Month: January 2018

Eau De Vie introduce an interactive custom made martini trolley at their Darlinghurst bar (Sydney)

One of Sydney’s finest cocktail bars, Eau De Vie, has just started a new partnership with Star of Bombay that has resulted in an exclusively-designed custom martini trolley that will be available at the venue to reflect the ceremonial ritual of the classic martini services influenced by iconic hotel bars throughout history. The bespoke theatrical…

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Nike showcase the new Vapor X expression at the Australian Open

Amidst the Christmas rush you may have missed out one of Nike’s latest releases, the newest iteration of the company’s extremely popular NikeCourt Vapor line. Enjoying somewhat of a showcase at the Australian Open this month, the Air Zoom Vapor X, which first hit shelves in December, is the new expression of that series, designed…

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Sydney’s Scruffy Murphy’s could be closing down to make way for a 40-storey hotel

Often cited as one of the rowdiest and most touristy pubs across Sydney’s CBD, the long-established, much-maligned Scruffy Murphy’s could be calling last drinks this year as the site’s new owner has lodged a stage one development application with the City of Sydney. KHG Co Pty Ltd, who along with Scruffy Murphy’s now owns the…

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Gold Coast is getting a massive new rooftop restaurant and bar in time for the Commonwealth Games

The Star Gold Coast will welcome a new rooftop restaurant and bar led by acclaimed Gold Coast restaurateur Simon Gloftis and entertainment expert Billy Cross ahead of this year’s Commonwealth Games. Set to open in March, the yet to be named venue will sit atop The Darling, the property’s new luxury suite hotel. Co-managed by…

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Sydney Festival Review: 16 Lovers Lane was a celebration of love & it’s beautiful messiness

This year marks the 30th anniversary of The Go-Betweens’ 16 Lovers Lane. Three former members of the band played a special tribute at the State Theatre for Sydney Festival. And rather than dive for the group’s memory, the artists rose up and soared in a sea of nostalgia while supported by a cast of contemporaries…

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Film Review: The Jungle Bunch (France, 2017) offers shallow entertainment

Children’s films are usually edifying. It’s a pervasive trait in the genre that sees every Disney protagonist journey through some moral challenge and emerge kinder, more accepting or the hallmark ‘true to oneself’. But without these platitudes guiding the protagonists to their better selves, what does a children’s film really look like? David Alaux has…

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Music Video of the Day: Ruby Boots “Don’t Talk About It” (2018)

Ruby Boots has dropped the visuals for her new single, “Don’t Talk About It”, a great follow up to her previous release, “It’s So Cruel”. This new tune, the title track from her forthcoming new album, is a solid step forward for the songwriter; now Nashville based, Bex Chilcott has really continued to flourish as a…

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Single of the Day: Eves Karydas “Further Than the Planes Fly” (2018)

Pop darling Eves Karydas is back with her second offering since ditching her alias Eves the Behaviour and dazzling us on single “There For You”. The globetrotting Brisbane born songstress took a three year break from releasing music after massive hits with “Electrical” and “TV”, and at only 23 her vocal stylings on the new…

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Indigenous talent set to shine at this year’s National Folk Festival

This year’s National Folk Festival is set to highlight some great Indigenous talent as the festival celebrates its 52nd year in 2018. Held over the Easter break, the Canberra event will be coming to Exhibition Park with over 200 international and national acts set to perform. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Yill Lull”, Joe Geia is set…

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Film Review: Maze Runner: The Death Cure (USA, 2018) delivers a satisfying conclusion to the franchise

While the Maze Runner franchise has been far from original, each film has delivered a healthy dose of fun and been crafted quite impressively. Gratefully, Wes Ball’s Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the final instalment in the series, continues that trend and offers fans a deserving farewell. It does so in the fact that it’s entirely familiar…

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Interview: Producer Geoffrey Wexler talks living in the shadow of Ghibli in Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Earlier this week I caught up with Producer Geoffrey Wexler, who talked about Studio Ponoc’s first feature, Mary and the Witch’s Flower. Comprised of ex-members of Studio Ghibli, we talk about creating the film in the shadow of the iconic Japanese animation studio’s legacy, creating strong female characters and working with an incredible English cast. We…

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Blu-Ray Review: Blade Runner 2049 (USA, 2017)

When the original Blade Runner was first released in cinemas in 1982, it made waves for its stunning cinematography and special effects, moody and now iconic soundtrack from Vangelis, and its truly innovative adaptation of a short story from sci-fi writer Philip K Dick; the rare instance where a film has outdone its source material….

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Jessica Chastain to attend Q&A event in Sydney for Molly’s Game

Golden Globe award winning actress Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) is set to visit Sydney later this month in a brief promotional tour for her latest film, the biographical thriller Molly’s Game. Based on the true story of world-class skier turned Hollywood poker princess Molly Bloom, Molly’s Game has already earned Chastain her fifth Globe…

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Interview: Aussie actress Loren Kate on transforming into Sean Young for Blade Runner 2049

Out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week, the critically acclaimed Blade Runner 2049 is set to impress audiences all over again with its incredible story and visuals. One of those impressive visuals, was the inclusion of Sean Young – just as she looked in the original. This was achieved thanks to CGI and a double,…

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Foo Fighters Announce Their Own Brew and Australian Pop Up Bars

Rock legends Foo Fighters have announced two pop up pubs in Sydney and Melbourne. The Foo Fighters Hotel in Sydney (aka Hotel Hollywood) and the Fooie Bar in Melbourne (aka Cherry Bar) will stock the bands own “Foo Town” brew, a lager developed by the band and Newtown based brewery Young Henrys. All this is…

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Single of the Day: Moonlover “Queen of Sheba” (2018)

A fresh single from Melbourne’s Moonlover comes to us this week in the form of “Queen of Sheba”. Another cut from his exciting debut album Thou Shall Be Free (expect it March 2nd), the emphasis of “Queen of Sheba” heavily sits with Moonlover’s (aka Quang Dinh) awesome voice and enticing synths and bass. There’s a lilting romance and airiness…

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Live Review: Kelela pulls off a brilliant debut of Take Me Apart in Melbourne

I’ve loved Kelela‘s music ever since first listening to her Cut 4 Me EP back in 2013 or 2014. Her voice – followed by FKA twigs a few years later – signalled a great resurgence of sultry, rich female driven R&B that now, we’ve seen fully embraced by artists from the US and UK in particular. Where twigs’…

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The Importance of Female Led Events in Changing the Status Quo for Women in the Music Industry

“It’s another man telling us we can’t fill up the room,” Camp Cope sing on their track “The  Opener”. For women in the music industry, this experience is all too common. Massive festivals like Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival consistently deliver male dominated lineups, and sexual harassment at these events has become a…

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Donnarumma, Neon Tetra & more win local support slots for Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 concert series

The Adelaide 500 (still known as ‘Clipsal’ to locals) is around the corner, with the likes of Robbie Williams, Cold Chisel and Birds of Tokyo set to perform during the event’s live concert series. Packed down the city’s East End, the series has also been offering local bands the opportunity to cut their teeth on the massive stage at…

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Win a Blade Runner 2049 prize pack with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a sequel to Blade Runner emerges. The critically acclaimed Blade Runner 2049 stars Harrison Ford, who reprises his iconic role, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, and newcomers Sylvia Hoeks and Ana De Armas. In a world full of bioengineered humans – replicants – created as slaves by the Wallace…

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Interview: Swinging Safari director Stephan Elliott on finding the truth in his comedy and why he will never work in America again

Primarily known for the defining Australian classic Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, writer/director Stephan Elliott is hoping his latest cinematic venture earns similar status and praise.  A labor of love, Swinging Safari is a semi-autobiographical comedy that expresses the trials and tribulations of Elliott’s own childhood through a series of wild montages that highlight the…

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Win a DVD prize pack that includes The Dinner starring Richard Gere and Steve Coogan

Based on the international best-seller by Herman Koch, The Dinner invites us to a chic, exclusive restaurant with two seemingly successful couples, Paul and Claire Lohman (Steve Coogan and Laura Linney) and Paul’s politician brother Stan and his wife Katelyn (Richard Gere and Rebecca Hall). As the evening and each course progresses, their cracks as…

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Film Review: Sweet Country (Australia, 2018) is Australia’s answer to To Kill A Mockingbird

Man on the run. Sweet Country is based on the true, Australian story about a point in history where justice was put on trial. For this reason, it has echoes of To Kill A Mockingbird except that here, Atticus Finch isn’t a lawyer but a preacher played by Sam Neill. The result is a shockingly…

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No trip to Las Vegas is complete without a little bit of Love

In June 2017, one of the most influential and celebrated albums of all time – The Beatles‘ Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band – celebrated its 50th Birthday in the USA. As a self-confessed Beatles obsessive, I took to the skies and headed to the permanent Cirque du Soleil production in Las Vegas, Love, which…

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The Ultimate Afterparty: Paris Wells promises to turn up the heat at Faux Mo

Always offering up the best devilish treats, MONA has once again made us want to flock to Tasmania ASAP, adding an extra flare to its already flourishing summer festival MOFO by announcing a sweeeet line up for it’s official after party- Faux Mo. Occupying MAC2 on Hobart’s waterfront, Faux Mo is the place to be once the…

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Sydney Festival Review: Gotye’s Tribute to Jean-Jacques Perrey is a love letter to an electro music pioneer

The name Jean-Jacques Perrey could mean everything and absolutely nothing to different people. Perrey was a musical chameleon and the first and only virtuoso of the Ondioline, a rare French electronic musical instrument and precursor to the modern synthesiser. Perrey’s work has been sampled by rap artists, played on South Park and garnered the likes…

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Courtyard Sessions returns to Sydney with packed ten week program and Mardi Gras events

The Courtyard Sessions returns to Sydney’s Seymour Centre, with Heath Media’s Larry Heath returning to curate for the third consecutive year, kicking things off this Friday with Timothy James Bowen, and Victorian artist Anna Smyrk on Friday, January 26th, supported by Ethan Conway. The event continues through March 23rd with performances from the likes of SUIIX…

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Feature: The Dollar Bill Murrays, in studio making “Dancing With Death”

Coming through with their first cut of new music since releasing their Always On EP last April, The Dollar Bill Murrays present “Dancing With Death”. Dangerous in title, groove-laden in actuality, the new single continues to fuse their indie rock influences with some driving guitars that bring them further out of the safer boundaries of the genre. Think Arctic…

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Tiësto kicks off the 2018 [V] Island Party series in February

While he’s in Australia for some shows on the east coast, renowned DJ and producer Tiësto will be taking to the Sydney Harbour for the first [V] Island Party of the annual series for 2018. Tiësto is known right around the world for his stomping party sets that have packed clubs out for years, so putting this energy…

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Lana Del Rey touching down in Australia with BØRNS in March

Fans have been hanging out for these tour dates for a long time but luckily, Lana Del Rey has put them out of their misery, confirming more details about her long awaited Australian return. Off the back of her recent collaboration with BØRNS on “God Save Our Young Blood”, Lana has announced that she will be bringing the…

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