1991, the time is Christmas and the place is the Queen's (Stella Gonet, Breeders) Sandringham Estate, where the Windsors converge for the holidays (yes, Spencer is now prime seasonal viewing). As scripted by Peaky Blinders and Locked Down's Steven Knight, the choice of period puts Diana in one of the most precarious situations of her then decade-long married life, with her nuptials to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing, The Lost Daughter) turning into an "amicable separation" within 12 months. Spencer's focus is on three days, not all that defined the People's Princess' existence before or after, but she can't stop contemplating her past and future. The Sandringham grounds include the house where Diana was born, and those happier recollections — and time spent now with her children (debutants Jack Nielen and Freddie Spry) — give her a glow. Alas, all the monarchical scrutiny simmers her joy to ashes, unsurprisingly. Larraín is one of today's great detail-oriented filmmakers, a fact that glimmers in his approach to Spencer — and did in Jackie, too. Both character studies let snapshots speak volumes about broader lives and the bigger narratives around them, including when poised as "a fable from a true tragedy" as the title card notes here. 'Poised' is one word for this fictionalised imagining of real events, which builds its dramas in an immaculate chamber, lets heated emotions bounce around as it tears into privilege and power, and allows audiences to extrapolate from the meticulous minutiae. Specific tidbits are oh-so-telling, such as the demand that Sandringham's guests hit the scales upon arrival and leaving, their weight gains deemed a sign of how much they enjoyed themselves. Bolder flourishes are just as exacting, like the way the place is lensed to make the Princess of Wales resemble a doll being toyed with in a playhouse, as well as a Jack Torrance substitute trapped in her own Overlook Hotel The Shining-style. Often boldly and claustrophobically ominous in its vibe and visuals, and deliberately so — as equerry Major Alistair Gregory, overseer of every move made at the estate, Timothy Spall (The Last Bus) perfects the eerie mood — Spencer can be called a horror film and the label fits. Terror, distress, contempt and cruelty are all part of Diana's Sandringham experience, the first two emanating from the former Lady Spencer and the latter pair frequently flung her way. This is a slice-of-life biopic as well, obviously, and also a Princess of Wales time capsule thanks to its exquisite staging and costuming. Larraín does leap into lingering memories occasionally, which lets the movie survey an array of its central figure's famed outfits with a keen eye. The appearance of things, be it her crumbling marriage or herself, is the key tenet she's being told to uphold, after all — but the decreed version decided by others, not her own, down to dictating exactly what she's permitted to wear and when. Spencer's nightmare of not being able to be one's self, especially under an unyielding spotlight, sees Diana's inner turmoil manifest in multiple ways. Her bulimia and self-harming speak of tainting appearances, and forcefully; her hallucinations of fellow ill-fated royal Anne Boleyn and her general anxiety make her fragile emotional state plain. She's introduced getting lost en route, then earning ire for being late, rebellious and just someone the Windsors must deal with — and the anguish that Stewart wears like a second skin is given ample origins. Spencer's magnetic lead portrayal is smartly underplayed, though, even as the heft of Diana's evident woes, and fight for survival amid the ghosts of history, fame and expectation, fills rooms. In fact, Stewart is all the more powerful for her fine-tuned vulnerability and introspection than something bigger would've been, as past examples have shown. The Crown has done Diana well so far, but the less remembered about 2013's Naomi Watts-starring Diana, the better. Every technical choice on Larraín's part beams brightly, too — or, if dim, it's by design. Spencer looks the grey 90s British drama picture, with cinematographer Claire Mathon (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) baking in grey tones even when the hue isn't visible. Continuing to do stellar things with tension-dripping film scores, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood adds this in alongside The Power of the Dog to his recent standouts. Spencer does capture warm moments, including sympathetic rapports with some estate staff (with compelling turns from The Shape of Water's Sally Hawkins and The Green Knight's Sean Harris, both ever-reliable), but it also ensures that the rarity of such exchanges in Diana's life is heartbreakingly clear. The upbeat 80s single "All I Need Is a Miracle" might set a glorious closing note, but this is always an equally bold and sensitive — and enthralling — portrait of England's rose wilting not from the sunlight she craves, but from the royal inferno.
We've heard of public bookshelves and we see piles of terrible self-help books left outside people's terrace houses all the time (just one time, we'd like to pick up a classic), but this New York artist has found a different way to pass on his unwanted paperbacks. Shaheryar Malik, an art director originally from London but working in NYC, left piles of books in high traffic spots around the city for people to pick up and read — and has created a pretty bloody beautiful work of art in the process. Dubbed The Reading Project, the art experiment was both a way for Malik to pass on books from his personal collection and express himself in NYC in a way that wasn't just taking another selfie. So he placed books in some of the busiest spots in one of the busiest cities in the world — Times Square Subway Station, Central Park, The High Line, Brooklyn Bridge — and had photographer Daniel Yim take a single photo of them. Then, the books were left for passersby to pick up, take home and read. Malik left a note with his contact details in each of the books, and according to The Guardian, he's recieved over 60 responses so far. The result is some seriously great photos of books in some of the world's most iconic locations. And literary nerds will be pleased to know that Malik has a diverse range of books in his collection, with titles ranging from Portuguese literature to the history of Nazi Germany — so if you ever bump into one of his book piles, you'll find much more than just the same self-help schtick. Via The Guardian. Images: Daniel Yim.
Still working on telling the difference between a Merlot and a Malbec? Wondering how to pronounce Shiraz in a way acceptable to the French? Haven't yet found time to drive 260 kilometres to find out why we reckon Orange is NSW's underrated foodie (and vino) capital? Sate your curiosity this month at a series of Orange-focused wine masterclasses at the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel. As part of their Taste Orange Food & Wine Festival, these events will take you on a journey deep into the rural NSW town's winey wonders. A master sommelier will talk — and, most importantly, taste — you through a bunch of the region's finest drops. Being 600 metres above sea level, Orange produces some cracking cool climate wines, like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling. Already shaking your head 'cause Chardonnay ain't your thing? We dare you to go and not convert. Masterclasses are running on Tuesday, May 10, Wednesday, May 18 and Thursday, May 26 from 7pm, and cost $45 a pop. If your sweet-talking can't rope in a designated driver, then reserve a room at the hotel — special deals (including extras like complimentary bottles of wine) are on offer throughout the festival.
