Month: February 2018

Feature: What does a potential Lando Star Wars story look like?

When the Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer dropped recently, everyone had one name on their lips. Lando. It’s not that people weren’t excited about seeing a young Han, or finding out how he met Chewie, or seeing the maiden flight of a surprisingly clean Millennium Falcon. It’s that there he was. Lando frigging Calrissian….

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Bryan Brown, Sam Neil and Greta Scacchi to star in upcoming film Palm Beach

Entertainment One, Seville International and Screen Australia in association with Create NSW have announced that Bryan Brown (Breaker Morant, Dirty Deeds) Sam Neil (Jurassic Park), Greta Scacchi (The Entertainer) and Jaqueline McKenzie (The 4400) will star in the upcoming film Palm Beach. The film will be written by acclaimed playwright Joanna Murray-Smith (Honour, The Female of the Species) and be directed by the celebrated Australian…

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Jessica Jones confirms second series release date and drops new trailer

Marvel’s Jessica Jones is set to return to Netflix for a second season,  as its March release date is confirmed and a new trailer graces our screens. With arch-nemesis Kilgrave gone, Jessica finds that an exit from the world of vigilante justice isn’t as easy as she anticipated, as her disturbed past drags her back into a world…

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Film Review: Black Panther (USA, 2018) roars into the MCU with an ambitious story

When Black Panther was announced the film was automatically destined to bear the hopes and aspirations of many. There was whispers of it finally bringing some long needed diversity to both the MCU and the film landscape. Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler would need to bring his A-game and with this film he’s successful in…

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Tech Review: Logitech G613 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

One of the rarer finds in PC gaming peripherals has always been the combination of mechanical keys and a wireless keyboard. The two schools haven’t played well together historically and a lot manufacturers stopped trying to blend them into a single board years ago. Too much input lag, not enough flash, not enough clack. Gamers…

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Review: Whoever said you shouldn’t discuss politics at a party has clearly never been to RIOT!

There has never been a better time for a show like RIOT!. With politics trending towards the bizarre, North Korea constantly making headlines, and  the #Metoo movement exposing years of endemic abuse,  It seems as if  the world could do with a bit of unadulterated joy. RIOT! does just that, acting as a celebration of…

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10 years on and Priscilla Queen of the Desert stills stands as one of Australia’s best musical productions

A decade doesn’t seem like very long ago, especially when reminiscing of the very first time I saw this magical production make its debut. Priscilla Queen of the Desert transitioned from screen to stage when the concept of a movie-musical was still quite new, but cut to 2018, and it is almost the norm for the…

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Kitchen by Mike Express opens at Sydney Airport T1 International

Mike McEnearney has added a second iteration of his famed Kitchen By Mike concept to Sydney Airport’s improved dining scene, but this time it’s the spin-off “Express” version. Designed to offer high quality meals for passengers on-the-go, Kitchen By Mike Express has popped up at Sydney Airport’s T1 International before the security checkpoints for those…

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Games Preview: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire: Old school RPG crunch and the deep, blue sea

One of the harder asks in this gig is playing a hundred hour RPG for a preview piece. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, like its predecessor and the historic Black Isle Studios RPGs that are its inspiration, is a deep and multifaceted creature which makes diving in without a tutorial a bit daunting. What I…

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AIT Melbourne’s inaugural Games Mastermind event a great start for grads

Independent game developers in Australia, particularly those at the beginning of their careers, find themselves stuck for ways to connect and network. In a games industry as small and tight-knit as Australia’s, connections are the best step a person can take toward landing a job in the local dev scene. Networking events are a semi-regular…

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Pizza Hut continue rolling out their modern concept stores with a new one in Marsden Park (Sydney)

t seems the big nostalgia-satisfying rebrand of Pizza Hut Australia is going to roll out at a rapid pace this year. Not long ago Sydney’s Waterloo became the flagship location for their new concept store, a crowd-pleasing shot at bringing back the beloved Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat sessions of yesteryear with a few modern twists like…

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Review: Kid Kyoto dishes up rich modern Japanese flavours with a killer soundtrack

The entrance to Kid Kyoto should be on busy Bridge Street, but the logical way into the modern Japanese restaurant is shut. Instead you get signage gently redirecting you to Bridge Lane, where the real entrance to Kid Kyoto lies, almost opposite to dumpling favourite Mr Wong. There’s a reason for this, and the many…

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New Kingdom Hearts III trailer unveils second Pixar-centric level, Monsters Inc

Here we all are enjoying our perfectly normal Saturdays and out of nowhere Disney’s D23 Expo Japan goes and drops an honest-to-god trailer for Kingdom Hearts III.

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Exclusive Music Video Premiere: Baby Blue “Fire and Ice” (2018)

Melbourne’s Baby Blue have been gathering a considerable amount of acclaim over the last 12 months, cutting their teeth on the local circuit alongside the likes of Chastity Belt, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Jordie Lane, while presenting music that has been charming garage-rock fans and newcomers to the sound alike. As good music should, the…

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Live Review: The War on Drugs guide The Enmore through the beauty and the pain in Sydney

On “The Strangest Thing” The War on Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel sings, “Am I just living between/ The beauty and the pain” – it’s a strong statement of the War on Drugs and their chief songwriter’s appeal. The six-member band has an innate ability to convey emotion and atmosphere. Lonesome guitars swirl around a steady beat conveying…

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Music Video of the Day: The Presets “14U + 14ME” (2018)

Aussie rave kings The Presets have followed their massive comeback single “Do What You Want” with new track “14U + 14ME”, a pumping dance tune with The Presets’ signature craziness. The track opens with a slow build of manipulated vocals and rising synths, but doesn’t take long to get to the good stuff: it’s The…

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Win a double pass to Joe Mungovan’s upcoming EP tour!

Kiama local Joe Mungovan’s has recently released his new EP Another Night, A Distance From Here across all platforms. The EP is a 7 track collection of scattered memories from the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning. The songs act as a soundtrack to his recent national tour, with each…

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Album Review: Brian Fallon – Sleepwalkers (2018 LP)

As good as change may be, continuity and familiarity is just as great. And in some cases, it’s probably better. Here on the new Brian Fallon album, Sleepwalkers, the American artist has embraced some changes from his The Gaslight Anthem days, whilst maintaining much of what has allowed him to develop such a loyal and…

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Fresh Friday Five #012: Neko Pink, Yasmin Hosseini, The Belafontes

Another week, another Friday Fresh Five this week featuring dream pop from Canberra’s Neko Pink and Bristol’s Swimming Girls, neo-soul from Melbourne’s Approachable Members of Your Local Community and some rock to round it out from Melbourne’s The Belafontes. Neko Pink (Canberra) Australian dream pop doesn’t get much better than this. Canberra’s Neko Pink bring…

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Atomik is out today on Nintendo Switch and we’re already hype about it

The game with the most to-the-point subtitle we’ve seen in a while, Atomik: RunGunJumpGun, has arrived on the Nintendo eShop today. That’s only the first thing you should know. The second is that there’s a trailer and you have to watch it because it rules extremely hard.

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You can play Rainbow Six Siege for free next weekend

Rainbow Six Siege has quietly become one of the more popular tactical shooters in recent memory.  Now set for a whole new year of content, Ubisoft is throwing the game’s doors open to everyone for a free weekend starting February 16.

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Higgs Boson Blues: The simple reason fans are having trouble connecting The Cloverfield Paradox to the Cloververse

The new Netflix film The Cloverfield Paradox has had something of a remarkable life. In an unprecedented (yet perhaps inevitable) move, the streaming service dropped the film right after the Super Bowl on Monday, having only officially announced it during that very event. Since it was released, numerous articles and reddit threads have emerged, trying…

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Win a double pass to see The Death of Stalin in cinemas.

Moscow, 1953: when tyrannical dictator Joseph Stalin drops dead, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to be the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweeby Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the wily Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), and the sadistic secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale). But as they…

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Travel Essentials: 5 Korean Winter Street Foods You Must Try

The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is officially on! Our Melbourne writer Anastasia is currently travelling in Seoul, shivering through bitterly cold winter nights – in the third part of her Travel Essential series, Ana gives us a list of her favourite comfort-food must-haves, perfect for battling the chill in South Korea. 호떡 (Hotteok) Hotteok is a…

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Seven Aussie artists line up to play Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Portgual

In mere months, Primavera Sound Festival will return to Barcelona for its eighteenth edition from May 30th to June 3rd. Scheduling a lineup across a wide range of genres, we’ll hear from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, The National, Bjork, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, CHVRCHES, Father John Misty, The Breeders, A$AP Rocky and…

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Singapore and Sydney to dine together via “immersive technology” at a free dinner this month

Linked by an immersive technology setup, groups in Singapore and Sydney are set to sit down and dine together as the Singapore Tourism Board partners with Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel and numerous celebrity chefs to host a “Singapore meets Australia” dinner party. Set for the 22nd February the “SGxAUFoodies” event will be a unique way of…

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Live Review: Anderson .Paak celebrates birthday early with The Free Nationals and a sold out Melbourne crowd

Anderson .Paak and The Free Nationals would have been one of the only drawcards of this year’s Laneway Festival for me, with Malibu easily coming in as one of my favourite records of 2016. Thankfully, I was one of the few (well, one of almost 2000) who managed to secure a spot inside Melbourne’s 170 Russell…

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Clint Wilson delivers five Aussie artists who’ve influenced his own musical songbook

For folk artist Clint Wilson, “Nothin’ To Lose” is more than just a new single ready to promote. It’s a statement of the songwriter he’s been developing into over the last few years and a piece of music that is the culmination of reflection, reinvigoration and an approach to Americana that has been highlighting the talent…

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Exclusive Album Premiere: Feelds – Hunch (2018 EP)

Ahead of its official release tomorrow, Melbourne musician Feelds has given us an exclusive insight into the making of his new EP, Hunch. Though it is a debut offering from Feelds (aka James Seymour), the musician has spent a solid amount of time building up to this point and introducing his sound to crowds in Australia and abroad….

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Single of the Day: Fight the Sun “Animals” (2018)

Melbourne rock trio Fight the Sun are soon to be on the road with their debut EP, bringing together a love of furious riffs and deftly executed rock distortion – clearly evidenced on their hectic single, “Animals”. It’s a bit Foo Fighters, a bit Biffy Clyro – the type of rock music that is synonymous with…

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