Since starting up in 2017, Sydney's first vegan market has held countless successful events. Luckily for all of Sydney's vegans, it's continuing through the COVID-19 pandemic — but, of course, virtually. The idea is similar, but instead of filling the Entertainment Quarter with over 100 stalls, Sydney Vegan Market, together with the Newcastle Vegan Market, is offering its curated selection of snacks, homewares, fashion, art and skincare online. It has launched Vegan NSW Marketplace: your one-stop-shop for all of your plant-based needs. For the most part, is all about food. Across the website, you can expect to see Sydney's most popular vegan brands, peddling everything from croissants and baked goods to lasagne, garlic bread and 'bolognese'. A lot of the food 'stalls' are offering free delivery, too, you'll just need to order in advance and, in some cases, give 48 hours notice. Also available to peruse are candles, eco shopping bags, essential oils, reusable makeup wipes and shoes. And gifts for mum, if you're thinking about Mother's Day (May 10, btw). Other items on the agenda include a free talk series, cooking demos, workout classes and more every Sunday from 12–2pm via Vegan NSW TV (VTV), which is streamed on the marketplace website. [caption id="attachment_764567" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Oh My Days' vegan croissant.[/caption] Top image: Milad K
White Bay Power Station is ramping up to unveil its new look and new use as a bustling arts and community hub, with lead builder FDC announcing that the restoration and rebuild works are officially complete. The historic site will reopen in March, acting as a core site for the 2024 Biennale of Sydney — the first time the building has been operational in more than 40 years and the first time it's been open to the public in a century. The power station has been in the lengthy process of being revitalised and transformed into an arts, culture and community hub as part of the Bay West precinct. First constructed in 1917, the massive 30,000-square-metre building has been closed since it was decommissioned in 1984. Now it's been transformed into a site for diverse and boundary-pushing art, with FDC leading the charge on the build following its work on other significant cultural projects in Sydney, including Carriageworks, Phoenix Central Park, Chau Chak Museum and the National Arts School. Among the works that FDC completed in order to get the heritage-listed site ready for the public, 1.2 million litres of contaminated water had to be removed from the basement, the iconic chimneys were provided with extensive reinforcement and the 45-metre-tall boilerhouse received widespread work, including the installation of a new staircase. "White Bay Power Station has been a once-in-a-lifetime project for many on our team," says FDC Managing Director Russel Grady. "With any heritage site, and without that vital building blueprint to guide us, it required a high level of agility and creative problem-solving skills to address the many challenges in bringing the massive site to life." [caption id="attachment_920057" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Adam JWC[/caption] The first artists breathing life into the space will be working within the Bienalle's 2024 theme Ten Thousand Suns. Heat, power, light, summer, joy, strength, the changing climate — they're all notions that spring to mind. This is what artists are being asked to ponder when creating their pieces for the citywide event. Running from Saturday, March 9–Monday, June 10 across Sydney, and free to attend as always, the Biennale will feature works by artists such as William Yang, Tracey Moffatt, Serwah Attafuah, Kirtika Kain and Kaylene Whiskey among the homegrown contingent, as well as Sachiko Kazama from Japan, Francisco Toledo from Mexico and Malaysia's Anne Samat. In addition to ample art for attendees to experience, the 24th Biennale of Sydney will also feature a contemporary music lineup in partnership with Phoenix Central Park. The venue's curatorial skills will be taken to new locations beyond its stunning Chippendale site, responding to both Ten Thousand Suns as a theme and the works on display. Alongside the changes to the White Bay Power Station, the long-term plan for the Bay West precinct includes new employment spaces, 250 new homes with provisions for affordable housing and a new Metro station. Overall, the planned changes to the area are expected to create over four hectares of new public and open space. White Bay Power Station is located at 28 Robert Street, Rozelle. Read more about the plans for the massive structure via the NSW Government website and the Biennale of Sydney's website. Images: Toby Peet.
There are 8222 islands within Australia's watery borders. You could spend your entire life hopping from one to another and never quite make them all (well, unless you're very, very quick). So, we thought we'd save you some time and handpick ten of the best. They should at least get you started. Next time you start imagining yourself on a white-sanded beach with quokkas close by, sea lions in the distance and your desk a few hundred kilometres away, these are the spots to catch a boat/plane/ferry to. Remember: when you leave the mainland, you leave all your worries there, too. From pristine beaches and bountiful wine regions to alpine hideaways and bustling country towns, Australia has a wealth of places to explore at any time of year. We've put together a list of some of our favourite island escapes — no passport or immense jet lag required. [caption id="attachment_688571" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paul Ewart/Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] NORTH STRADBROKE ISLAND, QLD Located 25 minutes by ferry off the Queensland coast, Stradbroke Island is an easy day trip from Brisbane. It's the second biggest sand island in the world after Fraser Island (more on that later). For swimming in gentle waves, head to idyllic Cylinder Beach; for wilder surf, make your destination 38-kilometre-long Main Beach. Overnight stays include beach camping, as well as an array of cottages, hotels and B&Bs. Just north of Straddie is Moreton Island, a wonderland of long beaches, clear lakes and a national park. And, consider sleeping over at Tangalooma, an eco-friendly resort where you can hand-feed wild dolphins and swim around a shipwreck. [caption id="attachment_688550" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Trevor King/Destination NSW[/caption] LORD HOWE ISLAND, NSW Just 11 kilometres long and two kilometres wide, Lord Howe, a two-hour flight east of Sydney, is explorable within a few days. Whenever you travel, you won't have to fear tourist crowds: only 400 visitors are permitted at any one time and the population was just 382 at last count back in 2016. Prepare to have pretty beaches, spectacular diving sites and rugged terrain all to yourself. Among the best adventures are the Mount Gower Trail, a steep, eight-hour trek that carries you 875 metres above sea level, and Erscott's Hole, a natural wonder where you can snorkel among staghorn coral, bluefish and double-headed wrasse. [caption id="attachment_688568" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Khy Orchard/Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] MAGNETIC ISLAND, QLD There are hundreds of islands in the Great Barrier Reef area, offering everything from secluded campsites to five-star luxury resorts. But, for convenience, outdoor adventures and, most importantly, koala spotting, Magnetic Island is hard to go past. You'll find it just 20 minutes from Townsville. Get active with sea kayaking tours and yoga classes, get artsy at beachside markets and galleries or relax at stunning beaches like Horseshoe Bay. If you're keen to venture further, jump aboard a Great Barrier Reef snorkelling, diving or sightseeing tour. [caption id="attachment_688400" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Isaac Forman/SA Tourism Commission[/caption] KANGAROO ISLAND, SA With a whopping 509 kilometres of coastline, Kangaroo Island could have you exploring for weeks. The island was pretty badly affected by bushfires back in 2020, but this guide will help you navigate — including which businesses to support. To get there, take a 45-minute ferry ride from Cape Jervis, on the Fleurieu Peninsula, around 100 kilometres south of Adelaide. Then gear up to share your holiday with sea lions, fur seals, little penguins, echidnas, koalas and, you guessed it, kangaroos. The island is a haven for creatures who've struggled to survive elsewhere, especially Australian sea lions, who were hunted to the brink of extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are numerous national parks and conservation areas, and the over 4000-strong population is big on food and wine. ROTTNEST ISLAND, WA This island is a 90-minute ferry ride from Barrack Street Jetty, Perth, or 25 minutes from Fremantle. Like Kangaroo Island, Rottnest has given a big dose of much-needed love to our wild creatures, particularly quokkas, which now number 12,000 or so. Dedicate some time to spotting them (though please don't go touching, patting or feeding), before visiting pristine beaches — such as The Basin, where you'll find an underwater playground, and Little Parakeet Bay, backdropped by striking rock formations. [caption id="attachment_724590" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] PHILLIP ISLAND, VIC Phillip Island's biggest drawcard is its penguin parade. Every night, at sunset, the island's resident little penguins return to their terrestrial homes, having spent the day out and about fishing. Beyond wildlife watching, go wine and craft beer tasting, bliss out with a massage or spa treatment, or conquer a trail on foot — such as the Cape Woolamai Walk, which traverses dramatic clifftops along Phillip's southernmost point. Find suggestions on where to eat, drink and stay in our guide. Unlike all the other islands on this list, you can reach this one by road: it's around 90 minutes south of Melbourne. [caption id="attachment_770035" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Australia[/caption] BRUNY ISLAND, TAS Bruny feels completely remote, yet it's just a 20-minute ferry ride from the coast and, with driving time added, 50 minutes from Hobart. The beauty of this proximity to the city is that, despite all the wilderness, you can find some top nosh: for fish and chips head to Jetty Cafe; for pub grub swing by Hotel Bruny; for cheese visit Bruny Island Cheese Company; and for a tipple, there's the Bruny Island House of Whisky. Meanwhile, nature lovers will find white wallabies at Inala Nature Reserve, windswept headlands at Cape Bruny Lighthouse and head-clearing watery views at Cloudy Bay. [caption id="attachment_688565" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matt Raimondo/Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] K'GARI (FRASER ISLAND), QLD World Heritage-listed K'gari (Fraser Island) is the biggest sand island in the world. There are 184,000 hectares of the stuff, comprising of 72 different colours and mostly in the form of magnificent dunes, many of which are covered in rainforest. If you've time on your hands, take on the Great Walk, an eight-day epic that visits many of Fraser's 100 freshwater lakes. If not, jump aboard a 4WD and cruise along 75 Mile Beach, take a dip at Champagne Pools along the way and pay a visit to awe-inspiring Boorangoora(Lake McKenzie), a perched lake made up of rainwater and soft silica sand. [caption id="attachment_688583" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew Wilson/Tourism Tasmania[/caption] KING ISLAND, TASMANIA You might have no idea where this island is, but you've no doubt seen its cheese at your local supermarket. King Island Dairy's decadent triple cream brie is an Aussie gourmet staple. But it's far from the only treat you'll be sampling in this lush place, which lies in the Bass Strait, halfway between Victoria and Tassie. Count, too, on super-fresh seafood, flavourful beef and a cornucopia of produce from local growers. When you're finished feasting, stroll along the white sands of Disappointment Bay, visit a 7000-year-old calcified forest and go horse riding by the sea. [caption id="attachment_688591" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Coral Coast Tourism[/caption] ABROLHOS ISLANDS, WA The Houtman Abrolhos isn't just an island, it's an archipelago. There are 122 isles that make up the marvel, more or less clustered in three groups, across 100 kilometres. They lie around 60 kilometres off the Coral Coast, west of Geraldton, which is four hours' drive north of Perth. Lose yourself snorkelling or diving among colourful coral, spotting Australian sea lions and looking out for more than 90 species of seabirds, including majestic white-breasted sea eagles. For mind-blowing views, jump aboard a scenic flight. Top image: Lord Howe Island, tom-archer.com via Destination NSW
Update Thursday, November 9: Fabbrica Pasta Bar will no longer be opening in The Empire Hotel when it's revamped as The Federal. Find out more here. Several of the most-exciting names in Sydney's hospitality scene are coming together to reinvigorate a historic Annandale hotel. PUBLIC and the Maybe Group are teaming up with the equally beloved Love Tilly Group to transform Parramatta Road stalwart The Empire Hotel, refreshing the pub's current offerings, and bringing both a Maybe Frank pizzeria and Fabbrica Pasta Bar to the venue. Before The Empire opened all the way back in 1902, it was originally slated to be called Federal Hotel. As part of the refresh, PUBLIC is entwining some history into the makeover and renaming it The Federal. You can expect the new pub to reopen in October, complete with a sports bar and the addition of the two much-hyped new culinary additions. Boutique accommodation will follow early in 2024, with the 21-room hotel set to offer sleek and affordable stays for Sydneysider staycations, family and friends visiting Annandale or Stanmore residents, and tourists looking to soak in a dose of the Inner West. Sitting on the corner of Parramatta Road and Johnston Street, The Empire currently offers your standard pub affair, with affordable beers, a family-friendly diner and a no-frills sports bar. PUBLIC Executive Chairman Jon Adgemis hopes that the transformation will see the hotel regain its place as the neighbourhood's bustling social hub. "When we're creating an enhanced vision for a property, we want to expand on what already exists within the suburb, and offer locals even more experiences from both a hospitality and accommodation perspective," said Adgemis. The 80-seat Fabbrica Pasta Bar Annandale will arrive at the former Empire Hotel with the classic stylings of the Love Tilly Group. Expect the city-best pasta that the group has perfected across openings like Ragazzi, Palazzo Salato and Fabbrica Balmain — plus, the passion for the interesting, minimal-intervention wines you've come to expect at bars like Love, Tilly Devine and La Salut. [caption id="attachment_918402" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dexter Kim[/caption] "Off the back of the success of Fabbrica Pasta Bar Balmain, we're really excited about bringing our spaghetti cacio e pepe and cotoletta alla Milanese to another of our favourite neighbourhoods: Annadale," said Love Tilly Group's Founder and Director Matt Swieboda. As if one industry-leading eatery wasn't enough, the pub will also boast a new outpost for the award-winning Maybe Group's pizzeria Maybe Frank. Antipasti, woodfired pizza and a cocktail menu from Maybe Sammy's Paolo Maffietti will all be available in the 66-seat indoor dining room and covered terrace. "Maybe Frank is all about relaxed dining and the space we're taking over in The Federal suits that perfectly," said PUBLIC Executive Director of Business Development Vince Lombardo. "There is a heap of natural light streaming into the terrace, plus we'll be showing silent classic Italian movies from the 50s and 60s in the dining room so both spaces will have a lot of energy and atmosphere." [caption id="attachment_918403" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fabbrica Pasta Bar Balmain, Dexter Kim[/caption] The Empire Hotel will reopen as The Federal at 103 Parramatta Road, Annadale, in October 2023. Inside, you'll find new outposts for both Fabbrica and Maybe Frank — keep an eye on the venue's website for further details.
Australia's cities are filled with must-try places for a bite, whether you're seeking out Sydney's very-best restaurants, Melbourne's top eateries or Brisbane's latest openings, but there's still nothing like a home-cooked meal. Alison Roman understands this. The Brooklyn-based food writer and chef may live in New York and have access to its thriving dining scene, but she's a big fan of eating in — and she has viral recipes such as #TheCookies, #ThePasta, #TheStew and #TheDip to prove it. Roman also has two cookbooks currently in bookshops, and possibly on your own shelves: Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes and Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over. Come April in Australia, Sweet Enough: Desserts for People Who Don't Do Dessert will join them. To launch the latter, and to make her first trip ever Down Under, Roman is hitting our shores on a three-city tour to get chatting about home cooking, those internet-famous dishes and why she adores her own kitchen. [caption id="attachment_894215" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chris Bernabeo[/caption] The viral recipe queen and New York Times-bestselling scribe leads this year's Melbourne Writers Festival lineup, which is her first Aussie stop. She'll discuss her career and her journey to the dessert-focused Sweet Enough with Benjamin Law on Friday, May 5 at Melbourne Town Hall — plus her love of culinary imperfection. Next destination: a stint at Brisbane Powerhouse on Sunday, May 7, where she'll be in-conversation with Belinda Sweeney, touching upon everything from having her own CNN cooking show to releasing her first baking book. And, last but by no means least, Sydney Opera House will add Roman to its impressive list of 2023 guests — see also: Michael Sheen during Amadeus, Bikini Kill on their first trip to Australia in more than a quarter-century and the whole All About Women lineup — on Tuesday, May 9. In the Harbour City, she'll be talking with Melissa Leong, and expect her food newsletter A Newsletter and YouTube series Home Movies to also get a mention. "I was scheduled to come to Australia in March of 2020 but the world had other plans, so I am beyond thrilled to finally make it over," said Roman, announcing the tour. "A first-time trip to Sydney was already going to be special, but speaking at such a legendary venue as the Opera House is more than I could have dreamed of. I really, truly can't wait." ALISON ROMAN AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2023: Friday, May 5 — Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, as part of Melbourne Writers Festival Sunday, May 7 — Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Tuesday, May 9 — Sydney Opera House, Sydney Alison Roman tours Australia in May 2023. For more information — and for tickets — head to the Sydney Opera House (for pre-sales from 8am AEDT on Thursday, March 23 and general sales from 9am AEDT the same date), Melbourne Writers Festival and Ticketek (from 9am AEST on Thursday, March 23) websites. Top image: Alison Roman by Chris Bernabeo.
It isn't every day that wandering through Federation Square involves walking past — or through — a whopping 3000 kilograms of clothing waste. Thanks to an eye-catching, awareness-raising, three-day-only pop-up, however, Melburnians can currently do just that. Until Thursday, April 28, a hefty pile of discarded fashion is sitting in the middle of the Victorian capital, all to draw attention to how many threads are thrown away by Australians. The sustainability focused installation is a collaboration between Kathmandu and zero-waste advocate Joost Bakker, and it'll instantly teach you something — because the 3000 kilograms of discarded clothing that's pivotal to the piece only represents the amount of textiles disposed of by Aussies in a mere five-minute window. That's how much that gets thrown away every five minutes, in fact, with Kathmandu and Bakker's team-up designed to make that stark truth hit home. "The thing that shocked me the most — I just thought I'd use 500 kilos of clothing, but then I got 200 kilos of clothing in just one day," Bakker tells Concrete Playground. "I just went 'oh my god'. There's just this huge volume. I just couldn't quite comprehend the volume, and the weight. And then when you see these piles of clothing, or you see factories full, or you see it in landfill — the energy, the water, the labour, everything that's gone into creating that, and it's just thrown into landfill, it's crazy." The 3000 kilograms of clothes that Bakker has amassed for this project — with the help of clothing recycling centre Upparel — is used in a tunnel structure that visitors to Fed Square can mosey through. Still, it's hard not to feel the the scale of it. Again, that's completely by design. "My core belief is that people are aware, they'll do something about it," says Bakker. "Even if it's just one person who walks through that structure and gets inspired and comes up with a solution — that's what's so exciting. Globally, so many people are putting their energy into finding solutions that, over the next ten years, it'll be a thing of the past. I have no doubt that clothing waste will not exist very quickly because we're all putting our energy into it and trying to find solutions. Humans are amazing at finding solutions when we put our energy and efforts into it, and that's what's happening now. That's really what this installation is all about," he continues. The reason for the collab with Kathmandu: the company asked, and gave Bakker free rein to come up with his own way to highlight the fashion-waste problem. "I thought it was quite inspiring that a brand wanted to actually highlight this, and so I got quite excited," he notes. "I wanted to really come up with a way that you could actually immerse yourself in a volume [of textiles]. If you have a pile of clothing, it's very difficult to get a sense of how much that is," Bakker tells CP. "So I wanted to create a structure where you were really in it and immersed in it. And I'm based in Monbulk, I'm surrounded by flower farmers, and I was able to access plastics that are used for greenhouses — these are all offcuts, and we've put lots of layers of offcut plastic to create that structure that allows you to see the enormous waste that's generated." Kathmandu is also launching a new 100-percent biodegradable BioDown puffer jacket, which Melburnians will see hanging through the installation. It's made from materials — outer, inner, down, zips, threads, tags and all — that are treated with a special additive that helps accelerate biodegradation, but only in a landfill environment. The jackets will hit stores from Thursday, April 28. Bakker notes that it's moves like these that'll help see textile waste eliminated — an issue that's only been around for half a century or so anyway — and unwanted fashion items reused and recycled instead. "My belief is that waste is just a human thing. Waste is something that pretty much is only a fifty-year thing, it's a very short space of time that we've generated a waste industry. Even if you go back 60, 70 years, everything was a resource, so we didn't have things like landfills and waste dumps," he explains. "I view waste as something beautiful. It's amazing how many people have commented 'the structure is actually really beautiful, but it's filled with waste, it's filled with something that we discard, something that we don't put any value on'. All my work has been about turning that around," Bakker continues. "In nature, there's no waste. You don't walk around a forest and go 'oh my god, I'm surrounded by all this rubbish'. It's only a human thing, because everything becomes something else again. I think the sooner that as a society we embrace that idea, we can completely design waste out of everything. It can happen really quickly, and I think it will happen really quickly, because we are all aware now." Kathmandu's fashion-waste installation is on display at Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne, from Tuesday, April 26–Thursday, April 28.
Sydney, you can't get enough cheese into you this winter. We've brought you evenings dedicated to raclette and wine, French baguettes smothered in melted deliciousness and a new delivery service that'll soon be bringing Aussie cheeses to your doorstep. Now, we present something a little more specific: cheeses from Normandy with matching gin. That's right, this cosy little evening — to be hosted by Moya's Juniper Lounge — is promising to take you on a trip through the rolling hills of northern France. Just a few of the cheeses in which the area specialises include camembert, Pavé d'Auge, Pont l'Evêque, Boursin, Brillat-Savarin and Brin de Paille. Not helping you to pronounce them any better will be several gins, designed to pair with each morsel. If you're in luck, you might find yourself sampling calvados, an apple brandy that originated in Normandy.
We get it. Everyone loves an espresso 'tini. Melbourne's got a bar that even does them on tap — and Sydney has a whole venue dedicated to that God-sent concoction of chilled coffee and vodka. After Melbourne nabbed the country's very first espresso martini festival last year, Sydney's getting in on the action with its own dedicated event in The Rocks this May. Sleep, who needs it? The festival, to be held in the Overseas Passenger Terminal on May 26 and 27, is being gifted to our espresso-loving, cocktail-filled city by the caffeinated folks at Mr Black, a NSW-based cold-pressed (and damn fine) coffee liqueur. In short, they know how to capitalise on our weaknesses and we're not even mad about it. The affair will involve some of Australia's best coffee suppliers, cafes and bars, and will come together to create a beautiful array of alcoholic caffeinated beverages. As with any festival of this kind, there will be plenty of optional food and drink from Mary's, Loving Earth Chocolate, Young Henrys and Byron Bay Cookie Co. The festival will run during the first weekend of Vivid Sydney, so you can pair your Darling Harbour light-chasing with a 'tini or two. Tickets will set you back $30 (plus booking fee) a pop, with the first 200 tickets sold including a complimentary espresso martini. Can't argue with that. The Mr Black Festival of the Espresso Martini will take place on May 26 and 27 at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in The Rocks. Tickets on sale Wednesday, April 12 at 12pm from espressomartinifest.com. Image: Alana Dimou.
Castlecrag's modern Asian restaurant Yang and Co has gone through some changes recently. Now, it's called Yang's and it specialises in just those two things: ramen and tacos. Run by Lex Wong (Chica Bonita and China Doll), the restaurant reopened in early October as part noodle bar, part taco shop. "I always dreamt of specialising in just one or two specific dishes, and I figured with COVID-19 it was the perfect time to make the change," Wong told Concrete Playground. "I knew I wanted to make ramen, but I didn't want to be a Japanese restaurant, and I'd always been playing around with the idea of doing tacos. I figured they're both comfort foods, so it just works." Yang's slogan is "comfort food but not fast food", and its succinct menu measures up to this mantra. The dishes may look simple, but a lot of thought has gone into each and every one. You'll only find four ramen dishes here, one of which is vegan. The plant-based broth is combination of Yang's special house-blend of five types of miso, which is spooned over charcoal roasted veggies, bamboo shoots, nori and wavy hakata-style noodles. All of Yang's noodles are made using locally sourced, organic grains from Gunnedah, NSW. The meat ramen, on the other hand, are set in a rich tonkotsu-style broth. Yang's version is made with a seafood shoyu tare sauce and takes two days to make. For toppings, you can choose from traditional thick-cut pork char siu or charcoal-grilled chicken. The latter can be found in the toripaitan ramen, which also comes topped with black fungus, fermented corn, banana prawn wontons and a shoyu-marinated egg. As far as the tacos go, Yang's specialty is carne asada, made using dry-aged, grass-fed Angus beef. "We dry-age all of our steak in house and we'll serve a different cut of it depending on the day," says Wong. For the carne asada taco, the beef is cooked over coals, then served on corn tortillas (rolled and cooked to order) with guacamole and your choice of Yang's house-made salsas — those include pico de gallo, mild tomatillo, smoky roasted salsa verde and chipotle salsa roja. Elsewhere, you'll find Baja-style fish tacos with pickled jalapeños and cream sauce, slow-roasted pork tacos served with habanero salsa and kimchi quesadillas made using four different cheeses. Plus, there's an extensive specials board you can pick from. For drinks, there's a cocktail list that spans classic and Sichuan-spiced margaritas, yuzu and lavender sours, and G&Ts. These are on top of the growing range of mezcals, tequilas and bourbons behind the bar. There are also heaps of Japanese and Mexican beers on offer, plus some local drops by the likes of Two Metre Tall, Modus Operandi and Young Henrys. Both walk-ins and bookings (for four and up) are welcome, but Yang's is only able to seat 24 at the moment and it's already a popular spot — so grab three mates (and book in advance) or expect to queue up. Find Yang's Ramen and Tacos at 79 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag. Opening hours are Friday–Saturday 12–3pm and Tuesday–Saturday 5–10pm. For bookings of four or more, head to the website.
Co-owners Ciara Doran and Eoin Daniels are no strangers to The Rocks, having opened whisky bar The Doss House on the same street back in March 2018. Now, they've shifted their focus to another beloved spirit — gin. Enter from George Street and make your way through the two-story heritage building (plus a hidden courtyard), before pulling up a seat at the five-metre-long bar. The stools provide the perfect vantage point to take in a show of cocktail mixology or have a gander at the shelves brimming with bottles. Sample more than 100 juniper blends sourced from all corners of the globe as you sip your way through a carefully curated cocktail menu that features an impressive variety of house-made ingredients. [caption id="attachment_834050" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Steven Woodburn.[/caption] "The silver lining from the last three months of lockdown is that we've been able to use the time to really refine our cocktails," said Frank Mac's Beverage Manager Daniel Strahand (The Doss House, Mary's, Spice Temple). "I've spent days perfecting syrups, cordials and bitters." Highlights of the extensive drink menu includes the Shillings, perfect for fans of an apple and lychee martini. The concoction is a mixture of JJ Whitley gin, salted caramel, and surprise surprise, apple and lychee. The Mac Martini is another stand-out — the vesper-style martini is made with dry gin and an infusion of lemon myrtle, kaffir lime and bay leaves. It's their signature cocktail for a reason. Since it's never a good idea to drink on an empty stomach, the venue also offers a food menu that's short but sweet. It features various plates that are ideal for sharing, like oozy burrata with crusty sourdough and cheese boards paired with chunks of organic dark chocolate and seasonal market fruit. For something more substantial, guests can order a panini packed to the brim with truffle-infused sopressa (Italian aged salami) or a roasted vegetable pie made by Infinity Bakery especially for the venue. The dish is paired with a traditional Irish curry sauce, a nod to Ciara's great uncle Frank Mac who was always to be found at the centre of his local village bar. [caption id="attachment_834051" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Steven Woodburn.[/caption] The historic sandstone walls, dating back to the 1840s, tie in seamlessly with the cosy and intimate ambiance of the downstairs space. Vintage leather banquettes and velvet armchairs furnish the area, with paperback novels and candles dotting the tops of the low wooden tables. With its endless gin list, crafted cocktails and heritage charm, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better place for a cheeky tipple than Frank Mac's. Frank Mac's is open at 83 George Street, The Rocks. It is open from 3pm–12am on Wednesday & Thursdays, 3pm–1am Friday & Saturdays and 3pm–12am Sundays.
It's the seventh film in the Jurassic franchise. It takes its characters to a secret island that was home to the research facility for Jurassic Park's original prehistoric animal sanctuary. Thanks to the latter, it's filled with dinosaurs too dangerous for the original wannabe tourist attraction. The movie: Jurassic World Rebirth, which is also the next picture to get a cast member of Oscar-winning 2019 film Marriage Story facing off against creatures that went extinct millions of years ago. Yes, that's a niche bit of trivia. But life has indeed found a way to get Scarlett Johansson (Fly Me to the Moon) battling dinos after it also got Adam Driver (Megalopolis) doing the same in 65 — and, of course, after Laura Dern (Lonely Planet) starred in the OG Jurassic Park, plus Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World Dominion. In Jurassic World Rebirth, Johansson plays covert operations expert Zora Bennett, who has a date with the movie's main island to obtain genetic material that could help develop drugs to save human lives. Arriving three years after Jurassic World Dominion and set to stomp into picture palaces in July, the new Jurassic flick also takes Jonathan Bailey (Wicked) and Mahershala Ali (Leave the World Behind) on its upon a clandestine mission. After the first sneak peek at how that turns out dropped in February, a brand-new trailer has been revealed. The vibe? The words "you don't see that every day" are uttered early, and dinosaurs are a threat by land, air and sea. The idea at the heart of picture: on the landmass at its centre, different species of dinosaurs to those that the films have featured before roam — species that were couldn't go into the OG park because they would've caused too much havoc. Bennett heads there with Bailey's palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis and Ali as her righthand man Duncan Kincaid — and company — in what seems to be shaping up, in part, as a Jurassic heist film with pesky rampaging ancient beasts. Alongside Johansson, Bailey, and Moonlight and Green Book Oscar-winner Ali, the Rebirth's lineup of on-screen talent also spans Rupert Friend (Companion) as a pharmaceutical executive; Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer) as a civilian who gets dragged into the mission after becoming shipwrecked; Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (Dope Thief) and Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs Lopez) as the latter's family members; and Philippine Velge (The Serpent Queen), Bechir Sylvain (Black Mafia Family) and Ed Skrein (Rebel Moon) among Zora and co's crew. In the storyline, five years have passed since the events of Jurassic World Dominion — which, for audiences, followed 2015's Jurassic World and 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in the Jurassic World saga, plus 1993's Jurassic Park, 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 2001's Jurassic Park III in the OG Jurassic Park trilogy. Jurassic World Rebirth director Gareth Evans (The Creator) is new to the franchise, but knows a thing or two about flicks about fighting giant creatures courtesy of 2010's Monsters and 2014's Godzilla. Rebirth does have a key link back to the debut Jurassic Park movie, however, with screenwriter David Koepp returning after co-penning the initial film and scripting the second solo. (Koepp also returns to grappling with dinosaurs after a three-movie run writing screenplays for Steven Soderbergh with Kimi, Presence and Black Bag.) Check out the latest trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth below: Jurassic World Rebirth releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, July 3, 2025.
Lady Gaga doesn't shy away from innovation. Ridiculous costumes and outrageous hairstyles aside, the 25-year old artist has harnessed the power of the interwebs to reach over 10 million Twitter followers, 35 million Facebook fans and 1 billion YouTube views. Teaming up with Google, Gaga and her little monsters have created a 90-second ad for Google's Chrome browser. The underlying message? The web is what you make of it. Gaga's not the first musician to endorse Google Chrome. Late last year Arcade Fire released an interactive video clip which made use of the brower's extensive capabilities. https://youtube.com/watch?v=sDPJ-o1leAw [Via Engadget]
As far as summer food/drink combos go, beer with guac and chips is definitely up there. But one brewery's just found a way to combine the two in one unusual but very intriguing beverage. The LA-based Angel City Brewery recently introduced Avocado Ale as part of their inaugural Avocado Festival on August 24, which celebrated the beginning of avocado season in California. The beer contains avocados harvested straight from brewmaster Dieter Foerstner's grandmother's farm, as well as other ingredients you'd normally find in guacamole, like crushed red pepper, garlic, lime and coriander. Angel City is no stranger to experimental brews — their previous creations include the Pickle Weiss and the less weird-sounding White Nite, a golden, chocolate- and espresso-flavoured ale. It looks like Avocado Ale's just a one-off local thing, but they're not the first brewers to take the 'Why can't we have both?' approach to beer and food. Sydney's own 4 Pines Brewery recently held a series of Beer Mimics Food events, featuring beer infused with HP sauce, apple and blackcurrant crumble and, even more bizarrely, a bento box lager. Foerstner, the man behind Avocado Ale, described it to LAist as a "love or hate kind of thing. It's not what traditionalists would expect a beer to taste like. It does have a well-pronounced avocado flavour, so people who don't care for the fruit to begin with might not enjoy it. But being an avocado lover, I love it." Via PSFK.
Fan art has been deemed the domain of the obsessive. Whether that is reserved for the creator or extends to the viewer is still undecided. Nevertheless, Seinfeld - the show about nothing that graced our television screens for 9 years and 180 episodes - is being remembered in a unique way in Newcastle's ArtHive. During the month of May and thirteen years after the show ended, ArtHive, an artist-run initiative, will be home to a new exhibition, Art Vanderlay. The showcase, curated by Jessica Louttit, will showcase art inspired by the show's 9-season run and feature works from local artists including Mike Foxall, Ry Wilkin, Sarah Mould and "many sponge-worthy others in one huge Seinfeld fan flaunt." The opening night on May 27 will see the exhibition come to life with episodes of the hit television show being beamed onto the walls, prizes awarded for the best character costumes, as well as catered to the brim with your choice of muffin tops, black & white cookies, Junior Mints and Pretzels. To get in contact, share your ideas, get more details, yada yada yada, keep an eye on the gallery's blog at subjecthive.blogspot.com https://youtube.com/watch?v=t_nCmj9IyLo [via Lost at E Minor]
If you've read much of Stephen King's work, then you'll agree with some of the first words spoken in the just-dropped debut teaser trailer for HBO's new IT prequel series: "anywhere but Derry". That's a great motto if you're keen to avoid unnerving and supernatural events, which have frequented the fictional town's streets in the author's pages for decades — and in their screen adaptations, too, including the hit 2017 IT movie and its 2019 sequel IT: Chapter Two. HBO and its streaming service HBO Max are in franchise mode of late, adding The Penguin to the world of The Batman, expanding the Game of Thrones realm with not only House of the Dragon but also the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, announcing a new drama series set in The Conjuring universe and locking in a Harry Potter series that readapts the books. As first revealed in 2023, IT: Welcome to Derry falls into the same camp. It'll arrive in your streaming queue sometime in spring 2025. If you're not fond of clowns, find yourself scurrying past sewers and simply can't stand red balloons, there's probably one big reason for your phobias. Maybe you read King's horror tome IT, which first made its way to bookshelves back in 1986. Perhaps you saw the 1990 miniseries, which turned Tim Curry from The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Frank N Furter into the transdimensional evil entity known as Pennywise. Or, you might've caught the recent two IT flicks. Whichever fits, your fears are about to get another workout. King's go-to Maine town is clearly the setting, with the series stepping through the locale's scares before the terror that viewers have already seen and experienced. And yes, Pennywise does indeed feature. So does a spate of missing children, more kids seeking answers, a new family moving in, uncaring police, eerie smiles and cackles, voices in the pipes and a crimson balloon. Returning to oversee the show is filmmaker Andy Muschietti, who helmed the most-recent two IT movies and last directed DC Extended Universe flick The Flash. He's also behind the camera here on multiple episodes, expanding his Derry-set vision from his two features. "As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King's IT until the thick paperback fell to pieces," said Muschietti and his sister Barbara Muschietti, who is also working on IT: Welcome to Derry, back when the show was first revealed. "IT is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our IT movies. We can't wait to share the depths of Steve's novel, in all its heart, humour, humanity and horror." "I'm excited that the story of Derry, Maine's most haunted city, is continuing, and I'm glad Andy Muschietti is going to be overseeing the frightening festivities, along with a brain trust including his talented sister, Barbara. Red balloons all around!" added King at the time. If you've somehow missed all things IT so far, it follows the exploits of maniacal clown Pennywise, as well as the folks he's rather fond of terrorising. In the 2017 and 2019 movies, Bill Skarsgård (Nosferatu) put on the demonic makeup. In the first of those films, his targets were all kids. In the second, those teens — the Losers Club — were all grown up and still getting spooked. Skarsgård is back as Pennywise in IT: Welcome to Derry, with Taylour Paige (Brothers), Jovan Adepo (3 Body Problem), Chris Chalk (Feud), James Remar (Megalopolis), Stephen Rider (What Lies Under the Tree), Madeleine Stowe (Soundtrack) and Rudy Mancuso (The Flash) as his co-stars. Watch the initial IT: Welcome to Derry teaser trailer below: IT: Welcome to Derry is set to stream via Max in Australia and Neon in New Zealand sometime in spring 2025 — we'll update you with an exact release date when it is announced. Images: HBO.
When you're a stellar sleuth renowned for solving complex cases, what's your holy grail? That question will soon be answered in the Knives Out world. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third film in the detective franchise and will arrive before 2025 is out — and in its just-dropped initial sneak peek, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig, Queer) is excited about "the impossible crime". Netflix has unveiled its first look at Wake Up Dead Man in a date-announcement teaser, which reveals Friday, December 12, 2025 as the day that you'll be watching. Accordingly, this trailer is short on plot details — but there are snippets of what's in store, including a church and its graveyard featuring prominently. Also included: a glimpse at much of the characteristically stacked cast. Just like in 2019's OG Knives Out and 2022's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Blanc keeps pointing the finger at well-known faces. Onboard this time around: Josh O'Connor (Challengers), Glenn Close (Back in Action), Josh Brolin (Brothers), Mila Kunis (Goodrich), Jeremy Renner (Mayor of Kingstown), Kerry Washington (Shadow Force), Andrew Scott (Ripley), Cailee Spaeny (Civil War), Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters) and Thomas Haden Church (Twisted Metal). The new teaser also includes character names, including advising that O'Connor plays a reverend and Renner a doctor. The whodunnit saga's writer and director Rian Johnson (Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi) is back behind the lens on what is being teased as Blanc's "most dangerous case yet" — and he's giving audiences two big sleuthing returns in the same year, given that Poker Face, which he also created, has already made a comeback in 2025. So far, the Knives Out franchise has stuck to a three-yearly pattern. Also, although Johnson has plunged his detective into a familiar setup, he's always ensured that the end result was anything but routine. His trusty scenario to date: bringing a group of people together in a specific setting, then watching on when one thing that always occurs in a whodunnit happens. That'd be a murder, in a formula that Agatha Christie also loved, as book-to-film adaptations Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice have shown. The author's play The Mousetrap and 2022 flick See How They Run, which riffs on it, make the same point. And, so does this clearly Christie-inspired franchise. The cast across Knives Out and Glass Onion has always been impressive. Chris Evans (Red One), Ana de Armas (Ghosted), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Last Showgirl), Michael Shannon (A Different Man), Toni Collette (Mickey 17), Don Johnson (Doctor Odyssey), Lakeith Stanfield (The Changeling), Christopher Plummer (Departure), Katherine Langford (Savage River) and Jaeden Martell (Arcadian) all featured the first time around. In the second flick, Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown), Janelle Monáe (Antebellum), Kathryn Hahn (The Studio), Leslie Odom Jr (The Exorcist: Believer), Jessica Henwick (The Royal Hotel), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Kate Hudson (Running Point) and Dave Bautista (Dune: Part Two) co-starred. Check out the date announcement video for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery below: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery will release on Friday, December 12, 2025. Read our reviews of Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
If you're a fan of iconic late-90s/early-00s high school-set dramedies, big-name Hollywood comedies, entertainingly twisty mysteries and TV shows about teenage witches, then SXSW Sydney 2025 is doing you a simple favour: Paul Feig, the director, writer, producer and actor who created Freaks and Geeks, helmed Bridesmaids and A Simple Favour, and co-starred in the OG Sabrina the Teenage Witch, is heading Down Under for this year's event. Not only is Feig the 2025 SXSW Sydney Screen Festival keynote speaker and also the filmmaker in the spotlight at the fest's big-screen retrospective, but he's also being celebrated with a brand-new accolade. When the event runs between Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19, 2025, it'll debut the SXSW Sydney Screen Pioneer Award, and Feig is its inaugural recipient. If you're a fan of The Heat, Spy, Last Christmas and this year's Another Simple Favour, too — and also Feig's excellent 2018 Ghostbusters with an all-female spirit-hunting team — then this keeps proving great news. Exactly which titles among those flicks will be among SXSW Sydney's screenings is yet to be revealed, however. The same is the case with whether the Feig-helmed Unaccompanied Minors, The School for Good and Evil and Jackpot! might pop up. Here's something to cross your fingers for, though: The Housemaid, Feig's latest movie, is due to make its way to cinemas at the end of 2025. So, while there's absolutely no word yet that it'll be playing SXSW Sydney before its general release, you can start hoping that the Sydney Sweeney (Echo Valley)-, Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River) and Brandon Sklenar (Drop)-starring film might score a spin when Feig makes the trip Down Under to get chatting. "I'm so honoured to receive the first-ever Screen Pioneer Award from SXSW Sydney. SXSW is my favourite festival in the world because they are committed to entertaining audiences. They've been supporters of mine for so many years and to have my work celebrated in this way, and to be able to share it with Australian audiences through this retrospective, is incredibly special. I look forward to the conversations, the Q&As, and the Tim Tams come October!" said Feig. Added Fenella Kernebone, Head of Conference Program, "Paul Feig's films have reached huge audiences — from Bridesmaids, The Heat and Spy to Ghostbusters and A Simple Favour, his career has been defined by genre-shaping stories that put powerful, complex and hilarious women front and centre. Paul has spent his career breaking moulds, challenging industry norms, and proving that female-led films can be both critically acclaimed and wildly successful. We're thrilled to welcome him to SXSW Sydney and can't wait to hear his insights from a career built on visionary storytelling, sharp comedy and a deep commitment to elevating others." Also big: SXSW Sydney's Screen Festival has announced its first six features beyond the Feig retrospective, so get excited about seeing By Design, $POSITIONS, Dead Lover, Zodiac Killer Project, The Last Sacrifice and Bokshi. Among that group, body-swap effort By Design features Juliette Lewis (The Thicket), Mamoudou Athie (Kinds of Kindness) and Robin Tunney (Dear Edward); horror-comedy Dead Lover is a SXSW Austin award-winner; Charlie Shackleton (The Afterlight) digs into a famed serial killer; and everything from comedy to folk horror features. Shorts Stomach Bug and Chasing the Party have a date with the fest as well, among other titles, with the former a BAFTA-nominee and the latter boasting Sam Rockwell (The White Lotus) as a producer. The new round of SXSW Sydney announcements for 2025 — following its dates, that its free programming is expanding, plus a few batches of speakers and music artists — also span Slo Mo podcast host and former Google X Chief Business Officer Mo Gawdat, Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Passes founder Lucy Guo and MIT Technology Review Executive Editor Niall Firth as fellow speakers across the rest of the technology, music, film and gaming event. Signal President Meredith Whittaker is already on the keynote list from past program drops. The initial 50 Conference Program sessions and the first 40 titles at the Games Festival Showcase have been revealed, too, which is ace if you're keen to learn more about exploring space, sustainable design, the creator economy, people living in the ocean, writing true stories for TV, indie game marketing, cutscenes, cyber intelligence, digital sovereignty and AI ethics — or to mash a whole heap of buttons. SXSW Sydney 2025 runs from Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details. Top image: Frank Micelotta.
Here's a trend: co-stars from Baywatch, the movie not the series, making separate biopics about wrestlers. When Zac Efron (The Studio) did it, The Iron Claw was the result, and the film about Kevin Von Erich and his family was excellent. Next, it's Dwayne Johnson's (Red One) turn in The Smashing Machine, with MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the spotlight. Johnson, aka The Rock, leaping into the ring is far from a new development, of course — but the wrestler-turned-actor is now drawing upon his sporting background and talents in the other well-known side of his career. That said, even if you've watched plenty of his WWE exploits, and then his film and TV roles in everything from The Scorpion King, the Fast and Furious franchise, Ballers and Pain & Gain to San Andreas, the recent Jumanji flicks and Black Adam, you haven't seen Johnson like this before. The Smashing Machine hits cinemas in October 2025. Opposite Emily Blunt (The Fall Guy) as Dawn Staples — with the pair reuniting after 2021's Jungle Cruise, and set to team up again next for Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) — Johnson helps bring the story of a wrester-turned-UFC star to the screen. In the just-dropped first trailer for the flick, Kerr is determined to keep chasing the unparalleled high that comes with winning, even while he's in pain and as it's clearly taking a toll on his relationship with Staples. The term "unrecognisable" gets thrown around a lot when actors transform for a role; however, every time Johnson's face is on-screen in the first sneak peek at The Smashing Machine, that description proves true. If the name of the movie sounds familiar, that's because there's a 2002 documentary of the same moniker that's also about Kerr. As a biopic, The Smashing Machine hails from writer/director Benny Safdie, making his first solo directorial effort after spending his filmmaking career so far co-helming with his brother Josh. On their shared resume: Daddy Longlegs, Lenny Cooke, Heaven Knows What, Good Time and Uncut Gems. It's been six years since Benny was last behind the camera on a feature, but he's been popping up in acting parts elsewhere, including in Pieces of a Woman, Licorice Pizza, Stars at Noon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Oppenheimer and The Curse — the latter of which he co-wrote and co-created with The Rehearsal's Nathan Fielder. Benny's brother Josh also has a new film out in 2025, also focusing on sports and also helmed on his lonesome. In Marty Supreme, Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) is in the lead — and ping-pong is the focus. Check out the trailer for The Smashing Machine below: The Smashing Machine releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, October 2, 2025.
Happiness is contagious. If you've ever had a bad day, and let's face it we all have, then you know that simply being around uplifting and optimistic people can turn a frown upside down. One small random act of kindness or a few words of encouragement, even if from a complete stranger, can change the way we feel about ourselves, how we treat others and how we approach life each day. The San Francisco Mirrors Project aims to put an extra spring in everyone's step by doing just that, spreading a little happiness. If kickstarted, creator Akin Bilgic will form a public art installation by hanging 3 x 1.5 foot mirrors on walls and buildings throughout the city, each with a single sentence message of inspiration, hope, encouragement or positivity on them. "Track down your favorite teacher and thank them for getting you where you are today" and "Looking good. Ask him/her out for coffee today" are just a couple of the feel-good phrases that will be inscribed on the mirrors. Bilgic's goal is to get passersby to take a moment to look in the mirrors, take the messages to heart and walk away feeling confident and happier, ultimately spreading that happiness to the people they interact with. Although the Mirrors Project will only take place in San Francisco, with a pay-it-forward attitude the installations could easily be spread worldwide.
Marrickville Metro is getting its first major upgrade since 1987, taking over the abandoned warehouse next door in a massive development project that will cost upwards of $142 million. Construction began on Edinburgh Road last week, and, once completed, it'll increase the centre size by half — adding an additional 11,000 square-metres of dining and retail space and produce markets. The project is being managed by AMP Capital, who is also responsible for the Quay Quarter Sydney development — a $2.7 billion lifestyle precinct near Circular Quay that'll include a 50-storey glass skyscraper and is slated for completion in late 2021. The size upgrade will meet growing foot traffic needs — with the number of locals regularly using the centre expected to hit 440,000 by 2021 — as well as provide a new go-to dining and retail precinct for Marrickville locals. There will be a mix of indoor and al fresco dining options, with 44 new retailers set to join the space. [caption id="attachment_706068" align="alignnone" width="1920"] A render of the new-look Marrickville Metro.[/caption] The extension's focus is on a dedicated fresh food offering, which will feature a local produce market and "never before seen store concept" from Coles. This mysterious 'black label' outlet will complete the trifecta, with existing Woolworths and Aldi stores already available in the centre. Designed by Hames Sharley Architects, the upgrade will maintain the warehouse's facade and industrial fit-out. Local artists and small businesses have also been commissioned to personalise the space for the inner west masses. The precinct will have a 'hidden' laneway entrance separate from the metro, along with a pedestrian bridge and a street level pedestrian walkway connecting the new development with the existing one. And an additional 455 parking spaces will be built, too. If all goes well, the shopping centre upgrade should be finished by September 2020. Marrickville commuters will be happy to hear that the metro will continue its normal trading hours throughout construction, though some minor disruptions should be expected. The first stage of the Marrickville Metro Development is slated for completion in late-2020. The shopping centre will trade as normal throughout the development.
In the latest addition to the ever-growing trend toward themed wine festivals, Oinofilia will hit Melbourne's Meat Market on June 24 as Australia's newest event entirely focused on Greek wine. The festival is brought to you by Bottle Shop Concepts, the crew behind wine events Pinot Palooza and Game of Rhones, and will celebrate all things Greek wine, food and culture. The name appropriately comes from the Greek term for "a love of wine". As the oldest wine-producing region in Europe, the festival will showcase 80 wines from 20 of the country's best producers, with wines made everywhere from the Aegean and Ionian Islands to Crete. To accompany the drinks, sister restaurants Elyros and Epocha will join forces with Prahran Market's Sweet Greek and Collingwood's Meatsmith to curate an authentic feast of spit-roasted meats, grilled seafood, pickles, breads, cheese and pastries, among other Greek delicacies. The location is ideal as Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside of Greece. Bottle Shop Concepts' wine festival empire will also continue to expand, with the company recently announcing a new Barossa Valley event, launching this July. The Oinofilia Greek Wine and Food Festival will take place on Saturday, June 24 from 11am through 5pm at the Meat Market, 5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne. Check the Oinofilia website for tickets and more information.
Generally well-regarded, Australian owned and operated Coopers Brewery has come under fire this week for their involvement in this painfully uncomfortable Bible Society video. The video depicts two Liberal Party MPs, Andrew Hastie and Tim Wilson, discussing marriage equality in a 'lighthearted way', washing it down with a few ice-cold bottles of Coopers Light. Yeesh. If you're confused how Coopers got roped up in such a casually offensive and poorly executed pun, the sad news is that they pretty much tied the noose themselves. As a congratulatory gift to the Bible Society's bicentenary this year, Coopers released a collaboration limited edition light beer which features the Christian non-profit's logo and Bible verses on each case — 10,000 of them, to be exact. The brewery — which is family-run and openly Christian — and their association with the Bible Society flew under the radar until the society's 'Keeping it Light' campaign went live over the weekend, which is meant to showcase "light discussion on the heaviest topics". The Bible Society's somewhat haphazard video (which, it must be noted, Coopers has claimed they had no involvement in) acts as the first in a planned series using the Coopers Light beer as a gateway for their 'light' discussion. Shortly after the video was released, The Sydney Morning Herald published these statements by the two MPs, who seemed to find nothing wrong with the video's content. With 64 percent of Australian's in support of marriage equality, the video came across as patronising and flippant to a large chunk of the public who feel same-sex marriage shouldn't be a debate at all. Coopers' involvement with the video is questionable. Their first response was a sort-of apologetic statement essentially defending the video's content, saying it was "a lighthearted but balanced debate about an important topic". When this did not quell the backlash and boycotts, they then released a second statement claiming that they "did not give permission for [their] Premium Light beer to feature in, or 'sponsor' the Bible Society's 'Keeping it Light' video". The Bible Society has since released their own statement backing up this claim, stating that they were "entirely responsible" for the video and that no money changed hands in regards to the campaign. Twitter, not surprisingly, exploded. The hashtag #BoycottCoopers has taken over social media over the last few days, with consumers and venues alike speaking out. Venues across the country are pulling Coopers stock from their bars, including Sydney's Hollywood Hotel and Newtown Hotel and Melbourne's Old Bar and Sircuit/Mollies Bar & Diner — the latter of which posted this video of their GM throwing all their Coopers stock into the bin. Whatever their involvement with the production of the video, it doesn't look like Coopers is getting out of this one anytime soon. It certainly muddies the waters in relation to how religious groups and brands can influence consumers and secular institutions — particularly as Coopers has been a donor to the Liberal Party in the past, which not one, but both MPs in the video belong to.
Now in its 13th year of operation, Woolahra's beautiful garden restaurant Chiswick has welcomed a new head chef. Samuel Rozsnyoi is now at the pass of Matt Moran's elegantly casual eastern suburbs spot, and his first menu showcases seasonal produce prepared with clever restraint, with an increased focus on approachability. Sydney-born Rozsnyoi has built quite a CV — he's worked at restaurants in Sydney, Denmark, Paris and Berlin. Here, he's trained under the likes of Josh Niland, Danielle Alvarez, Pasi Petanen and Mitch Orr, and he completed his apprenticeship at Ultimo TAFE while working under Nic Wong at Cho Cho San. More recently, he led the kitchens at Potts Point wine bar Dear Saint Éloise and buzzy Coogee neighbourhood restaurant Louie. "In heading up the kitchen at Chiswick, I'm looking forward to reinterpreting the vision of the kitchens that have shaped me over the course of my career," says Rozsnyoi. "Paci taught me all about layers and presentation, whereas Josh taught me the ins and outs of breaking down whole fish and making the most of the incredible produce that comes your way. Danielle Alvarez showed me the importance of cooking from the heart." This know-how diverges nicely with Chiswick's produce-driven, hyper-seasonal ethos. Rozsnyoi's debut menu makes full use of the restaurant's kitchen garden, and showcases the chef's creativity while sticking to Chiswick's fundamentals. That means that alongside Chiswick's much-loved slow-roasted lamb and beer-battered fish with hand-cut chips and labneh tartare, you'll also find dishes like baked lumache, mushroom, mozzarella, chilli, and a new grill section that features prime cuts from farmers including Ramarro Farms, Altair, Chris Bolton, as well as, on occasion, the Moran Family Farm. New desserts include a bay leaf custard tart and a salted caramel semifreddo served with seasonal fruit and honeycomb. "Matt Moran is someone who has shaped the culinary landscape of Australia, and the opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to all that Chiswick has established over the last 12 years is an incredible honour," says Rozsnyoi. In addition to a new chef leading the charge, Chiswick has also unveiled a new bar area, which welcomes guests looking for a more casual dining experience or those popping in for a drink and a snack. Rozsnyoi has also tweaked the bar menu, with new dishes like wood-roasted prawns with curry butter and pomelo, beef tartare with pumpkin panisse and comté sitting alongside the likes of Chiswick's crowd-favourite 'barra-masalata'. "Chiswick has been a mainstay of Sydney's dining scene for over ten years, and it's Samuel's passion for produce-driven cooking and his talent for creating dishes that are both refined and approachable that make him the perfect fit for our philosophy," says Matt Moran, Chiswick's co-owner. "I've actually had my eye on Sam for a while…he's one of the brightest young talents in the Sydney food scene right now. I can't wait for our guests to experience his cooking." Chiswick is located at 65 Ocean Street, Woollahra. For more information, head to the venue's website. Images: Zi Chen Photography.
UPDATE, July 6, 2021: Antarctica Flights will also be flying out of Canberra this year, departing on November 7. For further details, head to the Antarctica Flights website. Seeing the South Pole is a bucket-list dream at the best of times, and even more so in these pandemic-afflicted times. But, if you have a bit of spare cash to burn, it's actually achievable — including while Australia's borders remain mostly closed to international travel. Eager to head overseas just for one day? Then you'd best get in quick to score a seat on the upcoming Antarctica flights out of Australia. As it has in previous years, sightseeing group Antarctica Flights is taking bookings for a series of rare, sky-high charter tours. And if you're wondering how the day trips can go ahead during COVID-19, that's because they're classified as domestic flights. You won't even need to take your passport with you. Departing Perth (November 14, 2021), Adelaide (November 21, 2021), Brisbane (November 28, 2021), Melbourne (December 5, 2021 and February 6, 2022) and Sydney (December 31, 2021 and February 13, 2022), these flights will cruise above the dazzling Antarctica Treaty area for around four hours. Each flight path is carefully chosen to maximise viewing from both sides of the plane and to ensure the best views should the weather turn nasty, while some passengers will rotate seats to allow everyone an equal shot at the spectacular scenery below. Travelling on a Qantas 787 Dreamliner, the whole trip clocks in at around 12.5 hours — depending on your departure city — during which you'll hear from expert Antarctic explorers, talking about the polar environment and its fascinating history. All that, while enjoying some better-than-average Qantas plane food, full bar service and, in the lead-up to the views, a spot of in-flight entertainment — classic flick Happy Feet, or some Antarctic docos, of course. As expected, this kind of plane trip doesn't come cheap — you're looking at $1199 to be seated without direct access to a window. Other options, including Standard Economy Class ($2199), Superior Economy Class ($3199) and Premium Economy Class ($3999) involve seat rotations throughout the flight, so passengers can spend time both close to the window and further away. Of course, you and your favourite travel buddy could drop $7999 each on Business Class Deluxe tickets to have a window seat and the one next to it all to yourselves for the entire flight. Regardless of which type of seat you fork out for, COVID-19 safety measures will be in effect — including temperature testing and pre-flight health and safety forms; providing disposable masks, sanitiser and disinfectant wipes; enhanced cleaning procedures; and not selling all seats in Economy Class. Antarctica Flights' 2021–22 season is open for bookings now, with flights out of Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney between November 14, 2021–February 13, 2022. Images: Antarctica Flights
Next time that someone hands you a $100 note, you can be forgiven for thinking that it looks a little different — because a new range of the green-hued currency will be released into circulation from Thursday, October 29. Australia's banknotes have been getting a makeover since September 2016, when a different $5 note started doing the rounds. It was followed by a revamped $10 in 2017, a sparkling fresh $50 in 2018 and a brand new $20 in 2019. For the upgraded $100 note, the design still celebrates engineer, soldier and civic leader Sir John Monash, as well as internationally famed soprano Dame Nellie Melba. They're both recognised in several ways on the new notes, with not only their portraits displayed prominently, but with microprint featuring excerpts of a letter written by Monash, as well as text from Melba's autobiography Melodies and Memories. As well as changed artwork (albeit keeping the same colour scheme as old notes), the new $100 boasts the same improved security features as the revamped $5, $10, $20 and $50 notes, which are largely aimed to stop counterfeiting. A clear window running from top to bottom is the most obvious, and contains a number of features such as a reversing number and flying bird. As mentioned above, the note also includes microprint, plus a patch with rolling colour. And, in great news for the vision-impaired, the new series of legal tender has a tactile feature to help distinguish between different denominations. As happened with the other denominations, the rollout will happen gradually. The existing $100 banknotes are still considered legal tender, so you can still keep using them. Australia's new $100 notes will start circulating from Thursday, October 29. For more information about the banknotes, head to the Reserve Bank of Australia website. Images: Reserve Bank of Australia.
In the warmer months, sitting down to a hot feast of endless meats might not be high on your to-do list, but Surly's is here to convince you otherwise. The Surry Hills joint has made its bottomless barbecue events permanent with sessions every Friday Saturday and Sunday. The restaurant's signature low 'n' slow barbecue fare sets the tone for the feast. For $85, diners can sit down to two hours of free-flowing barbecue goodness — think, 12-hour pulled pork, Texas hot links, smoked chicken wings, slow-cooked brisket, all delivered right there to the table. The price includes sides, too, such as pickles, corn bread and fries — oh, and two hours of beer and wine. The feasts are available at both lunch and dinner, and with a fridge chock full of tinnies and a slew of interesting cocktails it makes for one very enticing weekend feast. Surly's two hours of bottomless barbecue is available to book at 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm (on Friday and Saturday only). Images: Bodhi Liggett
For too long the precious black liquid that keeps your brain afloat during 8am meetings on Monday has gotten all the attention. But what about the intricately designed disposable cup? It's easy to forget about (let alone give any sustained attention to) the vessel of cardboard that carries that lovingly brewed coffee to our lips — but we'd be pretty lost without it. Coffee Cups of the World is an unabashed display of one man's beautiful takeaway coffee journey across the world documented on Tumblr and Instagram. "I want people to look at the coffee cups and be conscious of them," New Zealand professional food photographer Henry Hargreaves told Cool Hunting. "The to-go cup is the best piece of advertising for coffee shops, but not everyone gives it enough attention." Until now, that is. Hargreaves (who you might know for his eerie food photography series of death row inmates' last meals) has collected coffee cups from cafes in Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. He has even enlisted a friend from South Africa to send him a bunch and — great news — is now encouraging the public to do the same. See more of Hargreaves's work at the Coffee Cups of the World Tumblr and on his online portfolio. Via Cool Hunting
Across ten extremely amusing initial episodes in 2022, Loot had a message: billionaires shouldn't exist. So declared the show's resident cashed-up character, with Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem) receiving $87 billion in her divorce from tech guru John Novak (Adam Scott, Madame Web), then spending most of the Apple TV+ sitcom's first season working out what to do with it (and also how to handle her newly single life in general). That she had a foundation to her name was virtually news to her. So was much about everything beyond the ultra-rich. And, she was hardly equipped for being on her own. But Loot's debut run came to an entertaining end with the big statement that it was always uttering not so quietly anyway. So what happens next, after one of the richest people in the world decides to give away all of her money? Cue season two of this ace workplace-set comedy from Wednesday, April 3. Created by former Parks and Recreation writers Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard, in their second Rudolph-starring delight — 2018's Forever was the first — Loot splices together three popular on-screen realms as it loosely draws parallels with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his philanthropist ex-wife MacKenzie Scott. At her charity, as Molly's staff become the kind of friends that feel like family while doing their jobs, shows such as 30 Rock and Superstore (which Hubbard also has on his resume) score an obvious sibling. As its protagonist endeavours to do good, be better and discover what makes a meaningful life, The Good Place (which Yang also wrote for) and Forever get company. And in enjoying its eat-the-rich mode as well, it sits alongside Succession and The White Lotus, albeit while being far sillier. Nothing was broken about this mix and setup in season one, so there's no fixing required the second time around — just leaning in further and letting Loot's talented cast make the most of it. Co-starring alongside Rudolph: Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (American Horror Story) as foundation head Sofia, Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island) as Molly's assistant Nicholas, Ron Funches (Good Burger 2) as her cousin Howard and Nat Faxon (Our Flag Means Death) as company accountant Arthur, plus Stephanie Styles (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Meagen Fay (9-1-1) as the cheery Ainsley and hippie-ish Rhonda to round out the office gang. As motley crews dictate, everyone has a personality archetype. Sofia is dedicated and determined. Nicholas chases clout. Howard and Arthur both bring sweetness, the latter as a daggy dad who also becomes Molly's everyman love interest, for instance. Loot has a clear lead, but it also patently adores its ensemble; with this group, there's plenty to love. After Molly's huge announcement, she has downsized mansions in season two, while also grappling with John's rekindled romantic interest and trying to make good on her word — and to get her homelessness-tackling project Space for Everyone off the ground. Loot knows that the path back from such an extravagant existence isn't straightforward, though. Plenty of its humour comes from Molly attempting to do what she thinks is right, but being the type of out-of-touch that money literally buys. Still, she has a caring heart and noble intentions, which Loot always sees. This is a series that's teeming with designer attire, jet-setting, lavish spiritual retreats and opulent dream homes, and watches them gleam, yet is keenly aware that nothing sparkles as brightly as truly being yourself, learning what makes you feel fulfilled, real connection and genuine benevolence, all of which are priceless. It's hard to imagine anyone but Rudolph selling Loot as wholeheartedly, or ensuring that the concept hits its mark. It isn't a simple task, parodying the ridiculously affluent while humanising a lead character who can't remember anything but rolling in dosh — and also showing her well-to-do trappings without undercutting the show's eat-the-rich mantra by making her life, or even just the materialism, freedom and security of a an abundant bank balance, seem aspirational. By now, however, almost three decades since she made her screen debut and nearing a quarter century since her first Saturday Night Live days, it's been proven several times over that Rudolph can do everything. Playing Molly requires that flexibility, as honed so expertly in sketch comedy. It also hinges on Rudolph committing to being the joke again and again, while digging past satirising Molly to unearth the person beneath the billions. Put Loot's lead in any show or movie and it's worth watching (see also: everything from Away We Go, Bridesmaids, The Way Way Back and Sisters to Up All Night and Maya & Marty). That said, also harking back to her SNL stint, she's a spectacular team player even when giving a star turn, which this recognises. Yang and Hubbard have filled Loot's cast perfectly with actors who bounce off of Rudolph flawlessly, including in guest roles in season two. When Ana Gasteyer (American Auto), Rudolph's SNL co-star, pops up as another obscenely well-off ex-wife, audiences can be forgiven for wanting a spinoff that pushes them both to the fore. And when Benjamin Bratt (Poker Face) joins the series briefly, it's a sublime inclusion. For the show's regular ensemble, season two delivers more subplots and supporting-character arcs. Sofia gets a boyfriend (O-T Fagbenle, Secret Invasion), plus more time away from the job that she's devoted to. Nicholas dives into his cultural heritage, adopted upbringing and dating behaviour. Howard follows an opposing route to Molly, endeavouring to free himself from debt rather than giving away money, while also embracing a passion as a side hustle. Chemistry still lingers between Molly and Arnold, but no workplace sitcom lets romance come easily — and no series about a person bettering themselves, and also unearthing themselves in a midlife crisis, allows new love to blossom quickly, either. From Molly doing Vogue's 73 Questions and Taylor Swift obsessions becoming a plot point to runway appearances and weaving in a hilarious nod to a movie masterpiece, Loot isn't short on other reasons to get giggling — or other ways to flesh out Molly and the gang. Another pivotal element that it boasts in abundance: the potential to keep growing, especially as Molly's bank balance dwindles. Skewering levels of wealth that no one should have, and that only the one percent of the one percent can grasp, will never stop proving rich and necessary comic material. Loot has bite, laughs, thematic capital to keep building upon and a roster of talent making it one of Apple TV+'s comedy standouts. It was true in its first season and remains the case in its second: this is a series to invest in. Check out the trailer for Loot season two below: Loot streams via Apple TV+, with season two starting on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
If a great getaway to a beach, island or faraway city can be life-changing, what does a journey to space do? So ponders Constellation, among other questions. This new Apple TV+ series, which started its eight-part first season on Wednesday, February 21, is another of the platform's beloved mysteries — see also: Criminal Record, The Changeling, The Crowded Room, Hijack and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters since mid-2023 alone, and that list isn't exhaustive — with no shortage of queries floating through its tense frames. Inquiries are sparked instantly, from the moment that a mother in a cabin in northern Sweden, where there's snow as far as the eye can see but a frost infecting more than just the temperature, leaves her pre-teen daughter to follow a voice. The screams that she seeks out are yelling "mama!" — and what they mean, and why she's abandoning one girl to find another, is just one of the matters that Constellation interrogates. The woman is Jo Ericsson, as played by Noomi Rapace with the maternal devotion that also marked her turn in Lamb, plus the protective instincts that were key in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant as well — alongside the scrutiny and adaptability that was evident in her work in You Won't Be Alone, and the fierceness that helped bring her to fame as Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films. Jo is an astronaut, and Europe's representative on the International Space Station when Constellation jumps backwards from its opening icy horror to a different kind of terror. Not long out from returning back to earth, she FaceTimes with her nine-year-old daughter Alice (Rosie and Davina Coleman, The Larkins) and husband Magnus (James D'Arcy, Oppenheimer). Then, something goes bump in the sky. Trauma leaves people changed, too; what if this incident, during which setting foot on our pale blue dot again is anything but assured, isn't the only distressing facet of travelling to the heavens? On the at-risk ISS, on a spacewalk to locate the source of the collision, Jo finds the mummified body of what looks like a 60s-era Russian cosmonaut. There'll soon be another astronaut dead inside the station, destroyed infrastructure, the first escape pod shuttling her three remaining colleagues back to terra firma and Jo left alone trying to repair the second so that she herself can alight home. Where both Gravity and Moon spring to mind in Constellation's initial space-set scenes, plus Proxima in the show's focus on mother-daughter connections (Interstellar, Ad Astra and First Man have dads covered), it's the earthbound Dark that feels like a touchstone once Jo is back among her loved ones. There's a similar moodiness to this series, a feeling that characters can't always trust what they think is plainly apparent and a certainty that nothing is simply linear about what's occurring. Her stint above the planet has made its imprint on Jo, but it's her everyday life that seems altered. Whether or not Alice can speak Swedish, the colour of the family car, if Jo can play the piano, why Magnus is chilly towards her: with each, what confronts Jo post-ISS conflicts with what she can recall prior to ascending to the station. Roscosmos' Irena Lysenko (Barbara Sukowa, Air) is also wary of her claims about spying a decades-old USSR cadaver. And the NASA equivalent, Nobel Prize-winning former Apollo astronaut Henry Caldera (Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul), is concerned only with a quantum-physics experiment that was taking place on the orbiting base, gathering data about a possible new state of matter, which Jo has no recollection of. It might appear convenient that the psychological effects of long-term space travel fuel Jo's research mission on the station, but Constellation creator and writer Peter Harness — who boasts Doctor Who, Wallander, McMafia and The War of the Worlds on his resume — could never be accused of valuing neatness over depth. Unravelling the show's debut season with patience and deliberation, and with Joseph Cedar (Our Boys), Oliver Hirschbiegel (Unwanted) and Michelle MacLaren (an Emmy-winner for Breaking Bad) directing, he's dedicated to ensuring that the series intensely ruminates on the liminal. Constellation is about disorientation and transition, about the space where being too much of something and not enough of another smash and clash, and about coping with realising that life is always what happens in-between — as well as the fact that sometimes that truth applies more literally than others. As a thriller and a mystery, Constellation names Jo's daughter cannily; tumbling down the rabbit hole is a solid parallel. Viewers won't spy cakes and bottles labelled "eat me" and "drink me", but there are pills and supplements. No one goes chasing a walking, talking white bunny; however, a rabbit toy does feature, and clinging onto what Jo knows is real is just as elusive. While there's no Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Bud Caldera (also Banks) mirrors much about Henry, except that he's now working the sci-fi convention circuit. And although cries of "off with her head" are absent, the dismissals from those around Jo about what's happening with her perception is its own equivalent. Alice in Wonderland comparisons were always going to fit a story about curiouser and curiouser minds pursuing wild adventures, then endeavouring to reclaim their footing. At times, especially in remote lodgings in freezing woodland, the dark fairy-tale vibe beats stronger. But again, even when Constellation dances with fantasy like it's clutching onto a waltz partner — and does the same with eeriness as well — the series never stops being grounded in human bonds, emotions, yearnings and existential concerns. As the reality of both being alive and facing mortality, the urge to understand our place in the cosmos and the sheer enormity of the universe thrum throughout the show regardless of whether it's in space or on land, each is always brought back to people, rather than remaining mere concepts. Rapace, Banks, both Coleman sisters and Sukowa are especially instrumental in anchoring Constellation's twists, turns and big-thinking ideas in the show's characters — and making it so compelling. It isn't just as slickly made as Apple TV+'s fellow excellent recent sci-fi series Severance and Silo, then, and as gripping in its mysteries, but as rivetingly acted. Banks, doing double duty after over a decade as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul's Mike Ehrmantraut, is particularly emblematic: that there's a chasm between what we want to comprehend and what's around us gleams in his eyes as both Henry and Bud, while his twin parts equally demonstrate how differently it glints from person to person. Check out the trailer for Constellation below: Constellation streams via Apple TV+ from Wednesday, February 21. Read our interview with Jonathan Banks.
How do you follow up Game of Thrones? So asks one of the biggest questions in pop culture over the past decade. HBO's hit adaptation of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series ended five years ago, but the network behind it, the TV industry in general, and everyone involved in it on- and off-screen has been grappling with that query since the series became a worldwide smash. For the cable station that made it, more Game of Thrones shows is the answer, aka House of the Dragon, the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight and other floated spinoffs. For Hollywood, leaning in on fantasy franchises has been a solution. And for David Benioff and DB Weiss, the showrunners on the Westeros-set phenomenon, bringing another complex book saga to the small screen is the chosen path. Those novels: Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, which reaches Netflix named after its debut entry, in another of its similarities with Benioff and Weiss' previous success. So arrives 3 Body Problem, streaming all eight of its first-season episodes from Thursday, March 21, with 2008 book The Three-Body Problem as its basis. Invasions, feuds, jumping timelines, a hefty cast of characters: they're all still in place. So are John Bradley (Marry Me), Liam Cunningham (Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter) and Jonathan Pryce (Slow Horses) among the cast, answering the "what comes next?" question for three Game of Thrones actors. Also, that composer Ramin Djawadi (Jack Ryan) is on music duties again isn't difficult to notice. With 3 Body Problem, which sees Benioff and Weiss team up with True Blood and The Terror's Alexander Woo to bring Cixin's text to the screen, sprawling high fantasy gives away to time- and space-hopping hard sci-fi, however. The danger to global stability still springs from a battle for supremacy, but one where countdowns start dancing in front of some people's eyes, particle accelerators stop functioning properly, other folks can't be seen in security footage, scientists seem to be killing themselves and aliens linger. The series begins with a physics professor being beaten to death in front of a crowd containing his daughter during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Then, it flits to London today to watch the entire sky wink, gleaming helmets spirit whoever dons them into a complicated and intricate virtual-reality game, and what lurks beyond the earth — and who — play a significant part. This isn't the only attempt to bring Cixin's novels to the screen, with 2023's 30-part Chinese series Three Body getting there first. 3 Body Problem also isn't concerned with creating as faithful a take on its source material as possible; rather, its main aim is to do for science-fiction mindbenders what Game of Thrones did for epic fantasy. Accordingly, this is a propulsive and addictive drama within its chosen genre — and one where pressing "next episode", since the whole first season drops at once, doesn't feel optional. Given how crucial that advanced maths and physics concepts are to its plot (its moniker is taken from orbital mechanics, after all), sparking a must-binge reaction is far from a simple mission. Structurally, cliffhangers are used liberally. Thematically, all of the scientific minutiae, and sci-fi as well, always comes back to people, families by blood and by choice, and humanity as a species. 3 Body Problem's grim 60s-set opening introduces Ye Wenjie (TV first-timer Zine Tseng), who is also punished by the anti-intellectual movement for being her father's offspring and protege. When she discovers Rachel Carson's Silent Spring at the logging camp where she's forced to toil, prison then awaits — then a secretive mountaintop base, where her work changes not just her life, but the planet's future. In 2024, then, as numbers haunt fields of vision and bright scientific minds commit suicide, old choices made by Ye (who is now played by Rosalind Chao, Sweet Tooth) start having an impact. If it all seems like a mystery, 3 Body Problem purposefully plays out like one, complete with detective Da Shi (Benedict Wong, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) investigating what's happening for shadowy government agency head Thomas Wade (Cunningham). Enter a sextet with ties to Oxford: Vera Ye (Vedette Lim, FBI) and five of her former students. Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo, Babylon) is her research assistant, not that their studies can continue now that technology is failing them; Jin Cheng (Jess Hong, The Brokenwood Mysteries) also remains in science; Auggie Salazar (Eiza González, Mr & Mrs Smith) is trying to revolutionise nanofibres; Jack Rooney (Bradley) has sold out, making a fortune in junk food; and Will Downing (Alex Sharp, One Life) now teaches high schoolers. Trauma brings them back together. Hallucinations, VR, disappearing strangers and odd occurrences in the heavens keep them connected. Also linked to their plight is Mike Evans, who Ye in the earlier timeline (with Y: The Last Man's Ben Schnetzer in the part), but segues from being an eco-activist to living on a tanker (with Pryce taking over the role). Then there's the headsets, which appear randomly and selectively like the present that no one knows that they want (because no one knows about them before they materialise). Popping one on means tussling with the eponymous quandary in a realm so lifelike that everyone who visits is convinced that they're really seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting everything around them. 3 Body Problem proves a spectacle when it slides into VR. Benioff, Weiss, Woo and their directors — Derek Tsang (Better Days), Andrew Stanton (who made WALL-E in his Pixar days), Minkie Spiro (Pieces of Her) and Jeremy Podeswa (Station Eleven, and another Game of Thrones alum) — understand the allure of escaping, of hoping that something better exists beyond our everyday reality and of dreaming big. With the threat of extra-terrestrials taking over looming large, however, their series also recognises the mundanity, brutality and beauty that surrounds humanity daily. One gruesome sequence, arriving just past the halfway mark of the season, won't be forgotten. When a series has such a wealth of narrative to dig through, and so many ideas unearthed in the process, characters can feel like mere pawns. Thankfully, Benioff and Weiss have also been here before. As they did with Game of Thrones, the duo never let the fact that this is a tale about people first and foremost get out of sight. Among the cast, the always-welcome Wong, both Tseng and Chao as Ye, plus Adepo, Hong and Sharp all leave the biggest imprint — and give 3 Body Problem's story several weighty anchors. In no small part due to their efforts, the show's first season inspires another question as it wraps up: how do you now follow that? Check out the trailer for 3 Body Problem: 3 Body Problem streams via Netflix from Thursday, March 21, 2024. Images: courtesy of Netflix.
One of the funniest TV comedies of the 2020s is back with its third season, and as hilarious as ever. So what are you waiting five? If that question doesn't make any sense to you, then you clearly haven't yet experienced the wonder that is Girls5eva. It starts with a numerical pun-heavy earworm of a theme tune that no one should ever skip, then bounces along just as catchily and sidesplittingly in every second afterwards. A move to Netflix for season three — after streaming its first and second seasons via Peacock in the US, Stan in Australia and TVNZ+ in New Zealand — might just see the Tina Fey-executive produced music-industry sitcom switch from being one of the best shows that not enough people are watching to everyone's latest can't-stop-rewatching comedy obsession. In other words, this a series about a comeback and, thanks to its swap to the biggest player in the streaming game, now it's making a comeback itself. Two years have passed for longterm fans since Girls5eva last checked in with Dawn Solano (Sara Bareilles, Broadway's Waitress), Wickie Roy (Renée Elise Goldsberry, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and also a Hamilton Tony-winner), Summer Dutkowsky (Busy Philipps, Mean Girls) and Gloria McManus (Paula Pell, Big Mouth), but the gap and the jump to Netflix haven't changed this gem. Consider the change of streamer, which kicks off on Thursday, March 14, in the same way that Dawn and the gang are approaching their leap back into their girl group after two decades: as an all-in, go-hard-or-go-home, whatever-it-takes relaunch. For new viewers, seasons one and two of Girls5eva are also now available on Netflix — and bingeing through all 22 episodes, with season three providing six of them, is the best way to spend a day, weekend or few evenings right now. With its non-stop jokes that reward multiple viewings because you're likely laughing too hard to catch all of them on the first go-around, deep-cutting pop-culture references, satire that's always both razor-sharp and raucously ridiculous, and supremely stellar cast, the series is a quintessential Fey-produced comedy. If her post-Saturday Night Live efforts were songs, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Great News, Mr Mayor and Girls5eva couldn't make a better record. (Meredith Scardino, who created Girls5eva, is also an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Mr Mayor alum.) The riff for Girls5eva: parodying the pop-music realm as the titular group endeavour to stop wondering what might've been after their career fizzled out 20 years earlier, aided by their single 'Famous 5eva' getting thrust back into the spotlight via another artist. The takedown of the entertainment world that was at the heart of 30 Rock hums along here, too, as does calling out the treatment of women, especially by the media, that also fuelled Fey's first sitcom hit alongside Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Great News. Whether via Liz Lemon's dating life and quest to have a family, or in Mr Mayor's experienced deputy played by Holly Hunter (Succession), unpacking how women are perceived the moment they're out of their 20s and beyond has also echoed through the Feyniverse — and Girls5eva croons that tune with force and feeling. Now firmly back together, the surviving members of Girls5eva — Ashley Gold (Ashley Park, Only Murders in the Building) died in an infinity pool accident — have taken to the road. So far, however, their big Returnity tour has been happy in Fort Worth. In the Texan city, their track 'Tap Into Your Fort Worth' keeps drawing in crowds, even if that's all that concertgoers want to hear. Also, the Marriott Suitelettes for Divorced Dads has become their home away from home, but resident diva Wickie isn't content just playing one place. Always dreaming huge, massive and stratospheric, she sets the band's sights on Radio City Music Hall, booking them in for a gig at a fee of $500,000. Cue a six-month timeline to sell it out — a feat made trickier by the fact that the show is on Thanksgiving — or risk ruin. When season three commences in Fort Worth, and among weekend-only fathers buying forgotten birthday presents for their kids out of vending machines, the quality of Girls5eva's writing proves as gleaming as ever. Here, the pregnant Dawn can put pancakes from the breakfast buffet in her robe, and also get cosy watching The Crown, which has a storyline about Prince Andrew's stuffed-toy obsession. Gloria is on a mission to hook up with all 178 types of women, complete with a spreadsheet tracking her progress, which is a riotous source of amusement. "Always gonna never stop restarting, never gonna end not un-beginning, don't un-try to un-stop us now" aren't just lyrics for Girls5eva the band and Girls5eva the show, though. So, into the van the group hops, with Percy (John Lutz, 30 Rock) as their tour manager. Girls5eva's big joke energy doesn't slow down when Wickie and company are drumming up cash at private concerts, battling with a state senator (John Early, The Afterparty) who doubles as a "Fetal Citizen Advocate" or trying to capitalise upon the fame of pop's current megastar (Thomas Doherty, Gossip Girl) — or when the series charts Summer's attempt to work out who she is without her ex-husband Kev (Andrew Rannells, Invincible) through a multi-level marketing scheme for teeth-whitening gummies. As that snapshot of season-three elements makes plain, the show's love of loopiness, hijinks and hysterical bits doesn't fade out, either. Flashbacks to the band's late-90s, early-00s fame continue to deliver gold, too, including Gloria and *NSYNC's Lance Bass trying to make a sex tape. Girls5eva isn't afraid of silliness for the comical sake of it, but it's also as savvy as comedy gets in lampooning the state of the world and fleshing out its characters while sparking never-ending chuckles. Holding back or taking a beat isn't Girls5eva's style; if it was an album itself, it'd be wall-to-wall singles. (Its tunes, which continue to showcase the musical-comedy prowess of Fey's husband Jeff Richmond after 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the like, already make ace records.) Giving anything but 100 percent isn't Bareilles, Goldsberry, Philipps or Pell's style, either — and the series keeps benefiting. Bareilles' ability to ground every type of chaos remains essential but, away from New York and Dawn's family, that's no longer her main remit. Always at home when the show is at its most absurd, Goldsberry, Philipps and Pell have also never been funnier. ("Hi, this is Gloria, from sex!" is one of Pell's all-time great lines.) The only issue with season three: that this stint with Girls5eva's glorious on-screen talents is too short, just like forever versus 5eva. If it becomes a Netflix smash, here's hoping that it'll be famous at least one more time. Check out the trailer for Girls5eva season three below: Girls5eva season three streams via Netflix from Thursday, March 14. Read our reviews of season one and season two. Images: Netflix.
Oh god, it's happened. We knew it would. Ever since we first tried to make a 'beer spider' by heaping some vanilla bean into our third or fourth pint, we knew it was a possibility. The method just needed some work. Unsurprisingly, adding dairy to beer was never the answer. Now the Japanese legends at Kirin have perfected the recipe for the ultimate beer slushie, and are selling a home version of the machine that makes it. Here's the kicker: the drink is actually super tasty. The slushie portion of this frozen treat is made with frozen beer instead of ice cream so instead of clogging your brew with curdled milk, it just keeps the whole thing freezing cold. The machine has been floating around as a promo tool in Japan and the USA since 2012, but — because it's basically a pure form of liquid happiness — it's stuck around until now. The machine is currently available for purchase via the Japan Trend Shop online, however it does come with some drawbacks. For instance, although the initial cost of the product is only US$67, you'll have to add another US$47 on for shipping. Also, it only runs off C batteries (for some reason) and all of the instructions are in Japanese. Eek. Of course this won't stop the hardcore enthusiasts, but if you consider yourself a more casual beer slushie drinker, head out to Harajuku Gyoza to try it first. The Japanese gyoza and beer restaurant in Potts Point and Fortitude Valley are currently one of the only (if not the only) place serving it in Australia. Bon appétit! Via Thrillist and Hospitality Magazine. Images via Kirin USA Facebook.
This week Art/Work sits down for a cuppa with artist Keg de Souza. Keg is one cool little lady who never fails to have her fingers in every pie. From social activist to book binder to screen printer to Rizzeria handler to tour guide to pun maker to home brewer - how she manages to fit in her day job, we don't know... Most days you'll find me starting my day by walking our snowdog to get a coffee, (for me, not him) reading the paper then I begin my 'working' day by checking emails and whittling away at whatever project I'm working on at the time - sometimes it's exciting like building a boat to paddle across the harbour, sewing a giant inflatable igloo or binding a book but most likely it's life administration which usually takes up the better part of my day! When I am not there I am at the Bookbinding Guild making books, if it's a Wednesday. I also often work collaboratively so sometimes I'm working or meeting with the various groups I'm in; SquatSpace, You Are Here or the Rizzeria. Basically I'm usually scheming about something. My day job is working as an educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The rest of the time I do odd bits of illustration, run workshops and whatever casual paid work I can muster up. At the moment I am working on researching a project based around the Rocks area, continuing my interest in neighbourhoods. It's just the beginning of the project but I have already found some pretty great stories from the area and I am excited to create a new work there. Also, I'm collecting broken umbrellas for it - so if you have any send them my way! If money wasn't an issue I'd just do more making and less of the other odd jobs. Being an artist in Sydney can be a struggle, just living in Sydney can be a struggle but I find that often inspires me to make stuff about that very thing. My neighbourhood is Waterloo, right next to Redfern Park which is a pretty great. In 2005 due to the anxiety we were feeling about the area's mysterious and rapid changes, SquatSpace - one of the collectives I work with, developed the Redfern/Waterloo Tour of Beauty. The tours take people on bike and bus tours of the area with various local speakers. We've been running these since then so I feel pretty connected to the area. The area has, and continues to change a lot. The rapid gentrification of the area is pretty intense - there is a fast spreading new-café rash across the park on Redfern Street and then there's Danks Street to the East but don't even get me started on that. All I can say is thank goodness for the Public Housing so we have a little diversity still, at the moment… My favourite spot in Sydney is listening to the bats in the Botanic Gardens, which unfortunately is all about to change with the plans that are already in place to evict them…wah. For a full rundown on all of Keg's projects click here or for her blog click here.
It told you it was freakier. Giving 2003's mother-daughter body-swapping comedy a 22-years-later sequel means upping the ante, then. When the Freaky Friday franchise returns to cinemas, it'll again subject Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis, The Last Showgirl) and Anna (Lindsay Lohan, Our Little Secret) to a switch; however, they're not the only characters waking up to an unexpected change. Anna's daughter Harper (Julia Butters. The Fabelmans) and future stepdaughter Lily (Sophia Hammons, The Absence of Eden) will also learn what it's like to literally walk in another person's shoes to understand how they feel. As the just-dropped full trailer for the film shows, that's how sequel Freakier Friday is living up to its name: by getting four characters, not two, in on its identity crisis. This time, it's Harper and Lily who are squabbling, just as Tess and Anna were in the first flick — but the entire quartet experience the consequences. The new Freakier Friday sneak peek follows a first glimpse at the movie earlier in 2025, which already promised more chaos, plenty of nods to its predecessor — a nostalgic favourite — and taking the body-swap scenario up a few notches. The storyline: Anna is about to get married to Eric (Manny Jacinto, The Acolyte), hence gaining a stepdaughter, with the process of merging families happening just as a familiar situation pops up. It was back in 2023 that word arrived about a follow-up to the 00s version of Freaky Friday. Audiences will see the results on the big screen Down Under on Thursday, August 7, 2025. There's no fortune cookie involved, it seems, but there is a fortune teller (Vanessa Bayer, No Good Deed) who tells Anna and Tess that they've "walked in each other's paths" and "learned a lesson — a lesson that may serve you again". She also advises Harper and Lily that they're "called to be family". Similarly returning alongside Curtis and Lohan from Freaky Friday: Mark Harmon (NCIS: Origins), Chad Michael Murray (Sullivan's Crossing), Christina Vidal Mitchell (The Terminal List), Haley Hudson (Queen Gorya), Lucille Soong (Raya and the Last Dragon), Stephen Tobolowsky (The Madness) and Rosalind Chao (3 Body Problem). For more company, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever) also joins the cast. Behind the lens, Nisha Ganatra (The High Note, Late Night) is directing, with Curtis and Lohan among the executive producers, all on a movie that keeps building on the Freaky Friday name. The initial Curtis and Lohan team-up didn't start the franchise, of course. Instead, it began with the 1972 book by Mary Rodgers, then the 1976 Jodie Foster (True Detective: Night Country)-starring first movie adaptation, and also a 1995 remake with Gaby Hoffmann (Zero Day). After 2003's beloved Curtis- and Lohan-led take, horror flick Freaky also gave the idea a spin in 2020. Check out the full trailer for Freakier Friday below: Freakier Friday releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 7, 2025. Images: Glen Wilson © 2024/2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Spoiler warning: this interview incudes specifics about Materialists if you haven't watched the film before reading. Honesty. Authenticity. Anyone who has seen, swooned over and fallen head over heels for Past Lives, aka one of 2023's very best movies, already knows that these two traits beat at the heart of Celine Song's films. What's present in the writer/director's sophomore feature Materialists more than her Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated, Gotham- and Independent Spirit Award-winning debut, however, is frankness — especially about people approaching relationships as an arrangement and a transaction, even, and about coupling not just driven by love, fluttering hearts and racing pulses. As it plunges into the New York City life of Lucy (Dakota Johnson, Madame Web), Materialists is submerged in a matchmaker's existence. That's her job. For those looking for love and willing to pay her high-end employer — so, usually folks with ample cash to splash in the service of meeting their perfect partner — Lucy works her magic. She knows how to woo new clients. She also knows how to seal the deal, with nine marriages springing from her services so far. And, she's well-aware that her gig isn't simply to make sparks fly. With her like with no one else, the Big Apple's bachelors and bachelorettes are unvarnished about their wants and must-haves in a soul mate. They have exact height parameters, and acceptable salary ranges as well. Some sport lengthy lists that go much further. None are particularly willing to budge. Materialists is a direct film, then, about the objectification and commodification of people that can be layered into the search for someone to spend one's life with, plus the materialistic values that can often become part of that process. Yes, that's weighty for a romance. Song's movie is still both deeply affectionate and genuinely comedic, though — smartly, sharply, astutely and wonderfully so. And, even if its characters sometimes might be, Materialists is never cynical about love, its marvels, and the joys of truly finding someone that makes you instantly imagine your older self next to theirs decades into the future. Is Materialists saying the normally quiet part about modern love and dating maths, the motivations and reasons that aren't necessarily normally voiced, out loud? "Oh, interesting that you feel that way," is her first response to the question. "I feel like there are fully people who speak this way about love and dating. You go on TikTok, you know," she tells Concrete Playground. "I think that it is actually so much more common — and not only is it common, it is actually the way that my clients would speak." With Past Lives, Song adapted her own experience. She too had a Korean childhood sweetheart. She has an American husband. The movie in its entirety isn't autobiographical, but it grew from that kind of place. With Materialists, Song instead draws upon her own time endeavouring to assist others with their love lives. She was only a matchmaker for around half a year, but that stint has informed her second film that's centred on the emotional journey of a woman torn between her past and her future. Consequently, when Song says that people tackle the quest for a partner like they're putting in a drinks order (a coke and a beer is Lucy's) or making a deal, it's because she has seen it firsthand. "And also, people will just — like people in my life now, if you ask them what they're looking for, sometimes they will speak that way," Song continues. "And I do think that it is something where it's the quantifying or the turning into numbers, that it is, it gets that literal in that way. As in 'well, even if you're five-two, I still want somebody who's over six-feet tall'. And you're like 'why? Can they be five-ten?'. And they're like 'no'." Lucy faces this situation day in, day out. Chatting with Song about it, it's clear how intricately that her own time in the same day job while she was starting out as a playwright has fed into Materialists. The romantic options of Lucy's clients aren't the film's key concern, of course, but their attitudes have made an imprint on her own. So, when she has two choices — Harry (Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us), the tall, successful, distinguished, handsome and ultra-wealthy brother of someone that she's just married off; and John (Chris Evans, Red One), a struggling actor making a buck as a cater waiter that she has a past with — this proves a picture about how her personal reality and beliefs about love come to collide. Upon exiting her matchmaking days, Song knew that it'd play a part in her work at some point. She felt that compulsion immediately. Why? We also explored that in our chat about this seductive and significant — and masterful and meaningful — interrogation of relationships with its guiding force. Do people appraising romance in economic terms consciously realise that they're treating marriage like a transaction, or do they think that that's just a relic of history? How do you approach casting for chemistry, especially when a luminous Johnson, debonair Pascal and never-better Evans are your stars? They're some of the other directions that our discussion with Song charted. On Song Leaving Her Short Stint as a Matchmaker Knowing That It Would Somehow Inform Her Work — and How Materialists Came About From There "I think that I walked into that job thinking that it was going to be a day job, but I think I learned more about people and what their hearts desire than almost any other six-month period of my life. And I think that I did walk away from that job feeling like I'm going to make something about it. I was like 'I'm going to devise something about it, I just know it'. And I think that it's because I'm dealing with people, encountering people, every day who want to find love. But when you ask them what they're looking for, everything that they say about the person that they intend to love are things like height, weight, salary, lifestyle — things that are quantifiable, things that are concerns of an insurance salesperson or somebody at the morgue. So I think in that way, I was just always so shocked by how different the way everybody's talking about the dating side of the pursuit of love versus what I knew about love. And love is this amazing ancient mystery. It's a complete miracle when it happens. And it's the most beautiful, most dramatic thing that we do in our lives. So it's an amazing thing to just watch such a gap, huge gap, between what is the answer to 'who are you looking for?' and then what it is actually like to be in love and to fall in love. And I think that that gap, and then the tension in that gap, the contradiction of those two things, I think that was what really made me want to make a movie about it. It just felt like such a powerful mystery and a powerful thing to deal with." On Whether People Consciously Realise That They're Approaching Marriage Like a Transaction — or If They Think That That's Just a Relic of History, Such as Victorian Romances "We're not very far from the way that Victorian romances were talking about marriage, because I feel like still this economic pressure, especially as the economic anxieties and financial anxieties are such a fundamental part of our lives, the relief we want from it is, I think, at the heart of our fundamental desires, right? We're starting to be like 'I would like to be relieved of financial troubles. I would like to be relieved of it'. So part of that relief, desire for relief, is, of course, something that was a fundamental part of the Victorian romances. It's so much about that relief. And I think that we have not come that far from feeling like that's a very good reason to marry someone. I think that, of course, it's less of a total choice. And then, of course, women make money. So it's kind of like 'of course it's changed a lot in that way'. But how amazing that women are able to make their own living? And so in that part of this, of course, so far improved — but it still hasn't changed the otherwise very difficult thing, which is that marriage is still seen as a very specific contract. And I think that that is a very reasonable and a normal thing. But as Lucy says in the film 'but love has to be on the table', right? You can't walk away, right? Like you can't actually have a business partner for your spouse. Your spouse is your spouse. You're going to have to change that person's diaper. That person would change your diaper — whatever, one of you is changing the other person's diaper. And the thing is, that's the most romantic thing about marriage, and therefore love has to be on the table." On Song's Approach to Casting for Chemistry — Especially When Casting Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans "I think that when it comes to chemistry, some of it is just purely instinctual. But it's also so much work that's coming from the actors — as in, it is something that we're working on together as part of the performance, the chemistry. I think that sometimes people think chemistry is just flirting on-screen, but it's really not about flirting at all. Chemistry is something that you build by having two characters who want different things from each other, and the two of them trying to find a resolution. So what I mean by that is, for example, that loading dock scene between John, Chris Evans' character, and Lucy, Dakota Johnson's character, is that the chemistry in that scene is being built by me telling Chris 'you're doing your darndest, you're doing your best, to not kiss her'. And when it comes to Dakota, I'm telling her 'I think that she already knows that she probably will kiss him at some point'. So to me, I'm like 'well, you have two contradicting desires, right?'. And in that, that's where the tension is going to be and that's where the chemistry is going to be. So that's how it gets built. And the thing is, it's not just that these two people who are flirting with each other and then somehow there's going to be chemistry — there's not. It's all beautifully make believe. So, much of it I would want to credit the acting, the work that we're doing on it. And this is what I've always believed about chemistry. Chemistry is about erotic desire. And what is erotic desire? Wanting something that you don't have. That's where you can have chemistry. So I think, to be honest, that's the truth of it. And when it comes to those actors, I think building the chemistry, some of that is just about just knowing it — just knowing that they're going to, all three actors, are going to feel something for each other. That they're going to like each other, and even like just actually feel something for each other in such a deep way as humans. So I think it's really that. And of course, if they're the right people for each role, and these roles are romantically entangled and have chemistry with each other, they are going to have chemistry with each other. So to me, that's how I would really describe the way to find chemistry." On the Film Exploring Not Only Lucy's Clashing Romantic Options, But the Conflict Between Her Personal Reality and Her Beliefs About Love "I think the funniest part of it is that she's a matchmaker and she's having trouble finding a match for herself. And that's kind of an amazing dramatic problem — a matchmaker who is looking for love. So I think that in that way, it was always so important that we're meeting Lucy at the peak of her power and the peak of her feeling that she's the expert, that she knows everything. And then throughout the film, to unravel her until she is somebody who was able to not only accept that she doesn't know, but to also say 'I completely surrender. I completely surrender to love'. So I think that because that is her journey throughout this film, it was absolutely, yes, exactly what you're describing is the reason I wanted to make this movie. It was very important for Lucy to start as somebody who is presenting as just the smartest girl ever, and then to end the film making a decision that is with her heart. And it's not going to seem smart to a lot of people — even though the truth is we know that she's making the only smart decision in the whole film, right? Which is to say 'deal' to the one deal that you cannot say 'no' to. That's the only deal that is worth saying 'yes' to. And she does it. And in fact, that's the beautiful thing. It's like by making a decision that I'm sure, to herself in the beginning of the film, may seem like a stupid decision, she's making the wisest decision she can make about her life — which is to go where love is." Materialists opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Images: Atsushi Nishijima, A24.
There's nothing humdrum about rum. A favourite with pirates, sailors and scoundrels alike, this rich, golden dram works equally well as a neat shot or for a disorderly night of mojitos. Here's our list of the top destinations for rum-sipping in Sydney, so you can get better acquainted with the spirit of the sea. THE LOBO PLANTATION The Lobo Plantation on Clarence Street will transport you to the glamorous, old world estate of Julio Lobo, a wealthy Cuban sugar trader from the 20th century. Splash out on their Millionaire cocktail ($17), which features a powerful blend of Appleton Estate VX, apricot brandy, sloe gin, lime juice and grenadine, served with a rolled up bank note attached to the stem. Otherwise, cosy into one of the leather banquettes with their Lobo Rum Journal, a 100+ page compendium of rum tasting and production notes which leaves you spoilt for choice. Basement Lot 1, 209 Clarence Street, Sydney PAPA GEDE'S Named after the Haitian voodoo spirit of love and laughter, Papa Gede is just one of many spirits in this witch-doctor apothecary bar. Specialising in Caribbean rum and fruit concoctions, the signature drink is The Zombie ($16), a bright and spicy mix of Appleton Estate rum, brandy, Cointreau, grapefruit and falernum (a sugar syrup made with almonds, ginger and cloves). It's strong enough to resurrect the dead, Papa Gede's warns. This is definitely a venue to add to your regular haunts. 348 Kent Street, Sydney EAU DE VIE This dimly lit speakeasy is the darling of Darlinghurst, serving some of Sydney's best rum cocktails (with a glass cabinet of awards to prove it). If you're a mighty fan of the mai tai, try their tiki version, Captain Zissou ($21). This inspired blend is made with Appleton VX rum, grapefruit and passionfruit marmalade, dry fino sherry, freeze-dried mint leaves and liquorice root syrup, vigorously shaken over ice. As a final touch, it's flamed to impart a burnt rum aroma over the top. C'est magnifique! 229 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst GRANDMA'S BAR Isn't it time you paid Grandma's a visit? This cosy den of cosmopolitan kitsch on Clarence Street is one of the last places you might expect to find such a vast battery of rum. Just like Grandma, the mai tai ($21) is an oldie but a goodie. Her version uses Appleton Extra Jamaican rum, Creole schrubb (an orange and rum liqueur), orgeat, lime, pineapple and bitters, set alight. Grandma would never let you leave hungry, so tuck into an old-school spaghetti jaffle ($8) while you're here. Basement 275 Clarence St, Sydney THE CUBAN PLACE Directly across from the Queen Victoria Building, The Cuban Place recreates the heydays of 1950s Havana, considered to be the home of the mojito. This classic rum, lime and mint medley is available in three sizes, or you can thumb your way through their extensive rum list, with over 150 entries from around the globe. You can also order a Cuban cigar, something that will surely make the smokers light up. 125 York Street, Sydney THE CLIFF DIVE Decorated with artefacts from the South Seas, this little treasure on Oxford Street features a one-of-a-kind underwater dance floor and tiki bar with a rum focus. To drink, we recommend the Monkey Hat ($25), which combines home-spiced rum, Aperol, passionfruit and lime and is served in a monkey head, just like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 16-18 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst BUTTON BAR Welcome aboard button bar, a pirate-themed watering hole by the crew behind Pocket Bar and Stitch. There's no X marks the spot at this inconspicuous address on Foveaux Street, but once inside, you'll find a gorgeous, wood-panelled ship's hull with 19th-century long rifles and dripping. The go-to cocktail is the Pleasure Vessel ($17) a tasty, tart combination of Appleton dark rum, Grand Marnier, orange marmalade, fresh grapefruit, lemon and orange blossom water. We're sure ye will love it. 65 Foveaux Street, Sydney MOONSHINE CIDER & RUM BAR Located upstairs in the Hotel Steyne, Moonshine is one of the only pirate bars with an outdoor wooden deck and beachside views, which makes it a breath of fresh sea air. Racks of caged rums line the walls, priced from $7.50 for the house to $40 for a top shelf selection. There's also a stage for live bands and DJs, if you feel like hearing a few shanties. 75 The Corso, Manly
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.
Plumb in the centre of campus, the University of Wollongong's Uni Bar draws in the crowds with ease. Some come to fortify themselves on cheap and generously portioned eats. Others come to get a little bit buzzed and to have a punt at bingo, watch live comedy, get involved in drag queen trivia or simply watch the sun go down with a cold one in hand. On top of all that there's also live music, with sets throughout the week featuring a stellar lineup of Australian and international acts (pre-pandemic, at least) for which the bar has earned its respected reputation. It's for more than just students at this uni bar.
Located on the south end of Sydney's Bondi Beach, this long-running establishment offers house-made pasta with one serious view. The venue is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day and is ideal for vegetarian diners, as half the menu is vego. The best way to approach this extensive menu is this: start with a selection of antipasti — tarama dip with bottarga and fennel pollen, roasted bugs with garlic and chilli butter and stuffed zucchini flowers — then order a bunch of pastas and pizzas to share. Pastas include roasted pumpkin and sage butter gnocchi, angel hair with yellowfin tuna or littleneck clams and spaghetti napoli or bolognese. Sourdough pizzas come topped with truffled four cheeses, lamb sausage and caramelised onion or broccolini with pickled eggplant and ricotta. The dessert menu features some classic Italian treats including chocolate cannoli, ricotta-stuffed doughnuts and affogato, served with a glass of sticky riesling.
There are plenty of oyster deals in Sydney, but they often pop up around the late afternoon — right when many people are tied up with work, classes or errands. They're scheduled to fill the quiet stretch between lunch and dinner service, a lull that exists precisely because diners get busy during those hours. Unless you have the day off, it's easy to miss out on cheap shucks. On George Street in the CBD, The Sanderson is fixing that. Inside the heritage-listed Beneficial House, The Sanderson sits above subterranean cocktail bar and sister venue Eau-de-Vie. Decked out in dark wooden finishes, rich navy-blue walls, plush velvet booths and brass detailing, the venue evokes a glamorous Old World charm that makes bargain oysters feel out of place. Yet, the kitchen serves $2 oysters at lunchtime (down from the usual $8) from Wednesday to Friday. If you're after more than a quick shuck, there's also a seriously hefty $85 three-course menu: three different entrées (including a carbonara tart), a choice of mushroom gnocchi, prawns or lamb rump, plus roasted spuds to share and petit fours for dessert. It's also ideal for a business lunch — especially if you can lock down one of the coveted window booths and expense it. Find The Sanderson at 285 George St, Sydney, entry via Wynyard Lane. For more information or to make a booking, visit the website.
If you're a devotee of the theatre, then August is definitely your month in Sydney. There are shows galore, from Broadway classics such as Chicago and West Side Story to the musical productions of Bring It On at the State Theatre and Muriel's Wedding at Sydney Lyric Theatre. Feet already tapping to the imaginary music? Well, it might just be time to book yourself in for a theatre-themed staycation. Line up all the shows you want to check out and book into the luxurious West Hotel on Sussex Street, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton to be your home away from home. The new hotel is based on Sussex St in the CBD, conveniently close to the theatres, and a heap of bars, cafes and restaurants that you can visit in between shows. [caption id="attachment_650803" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bennelong. Image: Brett Stevens.[/caption] ENJOY A DAZZLING PRE-SHOW DINNER There's nothing worse than sitting through a show you're absolutely loving, except you can't concentrate properly because your tummy is rumbling. Avoid the discomfort by calling into one of these venues before the theatre doors open. The minimalist share plates at Poly in Surry Hills are a failsafe choice if you're heading to the Capitol Theatre. And before any State Theatre show, a sumptuous Italian feast at QT Sydney's low-lit, elegant Parlour Cucina is just the ticket. If you don't feel like dining at the Star Casino eateries before heading to the Lyric Theatre, it's worth trying out the evening tasting menu at the gracefully European-inspired Pyrmont wine bar Bar Clementine. Finally, if you're seeing West Side Story at the Sydney Opera House and want to really make a night of it, there's no better choice than Bennelong's Big Night Out set menu, which features high-end versions of Aussie favourite (yes, including Bennelong's famous lamington dessert) for $170 a head. [caption id="attachment_698588" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bancho Bar.[/caption] DEBRIEF POST-SHOW OVER A COCKTAIL Everyone knows that after you leave the theatre, you are feeling alive and filled with melodious energy. So, it's the perfect time to head to a nearby bar with your theatre buddy and discuss all your favourite moments from the stage spectacular you just witnessed. If you're seeing Chicago at Capitol Theatre, then head to Haymarket's Bancho Bar for a Japanese-inspired cocktail and some delicious katsu skewers. After an Opera House show, stop by Kittyhawk, which is just a quick walk up Macquarie Street, to find a Parisian military-themed bar with a seriously interesting cocktail list. Solander Dining and Bar is a top spot to hit for a gab and na Aussie botanical cocktail after seeing Muriel's Wedding at Sydney Lyric Theatre, while mezcal bar Cantina OK! is an ideal place to check out after a visit to the State Theatre. It's only a six-minute walk back home to your lavish room at West Hotel, too. [caption id="attachment_635708" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sydney Opera House. Image: Letícia Almeida[/caption] HAVE A TRUE BEHIND-THE-SCENES THEATRE EXPERIENCE If you always dreamt of being a performer (but unfortunately lacked the voice or moves), this is your chance to take a peek behind the stage curtain. On the Sydney Opera House backstage tour, you'll not only be guided around all the backstage nooks and crannies but also regaled with behind-the-scenes stories of performers and shows that have graced the stages. Plus, you'll also get finish your tour with a delicious breakfast in the Green Room (typically the domain of crew and performers). If that's not enough to delight your operatic senses, The Opera Centre in Surry Hills also offers tours. This is where sets, costumes and props are made for some of Sydney's biggest productions, so you'll get to poke around the production workshops and see the huge amount of work, talent and skill that goes into staging the productions you adore. [caption id="attachment_729157" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Old Fitzroy. Image: Tanya Saint James.[/caption] HANG OUT WITH LOCAL THESPIANS Ask any aspiring actor or beloved Aussie thespian — certainly anyone in the Sydney theatre scene — and they'll tell you the same thing: there's nowhere better for a schooner than Woolloomooloo icon The Old Fitzroy Hotel. The Old Fitz, recently taken over by new owners, houses Australia's only 'pub theatre' — the stage of which has welcomed some of Australia's most beloved acting talents. The regulars, many of whom graced the stages of a bygone era or wrote some of Sydney's best local productions, are part of this pub's furniture and their stories will no doubt delight. Enjoy a classic British pub feed on the back patio, then head to the front tables to see if any of the regular famous Aussie faces will be joining you. [caption id="attachment_586723" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Moya's Juniper Lounge. Image: Steven Woodburn.[/caption] HEAD TO A JAZZ BAR IF YOU CAN'T GET 'ALL THAT JAZZ' OUT OF YOUR HEAD If you're one of the many heading to the Capitol Theatre to see the Broadway classic Chicago, then chances are you'll spend the following few days with 'All That Jazz' on unrelenting repeat in your head. The only way to resolve that, in our opinion, is giving your noggin what it's asking for: all the jazz. Hit up Marrickville jazz haunt Lazybones Lounge or, if you need something a little closer to the city, Venue 505 is a quintessential Surry Hills jazz bar that's only a 10-minute drive from West Hotel. And if you're free on a Sunday night, Moya's Juniper Lounge in Redfern has all the live jazz you could ever want — plus $10 negronis. [caption id="attachment_722457" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Glenmore.[/caption] GET A DOSE OF SHAKESPEARE AT A PUB Shakespeare shows probably conjure up visions of stuffy playhouses and equally stuffy patrons — but, historically, performances of the Bard's work were much less refined. So bringing Shakespeare shows back to their roots in pubs is exactly what the creators of Bar'd Work, Chris Huntly-Turner and James Haxby, set out to achieve. The Shakesbeer Sessions happen at pubs all around Sydney — the majority of which are a quick 10-minute drive from West Hotel, like the aptly named Shakespeare Hotel or The Glenmore — so check out the calendar here to see what tragicomedy is on the books next. [caption id="attachment_697915" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Goros.[/caption] BELT OUT YOUR FAVOURITE TUNES AT A KARAOKE BAR You've just exited the theatre doors with music in your heart and your head is filled with show tunes — maybe the catchy cheerleading chants from Bring It On, the Broadway classics of Chicago or West Side Story or the hits of ABBA beloved by the titular character in Muriel's Wedding. What do you want to do more than anything? Do your own star performance, of course. Luckily, Sydney has plenty of options. You and your show buddies can share the glass karaoke room and giant Japanese katsu at Bang Bang or head to Goros for a private room and plenty of Japanese cocktails and bar snacks. If you want to kick on, Sydney institution Ding Dong Dang has plenty of private karaoke rooms so you can continue to get boozy and belt out 'Mamma Mia' into the wee hours. [caption id="attachment_698575" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Employees Only.[/caption] HAVE AN AUTHENTIC NYC DINING EXPERIENCE AFTER SEEING 'WEST SIDE STORY' If you've got your tickets in-hand and are eagerly hanging out to see West Side Story at the Opera House, make the wait little more bearable with a tasty NYC-inspired meal. For a proper NYC bagel that emulates the pastrami monstrosities from Katz's Delicatessan, head to Brooklyn Boy Bagels in the CBD. If you're after a long, boozy lunch, NYC-inspired cafe Bowery Lane is a perfect choice, offering hickory-smoked salmon on rye, juicy pork cutlet and an impressive wine list with plenty of drops from the US. Or for dinner and a drink, head to Employees Only — this delightful underground venue is the Sydney outpost of the award-winning New York speakeasy. It's serving up monterey jack cheeseburgers, marrow poppers, caviar service with blinis and, of course, world-class cocktails. Don't worry if you have one too many — your room at West Hotel is only a few minutes away. [caption id="attachment_731501" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sydney Dance Company.[/caption] PRACTISE YOUR BEST 'CELL BLOCK TANGO' WITH A THEATRE JAZZ DANCE CLASS If you can't stop those feet from tapping and sashay-ing around the streets after seeing Chicago, it might be worth investing an hour in a theatre jazz class at the Sydney Dance Company. This dance school has regular drop-in classes, which is perfect if you get an undeniable urge to cell block tango all of a sudden. And don't fret about your skills — classes range from experienced and beginners, so you don't have to be Bob Fosse to join in. [caption id="attachment_634987" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Giant Dwarf Theatre.[/caption] GO 'OFF-BROADWAY' AND EXPERIENCE SYDNEY'S SMALL THEATRE SCENE Sydney is obviously known for its gorgeous theatres and established production companies, but it also has an impressive small theatre scene. If you have spare time in between shows, it's worth checking out what's on offer at Giant Dwarf in Redfern — a Sydney favourite for comedy. Meanwhile, Griffin Theatre and Eternity Playhouse, both in Darlinghurst, offer impressive local productions in intimate settings. If you're after something a touch more indie and underground, head to the New Theatre in Newtown, which has been home to the non-conformists who act purely for the love of it since the 1930s. Make your mini musical-themed break easy with a stay at West Hotel and discover more of the city's showbiz-style happenings. Top Image: The Glenmore.
For one electric week this October, SXSW Sydney transforms the city into a live, living festival of creativity. With more than 1600 sessions and events taking place between October 13–19, including over 400 conference talks, 300-plus gigs, 100 film screenings and hundreds of brand activations, it's the ultimate playground for the culturally curious. Whether you're looking to catch the next breakout artist or want a front-row seat at Australian film premieres, a SXSW Sydney Wristband ($140) is your all-access pass. The Music Wristband unlocks entry to every gig across the week, while the Screen Wristband gets you into all festival screenings — from exclusive previews to star-studded conversations. And for the Screen Festival, you can also grab a $25 rush ticket to guarantee your seat at some of this year's hottest screenings — and if you can't grab a wristband, you can still check out a heap of free gigs at Tumbalong Park as part of SXSW Sydney Unlocked. Here's your cheat sheet to all the moments that'll make your pass pay for itself. Celebrate ten years of Hoops with The Rubens To mark the tenth anniversary of their breakthrough album Hoops, Aussie alt-rockers The Rubens headline a free all-ages mini-festival at Tumbalong Park on Saturday, October 18. Hoops & Everything, co-curated by The Rubens and the SXSW Sydney crew, is an all-day event that will spotlight emerging talents like Chicago indie duo Whitney, Folk Bitch Trio, Mariae Cassandra and Velvet Trip, serving up a huge day of genre-blurring sounds shaping the future of live music right in the heart of the city. No wristband? No worries — Hoops & Everything is part of SXSW Sydney Unlocked, meaning you can head in for free. See Ninajirachi ride her ARIA-nominated momentum From the Central Coast to opening for the likes of Charli XCX and Cashmere Cat, Ninajirachi is a star on the rise — and her eight ARIA Award nominations, the most of any artist, are testament to that. Don't miss one of Australia's most exciting electronic producers as she takes to the stage at American Apparel House at The Chippo on Wednesday, October 15, for a high-energy set that'll show you why the NSW artist is next-gen dance royalty. Get bootscootin', baby, at the Tumbalong Honky Tonk Dust off your boots for the Tumbalong Honky Tonk on Friday, October 17, and get ready to two-step under the Sydney skyline. Take a line dancing lesson from the Saddle Club before high-energy sets from chart-topping Max Jackson, Canadian country trio The Washboard Union, viral teen sensation Lewis Love and golden-rock duo Big Wheels. Discover the next global star at the International Stage From Indonesian hip hoppers Tenxi, Jemsii and Naykilla to the soulful stylings of Chinese singer-songwriter Tia Ray and Japanese boy band PSYCHIC FEVER, the International Stage is a world tour without leaving Sydney. Catch some of the best next-gen talent from around the world on the International Stage at Tumbalong Park on Wednesday, October 15, part of the free SXSW Sydney Unlocked program. Feel the power of First Nations creativity at Blak to the Future Headlined by rapper Tasman Keith, Blak to the Future is a free outdoor showcase that celebrates the future of First Nations music and screen culture, as part of the SXSW Sydney Unlocked program. Head to Tumbalong Park on Thursday, October 16, for an evening of short films from emerging filmmakers and live performances from Akala Newman, Mr Rhodes and RIAH, all coming together to shine a light on the future of First Nations storytelling. See the stars at exclusive screenings A SXSW Sydney Screen Wristband gets you closer to the action with access to in-person appearances and live conversations. Catch Noah Centineo introducing his new film, Our Hero, Balthazar, live, and don't miss an exclusive first-look preview of the upcoming Glen Powell-starring action thriller The Running Man. The debut footage will be followed by a live chat moderated by Nash Edgerton, featuring director Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) joining remotely. Celebrate a comedy legend with Paul Feig in conversation and on screen Celebrated filmmaker Paul Feig is heading to SXSW Sydney as the event's inaugural Screen Pioneer Award recipient. Catch his must-see keynote conversation on Wednesday, October 15, where he'll share career stories and creative insights with his trademark wit. Screenings of his greatest hits will also take place across the week, including Bridesmaids (plus a live Q&A with Feig himself), The Heat, and a 14-hour Freaks & Geeks marathon at The Ritz. These sessions are selling fast, so grab a rush ticket to guarantee your seat. Walk the red carpet for Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere The Australian premiere of this absorbing biopic opens the SXSW Sydney Screen program. Starring Jeremy Allen White as the Boss himself, the film tells the story of the legendary American rocker creating his 1982 acoustic album Nebraska. Catch Australian premieres and cult gems before they break out Your SXSW Sydney Screen Wristband is your ticket to a stack of Australian and NSW premieres, including a first-look at upcoming horror flick Black Phone 2, time-travel mockumentary Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, Yorgos Lanthimos' absurdist sci-fi caper Bugonia, the haunting Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson-starring Die My Love and offbeat comedy-drama If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. You'll also find buzzed-about features like Japanese viral thriller Exit 8, By Design starring Juliette Lewis, and Psycho Therapy, a dark comedy led by Steve Buscemi. For the full SXSW Sydney 2025 lineup, head to the SXSW Sydney website — and get your all-access wristband at the ticketing website.
Having a hard week? Need to get your chi sorted but also just really want a drink? Well, every Sunday you can do both — at a brewery. That's right, a brewery. Every Sunday morning, you can stretch and sip in Marrickville's Stockade Brew Co. Dubbed Beer 'n' Yoga, the guided class — held at 11am — is hosted by instructor Arabella Stevens and is aimed at a beginner to intermediate level. Fifteen bucks gets you a 60-minute yoga class followed by a free craft beer from the brewery's core range: Chop Shop Pale Ale, 8Bit IPA, Sesh Mid-Strength, Hop Slicer Grapefruit, Mr Fruju NEIPA or Duel Hoppy Lager. Brewery yoga is already a popular trend across the US craft beer scene, and Sydney has already hosted a couple of iterations of its own. The idea stems from the notion that yoga isn't about incense and austerity, but instead about finding a healthy balance in life. By 'balance', we don't mean practicing upward facing dog with a beer in one hand (although, kudos to you if you can manage that), but appreciating yoga and beer in quick succession. Bring your yoga mat, an open mind and be sure to pack your drinking hat, too.
Since 1989, the Piscine Molitor – Paris’s most glamorous interwar swimming spot and namesake of Yann Martel’s fictional hero – has been dry as a bone. Where the world’s first bikini model strutted her stuff and Tarzan once served as lifeguard, graffiti artists have been busy tagging and ravers have been busy, well, raving. In fact, a 2001 dance party run by French collective Heretik saw a 5,000-strong crowd occupy the space. But as of Monday, the indoor pool has been re-filled and re-opened in yet another incarnation. It is now part of a luxury 124-room MGallery hotel, complete with gym, spa, restaurant and bar. And the privilege of visiting for a day comes at the whopping cost of €150 (about $220). Both the 33-metre pool and the 50-metre lido have received a somewhat controversial renovation. Of the original façade, designed by Lucien Pollet, only one small section remains. But the architect behind the changes, Jean Phillipe Nuel, defends them. "We tried to conserve the dialogue between past and present," he told The Guardian. "For example, in the lobby under the original two-metre high ceiling (now mirrored) is a Rolls Royce bought by Eric Cantona, tagged by the American graffiti artist JonOne." Nuel has also managed to preserve several distinguishing Art Deco features, including the mosaics, stained glass images of bathers, blue doors and green railings crucial to Pollet’s original vision: that the Piscine Molitor should resemble an ocean liner. All the fancying up is perhaps less in keeping with Martel’s artistic decisions. The long-surviving, spiritually explorative Pi received his name because his “honorary uncle”, Mamaji, had told his father: “If you want your son to have a clean soul, you must take him one day to swim in the Piscine Molitor”. No mention of an enormous bank account. Via The Guardian.
When home video, the internet and mobile phones with inbuilt cameras each arrived, six words could've been uttered: get ready to look at dicks. New HBO comedy Minx is set the early 70s, so before all three, but the same phrase also applies here. It's true of the show itself, which isn't shy about displaying the male member in various shapes and sizes. It also stands tall in the world that Minx depicts. When you're making the first porn magazine for women — and, when you're making a series about it, even if it's all purely fictional — penises are inescapable. Also impossible to avoid in Minx: questions like "are erections consistent with our philosophy?", as asked by Vassar graduate and country club regular Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond, Trying). Idolising the magazine industry and unhappily working for the dispiritingly traditional Teen Queen, she has long dreamed of starting her own feminist publication — even penning a bundle of articles and making her own issues — but centrefolds splashed with male genitalia don't fit her ideal pitch. No one's buying what Joyce is selling, though; The Matriarchy Awakens, her dream mag, gets rejected repeatedly by the industry's gatekeepers. Only one is interested: Bottom Dollar Publications' Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson, Ride the Eagle), but he's in the pornography business. In Minx's premiere — which is now streaming alongside its second via Stan in Australia, with future episodes dropping in pairs weekly — Joyce and Doug are poised as opposites. When they first meet at the Southern California Magazine Pitch Festival, they contrast so forcefully in a visual sense that the show's Los Angeles-set frames may as well be screaming. She's buttoned up in a three-piece pantsuit, while he hasn't seen fit to fasten his shirt above his navel. Her gaze is steely and resolute; his couldn't be more casual. As created by Ellen Rapoport (Clifford the Big Red Dog) and executive produced by Paul Feig (Last Christmas), Minx plays up this clear and blatant contrast, and gleefully so, but little that follows is ever as easy and obvious. A streaming series about feminism, penises and 70s porn for women: that's Minx. A program about all of the above that unpacks and subverts Joyce and Doug's initial impressions: that's Minx as well. Indeed, it uses that first interaction as a spark for everything it carves into once it truly kicks into gear. Together, the pair pledge to create a feminist erotica magazine, and a savvy yet breezy workplace comedy results. The fact that nothing is ever just one thing — be it people, ideas, or everything that feminism and porn encompass — is a straightforward observation, but it's laid bare in a winning way in this quickly likeable show. Joyce is many things, in addition to being Minx's editor, driving force and sole doubter about male centrefolds. She worships Gloria Steinem, hands out The Kinsey Report to her colleagues, and is committed to giving the mag depth and intelligence — marital rape and contraception for single women rank among her ready-to-go article topics — but she's also prudish about nudity and sex toys, and incurious about her own desires. And, as the series points out, she benefits from a layer of white privilege and financial comfort that's given her the space to even fantasise about her passion project in the first place. Doug is equally multifaceted; a slacker on par with Johnson's New Girl claim to fame, he isn't. He's laidback, naturally, but he's astute about business, great at reading people, eager to make bold leaps and values having talented folks around him. Just as Joyce isn't merely a patriarchy-smashing go-getter stereotype, Doug isn't a sleazy but charming peddler of porn, either. Teamwork makes the Minx dream work, of course, and the crew assembled to get the magazine into the hands of women keeps challenging archetypes, too. Blonde and perky, Bambi (Jessica Lowe, Miracle Workers) models for Doug's other publications, has a knack for the creative side of the business and could never be dismissed as a bimbo — and sees nothing wrong with everything the term typically describes. Shelly (Lennon Parham, Veep), Joyce's sister, is more open about sex and its place in print, all while slotting into the conventional homemaker role expected of her gender. There's also Tina (Idara Victor, Shameless), Doug's whip-smart righthand woman, who rightly won't stand for being underestimated because she's Black— but isn't simply around to offer that reminder — and gay Latino photographer Richie (Oscar Montoya, Final Space), who is never a best friend-type sidekick. If Minx, the series, sounds a little like The Deuce meets Mrs America — but lighter, sweeter and funnier — that's because the comparison fits. Pick a beloved workplace sitcom, make it about feminism and porn, and Minx would slide in there, too, especially with its pitch-perfect ensemble cast. Of course, TV comedies aren't normally filled with so many phalluses, but this series knows that it can't tell a tale about embracing the female gaze if it doesn't embody the very concept. It's thoughtful about it at every turn as well; when Joyce rationalises the mag's first centrefold by flipping a real-life situation that women have endured too often, it's part of Minx's ongoing conversation on a range of essential topics. The many forms that feminism takes, how women have been conditioned to view sex, the stigma surrounding porn: they all bubble up in Minx's first five episodes (from a ten-instalment debut season). So too do sexism within advertising and in life in general, boys' club mentalities, censorship, the wowser-driven political war against anything salacious, the way that women judge each other and the power dynamics at the heart of romance. Obviously, the list of subjects that could fall into Minx's remit is lengthy — and, like its two lead characters, it sports the ambition to keep spreading its message far and wide. It's also as determined and unapologetic as Joyce, charismatic and flirty like Doug, and as layered as everyone in its frames. Minx's dicks don't talk — that's left to Pam & Tommy — but this newcomer is a full-frontal delight. Check out the trailer for Minx below. The first two episodes of Minx are available to stream via Stan, with two new episodes dropping weekly.
Hospo legends Dre Walters and Swan Kanongataa of Old Mate's Place and Ginny's Canoe Club have arrived in Newtown with a new multi-space venue offering top-notch take-home provisions and an intimate setting for a couple of cocktails. Huelo can be found at 127 King Street, right next to Inner West favourites Bella Brutta, Cafe Paci and Mapo Gelato. From the outside, it looks like a charming general store with a selection of tables for drinks and snacks, stocked full with artisanal goods. But, head through the store to the back and you'll discover a tiny 12-seat speakeasy-style cocktail bar backing onto a courtyard. Huelo means sun rays in Tongan. The name is meant to convey the venue's bright and welcoming atmosphere while also paying homage to Kanongataa's heritage. Out front, you'll find an unpretentious general store stocking pantry items like tinned fish, chilli honey, truffle oil and passata, as well as thinly sliced deli meats, ceramics and Huelo merch. It's a one-stop shop for that one item you're willing to splurge on to take your dinner to the next level. There are also a handful of seats in the general store and out the front where you can order a wine or a snack. The deli meats are used in the sandwiches and there is a selection of small plates with highlights including the fried quick po-boy. Bypass the groceries and head through a door out the back to find the secret cocktail bar that Kanongataa describes as, "a culminatio of everything we love about bars and cocktails." "Genuine service and thoughtful drinks. Those are the bars that stand the test of time in our opinion. If the General store is old world, then our hidden cocktail bar is Miami tropical glam meets New York brasserie. The cocktails are fun, imaginative, and delicious." The bar is kicking things off with a hefty happy hour. Each Wednesday–Saturday you can score oysters for $2 a pop and magnums of champagne from 4–6pm. Walters and Kanongataa also have plans to open a third space. The soon-to-open upstairs dining room will boast a bigger selection of eats, space for larger groups and the ability to book out the room for functions. You'll find Huelo Bar and Huelo General Store at 127 king Street, Newtown. They're open 4pm–late Wednesday–Thursday and Sunday, and midday–2am Friday–Saturday.
Stay tuned. More info coming soon.
For most people, waking up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee is one of life's simple pleasures. Soon, waking up in bedding made from coffee grounds might be as well. Forget using caffeinated leftovers in the garden or around the house — Australian outfit Ettitude wants to reuse the parts that don't make it into your cuppa, infusing them into their new sheets range. It seems that they're not the only ones keen on the idea, with their Kickstarter campaign fully funded, and the first sheets due to ship in November. Their range includes the whole bedding kit and caboodle — aka flat and fitted sheets, quilt covers and pillow cases — in double, queen and king sizes, as available in a range of packs of combinations. And while they don't actually smell like everyone's favourite hot beverage, they do supposedly reap plenty of rewards. So, how does it work? The company's bamboo coffee bedding collection uses coffee yarns sourced from S.Cafe, who repurpose coffee grounds from cafes around the world, blend them with a polymer made from recycled plastic drink bottles, and turn the mix into fabric. At Ettitude, the yarns are then woven through their own sustainable bamboo lyocell textiles, ready to bring some coffee goodness to bedrooms everywhere. It's not just the environmentally friendly aspect of their new creation that Ettitude is getting all frothed up about, either; their sheets apparently offer a range of other benefits. It's unsurprising that material made out of something as heavy-scented as coffee grounds can block out other odours, but it can also wick away moisture faster, ensuring that bedding stays fresher for longer. Ettitude also state that hypoallergenic, thermoregulating bamboo-based linen doesn't irritate hair and skin as much as other fabrics, helping you wake up feeling refreshed — before you even roll out of bed and grab a coffee. For more information about Ettitude's bamboo coffee sheets, head to their Kickstarter campaign.
HAM is an acronym for Harry and Mario, the two brothers who opened this deli-cafe together when they were in their early twenties. This family heritage carries through to both the atmosphere and the menu of this charming brunch spot. HAM showcases the Greek heritage of the two founding brothers, which makes even more sense considering their mother still works in the kitchen, and their father sources fresh produce from the markets. Classic and comforting dine-in dishes include spanakopita, moussaka and pastitsio, while the deli offers an enticing selection of cheeses and cold meats to take home. It's not all greek food though. You'll also find toasties, nourish bowls, egg dishes and its famed apple granola that has been on the menu for over a decade. Both brothers are trained baristas, too. So, you can expect these caffeine aficionados to serve you top-notch coffee. Image: Cassandra Hannagan
Two Queers Walk Into a Bar, the project of Brendan Hancock and Jenna Suffern, is back with its biggest edition yet, rolling out the Two Queers Comedy Festival across two weeks for 2024's Mardi Gras. The packed program of laughs and performances is throwing up a little bit of everything, including an opening-night gala, exciting new shows from some of the country's best comedians and an anti-Valentine's Day singles night. The festival kicks things off with a huge opening night of stand-up on Friday, February 16, at Paddington Town Hall. Nina Oyama (Deadloch, Taskmaster Australia) and Etcetera Etcetera (Drag Race Down Under) lead the lineup alongside Annaliese Constable, Jacinta Gregory, Lou Wall and more. From there on out, there are plenty of exciting shows to catch. Zoe Coombs Marr is bringing her new set, A Perpetual Work in Progress, to Kinselas Hotel on Saturday, February 24, as part of the festival. Also on the program are Frankie Fearce, Annaliese Constable, Jordan Barr, Ruby Teys, Gaffy, Aaron Manhattan, Foxy Moron and Aurelia St Clair. Plus, Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt's Jazz or a Bucket of Blood (one of Suffern's top picks for last year's Sydney Fringe Festival) will be returning to the Harbour City to appear at the festival on Tuesday, February 20. Tickets range from $20–50. You can check out the full schedule via Humanitix. Top image: Andy Mullins
