Year: 2016

Inspired by the true story of iconic artist Pablo Picasso and his four legged muse, Lump, Picasso and His Dog, presented by Darebin Arts Loud Mouth, and Lemony S Puppet Theatre will open these school holidays. Sausage dog Lump arrived at Picasso’s Cannes villa in 1957 with his owner, the photojournalist David Douglas Duncan, and wound up staying…

George Eliot’s 1860 novel is to receive the theatre treatment this winter, with an adaptation by Helen Edmundson set to première at St Kilda’s Theatre Works from July 28th. Presented by OpticNerve, and directed by company founder Tanya Gerstle, The Mill on the Floss follows the story of Maggie Tulliver, a young woman stifled by the…

If you could have any famous person play you in a film, who would you choose? For most it would be the Blake Lively type, or Megan Fox. Oh no. Not for young actress Alexandra Keddie.  The love affair – more like obsession – Keddie has with Ms Streep is so endearing. It actually says a lot about her…

Opening this weekend at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation gallery, in Sydney’s Paddington, After Voices is an immersive art installation from award winning Indonesian artist Jompet Kuswidananto. Drawing inspiration from the fall of Surhato’s New Order, and his own experiences of social hysteria and trauma, Kuswidananto’s multi-disciplinary installation features a series of life-size ‘ghost figures’ on parade throughout…

Just because Sydney is winding down from three of June’s biggest events (Sydney Film Festival, Vivid, and Supanova), doesn’t mean that there is a shortage of excitement around the city this weekend. There’s quite a few exciting happenings around town, and we’ve picked out some of our favs for you get across, including some that…

The change to the colder months has brought about a big change over at Bondi staple Porch and Parlour, with the restaurant bringing on a brand new team to lead their ‘Evenings at Porch’ sessions, including Head Chef Patrick Coleman. This change has resulted in a new evening menu drawing up Coleman’s rich culinary experience…

With Melbourne but a few hours away, a visit to Geelong doesn’t sound too tempting to the everyday food and beer lover, that is until one realises that the quiet seaside locale is home to the Little Creatures Brewing Village. For fans of the ever-growing craft beer scene in Australia there are few experiences as…

It’s been nine months since West End’s long standing cocktail bar, the Lychee Lounge changed hands to new owner Peter Bierton, and he’s ready to show Brisbane he’s got what it takes to run this flagship venue. As a longtime customer of the previous owner, Peter Bierton has a love for cocktails and big dreams…

One of Melbourne’s best bands doing their thing at the moment, no question, is Ceres. Since 2012, the quartet have become favourites with crowds and industry alike, coming up in the same waves of bands like Luca Brasi and The Smith Street Band, to great success. Their sophomore album, Drag It Down On You, is set to showcase even more…

Groote Eylandt artist Emily Wurramara has released her debut EP Black Smoke – an exciting insight into a young talent moving forward with some great music tied both to the now and to the traditional. An incredibly engaging and personal debut offering, Black Smoke sees Wurramarra singing in both English and her indigenous language of Anindilyakwa. Over six songs,…

A new festival is coming to Melbourne this summer in The Pleasure Garden – a live music event out in St Kilda that promises punters a totally immersive and creative music and arts experience! Their first artist announcement features The Cat Empire, Tash Sultana, The Correspondents and more, boasting a festival vibe reminiscent of Bestival and the Secret…

Adelaide trio Flamingo have recently announced some sweet tour dates for audiences in their hometown, Sydney and Melbourne this August! Following the release of their new single “At Sea”, the indie-electronica band will be bringing their latest to music fans down the east coast, providing some unmissable opportunities to check out what it is they’re all…

What a day for festival announcements… the huge UNIFY festival has followed up with promises of a massive line up for 2017 today with a line up that’s going to have those who’ve already been able to nab a ticket feeling even more smug today, we bet. For everyone else – game on, come June 24th….

Here we go! The first round of artists set to perform at BIGSOUND this year has been officially released, giving us a taste of the high calibre of quality we can be expecting in September. We already expected the Brisbane music conference and showcase event to be coming out swinging, as it does every year,…

Back in the 90s, when standards in R&B were still a thing, Brandy rose to become one of the genre’s best known and successful solo performers, eclipsing her contemporaries with a remarkably golden husky voice, defined by the kind of warmth and charisma that easily set her apart and set her on the path to…

There’s something warmly nostalgic about the type of music Band Of Horses have made over the past 12 years. Cease to Begin reached me when I was moving out of home for the first time, while Infinite Arms was a staple of my study playlist during my second year of uni. Listening back through certain cuts from those…

The latest cut from The Avalanches forthcoming record Wild Flower feels a lot less 90’s hip hop than their last single, and a lot more Since I Left You. The chilled psychedelic track is packed out with layers of vocals from Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, almost acting as a polar opposite to their last single, the upbeat and…

After dropping their first single since 2013, “Past Lives” a few weeks ago, Local Natives have announced the details of their highly anticipated third record Sunlit Youth, along with a new single and video. Known for their constantly evolving sound, Local Natives‘ new release “Villainy” embraces synths more than ever before, with layers of singer Taylor…

Our ICYMI series continues this week, as we take a look back at the music videos we vibed on throughout February this year. From Troye Sivan‘s “Youth” to Violent Soho‘s “Viceroy” and Bullet For My Valentine‘s “Worthless”, the second month of 2016 saw some big hitters drop impressive visuals. Hit play on the below and take a look/listen! Playlist Troye…

A journey following little more than what the title suggests, director Liza Johnson takes on her biggest task yet with Elvis & Nixon. It’s not easy to be trusted with the reigns of puppeteering acting powerhouses Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon. It’s an even tougher responsibility to direct them embodying two of the Twentieth Century’s…

14 years after the release of the original, the Ice Age series today embarks on an intergalactic, earth-shattering journey in what is the fifth feature film in the franchise – the first animated series to reach such a milestone. But it shouldn’t come as any surprise. In spite of lukewarm reviews, the last two instalments went on…

The latest Spider-Man reboot has made new additions to an already extensive cast list with new names Hannibal Buress and Abraham Attah. Becoming increasingly subject to memes, the recent Spider-Man casting has made it clear there will be a myriad of young talent in the franchise overhaul. Already casted lead Tom Holland (as seen in Captain…

Actress Noomi Rapace will again join the screen as doctor Elizabeth Shaw, reprising her role for Ridley Scott’s imminent feature Alien: Covenant. After dipping in and out of the project as a lead to a cameo, it now appears Rapace will front the sequel to Scott’s 2012 Prometheus. Alongside Rapace, Michael Fassbender will also be…

With the DVD release of Dirty Grandpa, director Dan Mazer took a call from The Iris to give audiences a little idea about what could expect from an R-rated comedy starring screen royalty, Robert De Niro. The long time writing and production partner of Sascha Baron Cohen has been busy trying to push fresh comedy films…

The Mercy has been confirmed as the title of the latest work from Studiocanal, Blueprint Pictures and BBC Films and first images for the film are finally bracing the Internet. The film, having as many Academy Awards attached to it as the ceremony itself, will star Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz and is helmed by The Theory…

The second teaser trailer for the upcoming animated comedy Storks made its debut last week. Directed by Nicholas Stollar and Doug Sweetland, the film stars include Andy Samberg, Kelsey Grammer, Katie Crown, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell and Danny Trejo. The animated adventure revolves around storks that deliver packages, instead of babies, for a…

The 63rd Annual Sydney Film Festival came to a finish on Sunday night with Brazilian-French film Aquarius, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, awarded the prestigious annual Sydney Film Prize, taking home $63,000 in cash. The Sydney Film Prize is awarded for the film’s ‘emotional power and resonance; audaciousness, cutting-edge, courageousness; and capacity to go beyond the usual…

Loosely-based around Japan’s real life (and really terrifying) ‘suicide forest’, The Forest is a pretty underwhelming and generic horror flick. There’s an enormous gulf in how evocative and eerie the subject material can be and how compelling this film is. There are so many different ways to deploy and explore the premise of this film. Unfortunately, it seems very few of those…

Dubbed the “spiritual predecessor” to his classic film Dazed and Confused, Richard Linklater’s new film Everybody Wants Some!! takes us from the 70s to the 80s, and from the last days of high school to the first days of college in Texas. Much like in Dazed, we meet a group of young people about to…

Tigerair Australia have made a big move in expanding options for those looking to book flights with the low-cost carrier, opening up both domestic and international payments to PayPal. The main benefit of this is that those using the PayPal service to purchase flights will be have access to a cost less than half of…