City Hub 28 August 2014

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August 28, 2014

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MAKING A SPLASH How the ice bucket challenge has made headlines

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Melbourne councillors and residents warn against business voting bill a more business-friendly council rather than being captured by aggressive inner city resident voters,” he said.

While he supports the majority of the bill’s contents, Cr Mayne said he opposes the notion of allowing a second vote for businesses.

“My view is that businesses should get one vote, not two,” he said.

The offices of the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor declined to comment on the issue of business voting.

One major issue identified by Cr Watts and Cr

Leppert was that allowing businesses two votes and residents only one allows a large proportion of votes to come from people who do not live in Melbourne.

This has resulted in six out of 11 councillors on the City of Melbourne Council being non-residents.

“There is a significant difference in approach in people who understand how the city works and those who commute here,” Cr Watts said.

“Either you understand the needs of a cosmopolitan city or you don’t.”

Cr Leppert said he feels this has meant the City of Melbourne Council focuses more on high-level Photo: City of Melbourne

BY Lucia Osborne-Crowley Melbourne councillors and residents have delivered strong warnings against the proposed business voting legislation for the City of Sydney.

A bill proposed by the Shooters and Fishers Party and supported by NSW Premier Mike Baird is a replica of a business voting bill that currently exists in the City of Melbourne.

Melbourne’s bill is currently being reviewed as part of an independent examination of local government practices.

Independent councillor Jackie Watts said the NSW Government should not be introducing this bill as the City of Melbourne is considering repealing it.

“The irony here is exquisite,” Cr Watts said.

“Just at the time when we are finally at the point of electoral reform in the City of Melbourne, the NSW Government is taking a lurch to the right and trying to instigate this policy in Sydney.”

Cr Watts told City Hub she has been opposed to the bill since its introduction to the City of Melbourne in 2001.

“I have been opposed to this model of voting ever since I realised how ridiculous this gerrymander is.”

Greens Councillor Rohan Leppert agreed the legislation would have a negative impact on the City of Sydney.

“Just look at Melbourne. Every time there is an election we see residents are angered that this system is forced upon them,” he said.

“This is a deliberate means of taking a very progressive area and turning it in to a conservative electoral roll.”

“The residents of Sydney will be the losers if the Government adopts the bill being proposed by the Shooters party.”

Conversely, Independent Councillor and founder of online news website Crikey Stephen Mayne said he feels the voting system has had a positive impact on the City of Melbourne.

“This system has made the City of Melbourne

City of Melbourne Council

government than on local communities.

“The majority of councillors don’t live in the City of Melbourne. What that means is council is a high-level governing council and less engaged with its community.”

“It is much more amenable to the state government and the big end of town than it otherwise would be.”

Melbourne residents have also warned against the adoption of the proposed bill.

Melbourne resident and activist Michael Kennedy said the business voting model has had a very negative effect on residents’ rights in the City of Melbourne.

“I was brought up to believe it is one person, one vote,” Mr Michael said.

“As far as I know corporations aren’t people, and even if they were I don’t see why they should be afforded two voters to everyone else’s one.”

Mr Michael emphasised that even conservative members of the Melbourne electorate are opposed to the voting model, he himself being a member of the Liberal Party.

Mr Michael also expressed concern the voting model skews the vote towards middle class, angloAustralian interests.

“Company directors and operators are predominantly anglo-Australian, male, middle class and middle-aged,” he said.

“This means that women, non-Anglo Australians, the young and the aged are now under-represented in the City of Melbourne electoral roll.”

Mr Kennedy said he believes the proposed bill would negatively impact the City of Sydney.

“Both reputationally and in regards to democratic integrity, this bill will have a very serious negative impact on the City of Sydney,” he said.

Spokesperson for activist group Residents Rights Maureen Capp also said residents in Melbourne are unhappy with the current business voting model.

“All I know is we as residents don’t like it,” Ms Capp said.

Businesses speak out against secretive business voting bill Published weekly and freely available Sydney-wide.

Copies are also distributed to serviced apartments, hotels, convenience stores and newsagents throughout the city.

Distribution enquiries call 9212 5677. Published by the Alternative Media Group of Australia. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy of content, City Hub takes no responsibility for inadvertent errors or omissions.

ABN 48 135 222 169 Group Publisher: Lawrence Gibbons Group Manager: Chris Peken Group Editor: Lucia Osborne-Crowley Contributors: Emily Contador-Kelsall, Elliott Brennan, Edmund Kirkwood Arts Editor: Leigh Livingstone Live Music Editors: Chelsea Deeley & Alexandra English Dining Editor: Jackie McMillan Advertising Managers: Toni Martelli, Robert Tuitama & Mike Contos Design: Joanna Grace Cover: Chris Peken - City Hub Editor Lucia Osborne-Crowley Email: question@alternativemediagroup.com Advertising: sales@alternativemediagroup.com Contact: PO Box 843 Broadway 2007 Ph: 9212 5677 Fax: 9212 5633 Web: altmedia.net.au

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BY LUCIA OSBORNE-CROWLEY Sydney business owners have condemned the secrecy surrounding the proposed Shooters and Fishers Party bill to amend business voting procedures in the City of Sydney.

The proposed legislation makes business voting compulsory and automatically enrolls all businesses in the City to vote in council elections. The bill also enrolls two voters for every business.

President of the Darlinghurst Business Chamber Stephan Gyrory questioned the motives of the bill’s author, Shooters and Fishers Party MLC Robert Borsack.

“He’s politicised an issue that didn’t have to be politicised for his own personal gain,” he said.

Mr Gyrory supports compulsory business voting, but said he feels the political game-playing surrounding this bill has meant his more moderate view has not been heard.

“The problem is people like me - like the Liberal Councillors and Independent Angela Vithoulkas - we are all treading a middle ground but no-one is interested in the middle ground, not even the media,” he said.

“The debate should be happening, it shouldn’t be up to Alan Jones. We need to discuss it like responsible adults.”

Councillor and small business owner Angela Vithoulkas expressed similar concerns about the way this bill has been managed.

“I’m disappointed that this whole

matter has had so much political hype attached to it,” she said.

“I’ve yet to see the detail of the legislation and I’m disappointed the community wasn’t consulted.”

Cr Vithoulkas said she does think the current voting system requires reform.

“We need to get rid of the layers and layers of red tape that bury small business in paper,” she said.

Conversely, some members of the business community are entirely opposed to the contents of the new bill.

CEO and Founder of Digital Eskimo in Surry Hills David Gravina expressed concern that the legislation would create a biased electoral roll.

“You’re looking at creating a situation where business has a strong influence through various channels already and then effectively dominates the vote as well,” he said.

“It is plainly biased and totally unrepresentative of the residents who live in the City.”

Mr Gyrory said he supports the compulsory voting element of the bill because he feels it will create a stronger voice for businesses.

“As businesses we are totally excluded from the political process,” he said.

“If we get the vote, Clover will have to pay more attention to us.”

Founder and director of Ruby Reports in Surry Hills David Service said he feels businesses are already

adequately represented and catered to by the Lord Mayor.

“From my perspective as a small business owner, businesses already have a good ear in government,” he said.

“The current City of Sydney does a lot of work to liase with business and help ensure business operating in the City are catered for.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore has expressed her concern for the impacts of this bill, particularly

in terms of the threat it poses to democratic integrity.

“It is shocking that the NSW Government is supporting changes that undermine a key principle of our democracy – one vote, one value,” she said.

“This undermines a key principle of democracy – that no matter who you are or how much money you earn, your vote is just as valued as anyone else’s.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore

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BY Lucia Osborne-Crowley The ice bucket challenge has attracted harsh criticism from all corners. It has been accused of stupidity, vanity, and even moral depravity. It’s critics to date have included WIN news reporter Lincoln Humphries, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill and LA Times column Michael Hiltzik.

Mr Humphries refused to take the challenge when nominated, and instead challenged “”everyone, everywhere who has more than what they need to donate what they can to the people who need it most”.

Mr Hiltzik wrote “the challenge is a fad, and fads by their nature burn out - the brighter they glow, the sooner they disappear”.

Mr MacAskill wrote “people are often more concerned about looking good or feeling good rather than doing good”.

While all these things are most likely entirely true, none of them change the fact that the challenge has created a huge pool of money that can now be put towards finding a cure for an incurable disease.

MND Australia’s National Executive Director Carol Birks said the ice bucket challenge has had a powerfully positive impact on MND Australia and sufferers all over the country.

“Because MND is a progressive disease that robs people of their

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ability to move, to hold and hug and speak and swallow and eventually breathe, it is very hard for sufferers to get out there and talk about their disease.”

“This has changed all that.”

Ms Birks also said that since the ice bucket challenge reached Australia on August 10 it has raised $260,000 for MND Australia, and hundreds of thousands more for the state-based MND charities.

Ms Birks said MND Australia had raised so much money since the ice bucket challenge came to Australia that they are planning on creating a new research grant in the challenge’s name.

No matter how we got here, these are good things.

Added to which, this viral social media campaign may well pave the way for other charities to find effective ways of raising money and raising awareness.

Importantly, the charities that will benefit from these future ice bucket challenge-esque campaigns will not exclusively be the charities with the biggest marketing budgets. The ice bucket challenge enabled a charity without the funds to run multimillion dollar advertising campaigns to get the attention it deserves.

This phenomenon may help level the playing field and allow smaller charities to compete with larger, richer ones.

These are all good things.

Of course the critics raise valid points. The ice bucket challenge does raise important questions about what it takes to get attention in modern society for issues that matter. It also raises the question of whether the challenge has increased the amount of money we give to charity or simply redistributed money we would have donated anyway.

So yes, of course everyone

everywhere should give what they can to the people who need it most.

Yes, it is deplorable that most of us don’t.

Yes, most of us care more about looking good than doing good.

Yes, social media crazes like this one show that we are more selfobsessed than ever.

But not one of those problems began with the ice bucket challenge, nor will they end with it.

If this cause has managed to harness all of those things and use them for good while at the same time starting a broader debate about how and why we give, I say more power to them. It’s a win-win.

Photo: Chris Peken

Why we need to stop complaining about the ice bucket challenge

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news in brief Balmain Leagues Club saved from receivership This week the Balmain Leagues Club reached an agreement with developer Rozelle Village and as a result is no longer at risk of going into receivership.

Leichhardt Mayor Dracy Byrne has welcomed the news.

“I hope the public pressure myself and other supporters of the Club have exerted on the developer has contributed to this change of heart,” Mayor Byrne said.

The future of the Balmain Leagues Club home on Victoria Road in Rozelle has been questioned since Rozelle Village have begun planning the redevelopment of the area. However, Rozelle Village’s last three large-scale plans have been rejected by the NSW Government due to traffic concerns.

The Rozelle community has since been calling for a smaller scale development of the area.

This sentiment was echoed

by Mayor Byrne this week.

“The Council, the developer and the State Government should now act responsibly to achieve a sensible

redevelopment that won’t turn Rozelle into Bondi Junction,” he said.

Eastern suburbs community fights for water catchments Woollahra Council, Climate Action Eastern suburbs and anti coal seam gas group Lock The Gate have organised a series of events in the Eastern suburbs to raise awareness about the threat to the community’s clean water catchments as a result of unsafe mining practices.

“Sydney is fortunate to have one of the best and cleanest natural water supply systems in the world and it must not be ruined by mining toxicity” said Ian Rose, Climate Action Sydney Eastern Suburbs.

“As people in the Eastern Suburbs are concerned about their water quality, Woollahra Council wrote to NSW Parliament calling on them to extend the ‘Residential CSG Protection Act’ to include our drinking water catchments” he said.

The first event will be held on September 4 in Double Bay and will be followed by a second event on September 9 in Paddington.

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“These are long overdue changes to the way services are provided to the most vulnerable in our communities, homeless people or those at risk of homelessness. However, there are myths that are being perpetuated about the Going Home Staying Home reforms.”

The FACS spokesperson said there are no funding cuts and no women’s refuges owned by the NSW Government will close as a result of the reforms.

“Under the GHSH reforms, the NSW Government has increased funding for specialist homeless services across the state by 9.6 per cent in 2014-15. The NSW Government will invest more than $515 million over the next three years to prevent and reduce homelessness in NSW.” “Services to women across the state will increase by more than three per cent and to

Photo: SOS Women’s Services/Facebook

BY Emily Contador-Kelsall NSW Parliament will debate the closure of women’s homelessness services under the NSW Government’s Going Home Staying Home reforms.

A number of activist groups and local and state politicians have lobbied the state government since it announced the reforms.

On the 11th of August, NSW Labor received a petition with over 14,000 signatures of those opposed to the reforms.

Parliamentary policy requires that when a petition with over 10,000 signatures is presented to NSW Parliament, it must become the subject of a parliamentary debate.

The Liberal Government’s Going Home Staying Home reforms have restructured funding to specialist homelessness services.

Women’s services have seen their funding redirected into generalist services for both men and women under these reforms.

Opposition Leader John Robertson said the debate will force the Liberals to explain their cuts to specialist women’s services.

“Over 14,000 people have signed petitions to allow us to debate these cruel cuts to specialist homelessness services in the parliament.”

“I share in the community’s disgust with this Government’s decision to abandon specialist homelessness services given many of these provide support for women and children escaping violence in the home.”

Mr Robertson also said the Liberals will also have to explain details of the flawed tender process that led to these cuts when the issue is debated.

A spokesperson from the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) said constructive debate about the Going Home Staying Home reforms was welcome.

family members (the majority of whom are women and their children) by more than 13 per cent as a result of the reforms.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Linda Burney said: “Let’s be clear: some of these specialist services have remained open in name only, but offer very different support services, all as a result of this government’s flawed tender process.”

“Many women will be cut off from vital escape routes, forced into a generalist system that is already bursting at the seams.”

Shadow Minister for Women Sophie Cotsis said: “We know that staff and women seeking refuge have been living week to week under this confusing new tender process – with stop-gap funding measures that have failed to offer any certainty.”

“It’s time for the Liberals to come clean about this botched process and debate the issue in Parliament.”

A petition with 14,000 signatures was presented to NSW Parliament

Cartoon: Peter Berner

Triumph for women’s services

Protestors outraged at police ban

BY Edmund Kirkwood Last week the Supreme Court upheld a NSW Police ban on a pro-Palestine protest against the opening of the Israeli Film Festival on Oxford Street.

The protest went ahead on August 21 despite the ban. The protestors were forced by police to hold the demonstration in Taylor Square rather than their intended location outside Palace Verona cinemas.

Protestors were concerned about police brutality and heavy-handedness during the demonstration.

“The 120 protesters were contained in Taylor Square by lines of riot police and horses,” said Palestine Action Group activist Damien Ridgwell.

“As they walked in small groups up Oxford St towards the Palace Verona Cinema, they were continually shoved and jostled by riot police, and prevented from peacefully assembling outside the cinema, despite their expressly stated intention of not blocking the footpath.”

The NSW Police Force (NSWPF) said the protestors went against police advice.

“The protestors were generally compliant, however a group of 30 protestors attended the theatre against police advice. They were given a lawful direction to disperse which was complied with,” a

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spokesperson said.

In handing down its decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court’s Justice Hidden stressed that the courts do not have the right to ban or to authorise protests. The court cited potential traffic disruption as the reason for upholding the police ban.

Nick Reimer of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign has decried the Court’s ruling and described the result as a “naked instance of the use of the police service for political

purposes”.

“This has every appearance of a politically motivated bid to silence pro-Palestine activists,” Mr Reimer said.

“The Police and the Supreme Court have acted to stifle democratic freedoms in this state. Their conduct should be condemned by everyone who cares about basic rights.”

Last week, Mr Ridgwell was confident the Supreme Court would uphold the right to protest, arguing that the it had previously

Protestors holding a Palestinian flag at Thursday’s protest

ruled in similar circumstances that the disruption of traffic is not a sufficient reason to ban a demonstration.

Mr Ridgwell also labelled the ban an “outrageous act of political censorship”, and criticised the organisers of the Israeli Film Festival for their involvement in advocating Israeli occupation.

“The organisers of the Israeli Film Festival have vocally campaigned in support of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.

Today we campaign for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel.

By attempting to ban the protest the NSW police is denying our freedom of expression and right to protest.”

Organisers said that the move had its desired effect of discouraging citizens from attending the protest and according to organisers, the overall turnout was cut by a significant factor.

Mr Ridgwell and the Palestinian Activist Group has vowed to continue their actions against the Israeli Film Festival over the next few weeks.

“We will not be intimidated by the NSW Police, we will continue to stand up against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.”

The NSW Police Force maintained they support the right to protest.

“NSWPF supports the right to protest but we also have a responsibility to keep the general public and protesters safe,” a spokesperson said.

meet the locals

Danks Street Market This Saturday, August 30 Organic Food Markets will launch the new Danks Street Market in Waterloo.

“This is a fantastic location in Waterloo and we intend to create a boutique market with a strong emphasis on food. Customers will find everything to fulfil their weekly shopping needs, including an exciting

choice of fashion, home wares, plants, flowers and of course, eco-friendly, sustainable, fair trade and healthy products,” said Elizabeth Taylor, Organic Food Markets founder.

The market will open this Saturday from 9am-1pm and then operate every Saturday and Sunday following.

Sydney University community Students protest former Israeli navy officer fights higher education reform

Dr Yoaz Hendel

tension between the hard-right propagandists in AUJS and the pro-Palestinian community at the University,” said Fahad Ali, President of Students for Justice in Palestine.

“The event was exemplary of AUJS’s contempt for decency and dialogue. We knew that the event would always be a forum for hardline right-wing Zionists, so attempting to engage in discussion was never one of our aims,” he said.

President of the Sydney University Islamic Society, Ziyad Serhan, said that despite AUJS entertaining a “war criminal” on campus, the protest was entirely peaceful.

“We simply explained the facts of the recent war and left as a group,” he said.

AUJS was barred from putting up campaign posters which compared the massacre of civilians in Gaza to the petty rivalry between Universities in Australia.

President of the Sydney University Socialist Alternative club, Omar Hassan, argued that AUJS should not be hosting soldiers who “literally have blood on their hands”.

“Encouragingly, there were very few people attending the forum who were not part of the protest, so it seems that students at Sydney University are not interested in listening to Zionist propaganda,” he said.

However, Dr Hendel and AUJS condemned the actions by the protestors for disrupting an event organised to simply inform its members.

“The people who sit here and shout are not liberals.

They think they are helping human rights but they are not,” Dr Hendel said after the protestors left.

“Tonight’s antics show once again that these people are more concerned with being disruptive and detrimental to the public dialogue than reaching peaceful solutions,” said Matthew Lesh, AUJS Political Affairs Director.

BY elliott brennan Students, staff, and alumni of the University of Sydney vocalised their disapproval of the University’s stance on higher education reforms at a meeting held in the Sydney University Great Hall on Monday night (August 25).

The deregulation of University fees proposed in the budget is estimated by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to see some courses rise in cost by over $100,000.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Dr Michael Spence, has come under fire for backing deregulation without having consulted the University community.

The meeting was put forth by Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson and Dr Spence in response to calls for a more official meeting of Alumni and staff to create a cohesive institutional response to the budget.

“This is an opportunity to listen to 26 people and together make an important contribution to the national debate around this crucial issue,” Dr Spence said.

“It is the first time in a long time that Australia is taking education seriously,” he said.

A large group of students in the

hall took fierce opposition to what the Vice Chancellor was saying during the meeting. The audience became so disruptive that Dr Spence was stopped by the Master of Ceremonies, comedian and broadcaster Adam Spencer.

In particular Student Representative Council Education Officer Eleanor Morely was frustrated as to why she wasn’t on the pre-selected list of 26 speakers.

“I was democratically elected by the student body to represent and fight for their education. This meeting is a farce,” she interjected.

Of the speakers who followed, an overwhelming 25 to 1 did not support the full measures put forth by the government, though to varying extents.

Former President of the Sydney

University Liberal Club, Alex Dore, was the only speaker to come out in full support of the reforms and was met with constant boos.

“The reforms are fair, there is no such thing as free education. You are all the entitlement generation,” he said.

Ed McMahon, USU Board Director, put a hand-vote motion to those present in the hall that all University bodies should campaign against the budget, which was welcomed by roughly three quarters of the hall.

Vice Chancellor Michael Spence assured those in attendance that all comments would be taken note of and that the meeting was just the start of an extensive consultation process.

Photo: Elliott Brennan

Photo: KAZ

BY Tang Li A group of students from the Sydney University Muslim Students’ Association (SUMSA) organised an impromptu protest against a former Israeli Navy Officer at the University of Sydney last Thursday.

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) hosted a talk by Dr Yoaz Hendel, head of the Institute for Zionist Strategies and former adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dr Hendel was a Navy Seal during the 2008 – 09 war on Gaza that left approximately 1,400 Palestinians dead.

Students were angered by this decision and and resolved to protest the speaker event.

“The protest was the manifestation of weeks of

Monday night’s meeting in the Sydney University Great Hall

If only Adolph Hitler had kept painting and Andrew Cornwell had stuck to dogs

By Nick Possum Poor Rex Newell … here he was making an honest living painting nostalgic Australiana – the sort of thing depicting old homesteads you see for sale in country town cafes for a few hundred dollars, or on those wall calenders they give away at the local tyre shop – and then he makes the perfectly honest mistake of donating one of his pieces, as a fundraiser, to the Liberals’ 2011 election campaign.

Suddenly, Rex is famous for all the wrong reasons and he’s giving evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

With that generous impulse, everything went sideways for the salt-of-the-earth “artist extraordinaire” who counts as one of his fans HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose private collection is described, on the always

reliable eBay, as including “at least one” Newell.

And cruellest of all, snide voices in the media are laughing at Rex’s stuff and calling it “indifferent” – pretty much what’s said about Adolph Hitler’s paintings, which were nothing remarkable, but way better than most volk could manage.

Painting idealised scenes of Old Vienna for the tourist market was the only real job Adolph ever had before he joined the imperial German Army on the outbreak of World War I and subsequently went off his meds ... but I digress.

Maybe, ‘tho, Rex should have been a little less trusting.

He gave the painting ‘Perrin’s Boatshed’ to Brien Cornwell, a colourful Newcastle Liberal identity. A few years back Brien was making a name for himself as a property developer. Alas, several of his developments “failed”, leaving him open to attack in federal parliament by Nick Xenophon and Barnaby Joyce who accused him of living in luxury while “10 investors, owed more than $750,000, waited for the money he promised them in an undertaking signed after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission stepped in”. You’ve really fucked up when two such

wildly disparate pollies combine to bag you.

The NH account goes on to say “By this stage Mr Cornwell had also lost the right to practice as a solicitor for five years, over what he described as a failure to reconcile a trust account.” Ah, solicitors and trust account - a perennial Australian story.

Which brings us to Brien Cornwell’s son, Andrew, who had a brilliant career ahead of him, if only he’d stayed out of politics. Andrew is a veterinarian, eh.

Vets are, as a rule, an honest and hard-working mob, and Cornwell was a partner in a successful Newcastle practice.

He might have gone on, very profitably, to be the public face of a brand of dog food. He certainly has the sort of rockjawed, Buzz Lightyear face that sells kibble. In fact he’s a dead-ringer for that nice Dr Chris Brown on the Optimum brand packs. And he has the kind of Anglo name regarded by the advertising honchos as publicly trustworthy (It’s an unfortunate reflection of the ethnocentricity of the industry that there are, as far as I can see, no Drs Obeid, Tripodi or Orkopoulos gracing the 10 kilo packs of kibble at Petbarn).

But alas, Andrew Cornwell blew it, because if you admit to

leaving an anaesthetised dog on the operating table while you pop out for a while to sit in Mayor McCloy’s Bentley and accept a thick wad of illegal election funding in a paper bag, it’s unlikely that the Purina dog food people are going to give you the frontman gig when Dr Harry Cooper shuffles away to the great off-leash area in the sky.

Anyway, in late 2010, Rex Newell gives the painting ‘Perrin’s Boatshed’ to Brien Cornwell, former developer, so he can sell it to raise funds for his son’s election campaign, but subsequently it gets “gifted” to another developer, Hilton Grugeon, and Hilton decides that he can’t possibly accept so magnificent a painting as a gift and insists on paying Mr and Mrs Andrew Cornwell a bit over ten grand for it, and this seemingly funds Cornwell’s campaign. The disastrous political outcome is best followed in real time on Kate McClymont’s twitter feed.

Hilariously, Mrs Andrew Cornwell (aka Samantha Brookes), remembered the painting as something with a homestead and jacarandas rather than a couple of old rowing boats and a shed.

She was probably thinking of a Chris Huber – ‘Jacaranda Cottage’ (“Limited edition of

450, signed by the artist and numbered with certificate”).

Chris’s stuff is somewhat like Rex’s.

Macquarie Street scuttlebutt has it that Mike Baird decided not to stand a candidate in Cornwell’s vacated seat of Charlestown because the Premier couldn’t face the thought of the government losing the by-election to a ‘Dogs Against Libs’ candidate.

The counter-intuitive result of all this adverse publicity is that ‘Perrin’s Boatshed’, was last seen on sale on eBay, in aid of Maitland Hospital, where it had reached $8,100, an unheard-of price for a Newell. At ICAC, Hilton Grugeon’s barrister reckoned a previous attempt to sell it for the hospital failed when bidding stopped at $28.

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

What might have been if Andrew Cornwell hadn’t gone into politics...

Sydney Fringe Festival 2014

By MELODY TEH With over 300 productions across 60 venues covering everything from theatre, music, comedy, cabaret, dance and visual art, the annual Sydney Fringe Festival promises to be better than ever. This year’s program showcases the quirky and alternative culture that Sydney’s arts scene has to offer.

While occasionally the term ‘fringe’ may lend itself to images of esoteric productions held in random back laneways, this year’s new festival director, Kerri Glasscock, is making sure every experience at the festival will be cohesive and illuminating.

“This year we’ve made a concerted effort to partner with other arts organisations and to collaborate more with local artists,” said Ms Glasscock.

“We’ve also taken more care in where events are taking place. So while we’re still an open access festival and don’t curate the art, we have curated where everything goes to make sure the right shows are in the right venues.”

As a force of nature in Sydney’s art scene and co-founder of trendsetting underground performance space, Venue 505, it’s important to Ms Glasscock that everyone involved – the venues, the performers and, of course, the audiences – are getting the most out of the festival. After all, festivals like Fringe are vital to Sydney.

“It provides local independent artists an opportunity to collaborate with other artists, develop and try out new works, and find new audiences,” said Ms Glasscock, adding that it also gives

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“small- to medium-sized venues a chance to reach more people.”

Fringe ambassador Ngaiire strongly echoes this sentiment. As an independent soul singer in Sydney, she’s noticed, “most of my gigs have been outside of Sydney, which says to me Sydney needs more platforms to showcase what we have.”

Ngaiire is thrilled to be one of the six ambassadors for Fringe alongside

curator Ilan Kidron of The Potbelleez .

“A lot of the artists on the bill are people that I’ve watched do the hard slog for a long time,” she said.

“They’re incredible at what they do, so it’s nice to have a platform to showcase what Sydney actually has to offer.”

With so many events to choose from, here is our alternative guide to the best shows at the Fringe this year.

(MT)sydneyfringe.com

Gigi Dearest Before the Vegas residencies and world tours, before the sold-out gigs and the sordid divorces, long before the all-night mescaline benders and court-ordered rehab, Gigi Fontaine was a young girl living in the shadow of Hollywood’s most bankable silver-screen siren – Fifi Fontaine. Gigi Dearest is an explosive cabaret full of scandals, sauce and songs.

Sep 14, 17, 18 & 21,The Imperial Hotel, 35 Erskinville Rd, Erskinville, $22+bf HIM A mix of butoh (a form of Japanese dance theatre) and live art production, HIM reflects on the nostalgia of past lovers and loves.

Created and performed by Coleman Grehan, his work asks, “How do you remember the one you used to love?” Featuring influences from visual artist Matthew Barney and modern ‘splatter’ artwork.

Sep 24-27, PACT, 107 Railway Pde, Erskineville, $15 Handle It – A One Woman Play For Gen Y, relationships and sexuality have become inextricably connected to the internet. But what are the impacts of this obsession with social media on our emotional and sexual health? Laura Jackson’s one-woman play (though she plays many characters) confronts this question head on.There’ll be laughs, gasps and many unanswered questions.

Sep 4-6,Tap Gallery, 45 Burton Street, Darlinghurst, $15-20

Ilan Kidron (The Potbelleez), Kerri Glasscock, and Claire Reilly (Gigi Dearest)

Edgar’s Girls Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest writers of the mysterious and macabre, but as the saying goes, behind every great man is a great woman. In Poe’s case, there were women.

Edgar’s Girls will take audiences on a salacious

journey where they’ll meet the beautiful ladies who inspired his work.Weaving in letters and writings of Poe himself amongst song, burlesque, and abstract performance art, Edgar’s Girls brings Poe’s work to life.

Sep 17-18,The Vanguard, 42 King St, Newtown, $24 Jade Empress Discovers Australia Join Jade Empress as she discovers the Aussie outback from crocodiles, tinnies, utes, and the good ol’ meat pie. However, when she meets some of Pauline Hanson’s friends, her adventure takes a dour turn as she wonders if she can still call Australia home. Featuring some reimaginings of classic Aussie songs by Kylie Minogue, AC/DC,The Church, Cold Chisel and many more.

Sep 16-21, Imperial Hotel, 35 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville, $10-15 Intern Funeral If you’ve ever been an intern (which in this day and age is likely) or died (which sometimes might feel preferable to interning), you’ll love this show by comedians Shane Addison and Paige Hally.With their deadpan humour and observations on topics like dream catchers, prostitution and hurting children for cheap zoo entry, it’s sure to be a whole heap of fun.

Sep 11-14, Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville, $9 Amphibious Duo Aaron Flower (Guitar) and Oliver Miller (Cello) are part of Sydney’s improvising chamber ensemble, Amphibious. For the Fringe Festival, the duo has broken off into their own world, playing everything from Couperin to Gotye.The music promises to be spontaneous, beautiful and expressive.

Sep 7, Old 505 Theatre, 342 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills, $15

EAT & DRINK

The Glenmore “There are not many places in Sydney where you can flop your willy out and look at a picture postcard view of the Sydney Opera House,” my dining companion comes bounding back from the bathroom to say.We’re comfortably ensconced in the mid-level cocktail bar, our drinking needs well managed by bartender Shannon Hurvitz. He’s happy to make you happy, substituting top shelf spirits into cocktails in innovative – and often offmenu - ways. He makes a mean Talisker Old Fashioned The Spice Cellar This sunken cellar cleverly rolls everything you want from a small bar - food, wine and cocktails - in with a nightclub vibe. Fuel your miniclub adventure with a better than average bar food selection, from Tuna Crudo ($15/3 pieces) dusted with fresh horseradish to freshly shucked Oysters ($8).Vegetarian dishes are well represented on the short menu, from baked feta-stuffed Filo Cigars ($9/4 piece) to golden slabs of Grilled Haloumi ($12/4 piece).The standout is a Warm Cauliflower Salad ($8) with chickpeas, parsley, tahini and black sesame seeds. Cocktails shine – perhaps a cleverly designed absinthe float on a gin and pink grapefruit-based Good Voodoo ($18) or Keep On Keeping On ($18) with banana-infused Tennessee whisky.

By Jackie McMillan ($20), and muddles fresh strawberries into his Captain Morgan Mighty ($16) that features amaretto and vanilla syrup. For gin drinkers he’ll whip up a Cumberland Street ($21) using Hendrick’s and muddled cucumber, while for tequila aficionados, he’ll combine reposado, orange juice, passion pulp and vanilla syrup in a Spiced Orchid ($18) served with a Tabasco and smoked paprika rim.After being dazzled with concoctions featuring all the major spirits, I asked if he had considered entering Diageo’s World Class cocktail competition, only to be advised he’s too busy “studying to be a surgeon.” While clearly distracted by booze, I also enjoyed silky Beef Cheek Pappardelle ($19.50) freshened up with peas, sticky BBQ Beef Ribs ($20) and the star of their betterthan-average pub salad range - The Glenmore Market Salad ($16.50) dotted with plump goji berries and toasted hazelnuts.

96 Cumberland Street,The Rocks (02) 9247 4794 theglenmore.com.au Pub Bistro, Cocktails $$

Basement, 58 Elizabeth Street, Sydney (02) 9223 5585 thespicecellar.com.au Cocktails, Bar Food $-$$ EASTERN SUBURBS & BEACHES Vincent Poulet Roti ($35) combines everyone’s favourite - roast chook - with rich bread sauce, chestnuts and sprout leaves. It’s a cool weather smile-maker I enjoy whilst facing a cabinet of cheese in the dining room of this popular restaurant, located in the classic Hughenden boutique hotel. Co-owner Traci Trinder oozes warmth and friendliness, shepherding us into a great 2012 Moreau Naudet Petit Chablis ($79) from the extensive wine list. It compliments delicate Cured Kingfish

Bar H Dining Pickled heirloom carrots – in Pickles, Chicken Skin,Wasabi ($12) – are a delightful way to cleanse the palate and commence your Bar H Dining adventure, especially when they’re topped with deep-fried chicken skin.You’ll be following the meandering food journey of Chef Hamish Ingham and his wife/sommelier Rebecca Lines, which has recently seen the menu morph into ‘Chuka’ cuisine. Chuka celebrates the Japanese style ‘Chinese’ dishes popular in Japan.

Chewy white mochi (rice cakes) give a nicely

textural twist to Eggplant,Turnip, Dashi ($14), while fermented garlic and bacon give Pambula Oysters ($10) an updated ‘Asian Kilpatrick’ edge.The slightly cloudy Uehara Shuzo ‘Soma no Tengu’ ($15/glass) will suit your bivalves, though if you’re a sake beginner, they don’t come much prettier than Houraisen Bi Junmai Daiginjo ($14/glass). Inside this dark and moody drinking den, beautifully balanced bar snacks like Cucumber, Black Fungi and Pigs Ear ($13) shine, even if the light levels mute their visual impact.

Don’t baulk at the pigs ears either, they’re tasty, deep-fried slivers adorning frilly white fungus, cucumber and toothsome wood ear fungus.

Consume them with Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale ($14), or the 2012 Yeringberg Viognier ($12/ glass), plus a flavoursome side of Broccoli, Black Sesame and Tamari ($9). Explosive Sichuan Chocolate Caramels ($8) provide the perfect exit strategy.

80 Campbell Street, Surry Hills (02) 9280 1980 barhsurryhills.com Chinese, Japanese $$$

up modern reinterpretations of Japanese dishes: Sashimi Tacos ($17) show off Huon Tasmanian salmon against wasabi Zushi granita and wonton chips; while In 2005 when Raymond Ang first Okonomiyaki ($16) updates the opened Zushi in Darlinghurst, curling bonito-covered pancake he says they were the only ones with Balmain bugs and a honeydoing the inside-out rolls that mustard twist. are now staples on modern 2A/285A Crown Street, Surry Japanese menus.Today his solid, Hills (02) 9380 8830 zushi. everyday Japanese is now in com.au Surry Hills, and those rolls – Modern Japanese $$ including the Tiger Roll ($18) Chica Linda featuring tempura Queensland You’d be forgiven for thinking banana prawns – are still popular. designer Mike Delany dropped a Raymond’s favourite dish, Ika tab of acid before choosing this Somen ($15), sees calamari riotous colour scheme. Begin crafted into piles of gossamer your mock South American ribbons, swished through dashi vacation with arepas - dense dipping sauce for a textural corn flatbreads stuffed with Smoked Pork Belly ($6) with adventure.The menu offers DARLO, KINGS X & SURRY HILLS

($20) with avocado and finger lime on calamari crackers, while still standing up to more decadent choices. End with Chabichou - soft and creamy goats cheese - against green Brasserie Du Mont Blanc La Verte ($14.50) beer, or tackle tart Baked Passionfruit Custard ($14).

14 Queen Street, Woollahra (02) 8039 1500 vincentfrench.com.au French $$$$ Paperplanes It’s been two years since I visited PaperPlanes. The purple lighting, skateboard paraphernalia and Tokyo pop kitsch are all still there, and the menu remains largely unchanged.

Edamame with Chilli Salt ($6) are a perfect match for dizzyingly sweet cocktails, like Tokyo Pop ($16) with popping candy for an extra

honey chipotle glaze and pickled ‘slaw.A Panamargarita ($17) keeps your lips tingling with jalapeno and tequila while you tuck into tender Chicken Hearts ($6).Asado Prawns ($15/3) are also worth ordering, particularly if you avail yourself of the ontable fiery scotch bonnet sauce.

Mains come Latino family feast style, so expect juicy Puerto Rican Roast Pork ($35) dripping in colourful tomato, corn and black bean salsa plus a side of Coca Cola Rice and Beans ($9).

The Carrington, 563 Bourke Street, Surry Hills (02) 9360 4714 drinkndine.com.au/ chicalinda/ South American $$-$$$

Aria Arriving in a bound folder, the extensive pre-theatre menu here (available 5.30pm-7pm) gives you no sense that you’re ‘slumming it’ by dining from a more limited menu selection. In fact, it’s a rather nice way to get reacquainted with this Sydney dining icon. Menus are seasonal and produce-driven, down to naming suppliers (including Joto, my preferred seafood supplier) on the menu. Choosing Three Courses ($89/head) from six or sugar high. Two perfectly formed Lettuce Cups ($5/each) loaded with roasted duck go down a treat; as do Pork Belly Buns ($6.50/each).

My old favourite, Gyoza Pan-fried Dumplings ($16) with creamy lemon wasabi foam and crushed wasabi peas, also stand the test of time. It just goes to show, when you’re onto a good thing, why change?

Shop 15, 178 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach (02) 9356 8393 paperplanesbondi.com Modern Japanese $-$$

NEWTOWN & ENVIRONS Moon Park Two Claude’s chefs, Ben Sears and his Korean wife Eun Hee An, are “learning what it is to manage a restaurant in Sydney,” explains former Claude’s manager Abby Meinke. She runs a

so options can be difficult – like deciding between the familiarity of roast chicken with Gruyere mashed potato dressed up with shavings of Australian black truffle, versus the exotic lure of smoked white sweet potato with fromage blanc and Oscietra caviar. Both dishes are well complimented by the textural 2012 Domaine des Enfants Grenache Blanc/Grenache Gris ($23/ glass) from their excellent by-the-glass list.With only a few words to triangulate our tastes, the sommelier teamed toothfish, smoked eggplant and Fremantle octopus with a great 2012 Farr Rising Pinot Noir ($22/ glass); and Rangers Valley flank steak - flavour amped by house-made XO sauce – with the pretty, strawberry 2012 Bourgogne Terroir de Tournus Pascal Pauget ($24/ glass). Don’t be afraid to ask for their expertise, even if you’re drinking by the glass.And, like the view, Pastry Chef Andrew Honeysett’s black sesame parfait with passionfruit jelly, yuzu and almonds, is both spectacular and memorable.

1 Macquarie Street, East Circular Quay (02) 9240 2255 ariarestaurant.com Modern Australian $$$$

seamless floor with full command of the exciting wine list.The 2013 Ochota Barrels ‘The Flint Vineyard’ Chardonnay ($85) suits bar snacks like Moonlight Flat Claire de Lune Oysters ($4.50/ each) with chilli threads and plum vinegar, and Sea Urchin Roe ($6/each) on seed biscuits with black garlic.

Cabbage-wrapped beef bulgogi - Ssam ($7/each) - were a meal highlight; as was the unusual smoky Eggplant with Egg Custard ($16). Blow-torched marshmallow on the Moon Pie ($14) will ensure you emerge onto Redfern’s streets smiling.

Level 1, 34 Redfern Street, Redfern (02) 9690 0111 moon-park.com.au Modern Korean, Wine $$$ Swanson Hotel Another notch in the belt for Sydney’s expanding pub gentrification with the former

Kurrajong Hotel being refitted and re-imagined British West Indies-style by the Balmain Pub Group. Start in the first floor cocktail bar where a caramel smear makes the Espresso Martini ($18) rather special. Move on to the 2012 Howard Park Flint Rock Chardonnay ($15/glass) in the dining room, against pungent piccalilli accompanying a rustic Pork Terrine ($16) or the well-balanced Beef Tartare ($16). The hero of the menu is the Char-grilled Spatchcock ($26), served on a fighting combination of Brussels sprouts, bacon, lentils and chilli. And pub desserts rarely scrub up as pretty as The Swanson’s Crème Catalan ($13).

106-108 Swanson Street, Erskineville (02) 9519 3609 swansonhotel.com. au Pub Bistro $$$

FOOD NEWS Warm milk with saffron and honey has been popping up in my house after meeting with Parya Zaghand from Saffron Only. She’s quite the ambassador for Iranian saffron, telling me the country produces 300 tonnes a year. “Don’t be scared by saffron, just a little pinch will go a long way,” she said. And before you baulk at the cost of my warm milky addiction, you only use six or seven strands to turn a cup of milk a beautiful yellow, meaning a two-gram container ($20.95) will produce about forty cups. Now if you want it in a fancy container to wow your dinner party guests, it’s a little more expensive. After you’ve gotten a taste for “liquid sunshine”- as saffron is known due to its antidepressant qualities – try teaming it with fish, seafood, chicken, or rice in risotto Milanese or Spanish paella.

You could also use saffron to jazz up desserts from rice pudding to panna cotta, as it harmonises well with cinnamon, almonds, pistachios, cardamom, ginger, mango and passionfruit. And let’s not forget it’s soluble in alcohol, meaning vodka and gin martinis could benefit from saffron too! If you find these ideas intriguing, you’ll find Parya at the Grounds of Alexandria on Sunday 7th September (8am-3pm), or you can buy saffron and check out recipe ideas at the website: www.saffrononly.com.au

BAR FLY

By Rebecca Varidel

GOLDEN AGE CINEMA & BAR Midnight Parisian isn’t on the cocktail list here every night. Golden Age’s tempting take on a French 75 – Tanqueray, Solerno blood orange liqueur, lemon juice, and Champagne – was the cameo cocktail for movie Midnight in Paris. I took it, with my toastie, into the intimate screening room of the old Paramount Pictures.

Whether or not you are up for a film, linger in the inviting bar with popcorn and the film star drinks list: Roger Moore delivers classy cocktails, a Rye Whisky Sour ($17), Charlie Chaplin, The Big Lebowksi, Manhattan (all $18 each). There are beers and ciders, bubbles and wines, but we were star struck for the Hollywood Highballs (from $10). After our Woody Allen flick we stayed on for more ooh la la with a special event selection: French wines from DRNKS. 80 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1556 ourgoldenage.com.au

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Love and Death and an American Guitar

Love and Death and an American Guitar is back due to an overwhelming response following an extremely successful run as part of The Hayes Theatre Co inaugural Cabaret Season. The production will make its return to the Hayes Theatre stage for three nights only.

“Everything in the show is pretty much the same, expect for some tweaking and editing,” says star Toby Francis, “the Hayes Theatre Co is such an amazing setting for this show as it is small and the acoustics are great!”

Love and Death and an American Guitar depicts the reality of the genius responsible for iconic rock album, Bat Out of Hell. It focuses on the personal and professional life of composer, Jim Steinman.

“It shows a very human and relatable side to Jim Steinman and I think the story of Neverland is quite fun,” says Francis of the concept for a rock opera based on Peter Pan that eventually spawned Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell instead. “Jim Steinman wrote some of the biggest and best rock epics of all time, you should absolutely get out of the house and check it out.”

Toby Francis’ rock tenor awaits audiences on this journey through music like a ‘bat out of hell’. (CT) Aug 31 & Sep 7, Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point, $30, hayestheatre.com.au

Death is something we’ll all experience but how do you deal with the void left behind from the death of a loved one?

Playwright Campion Decent explores grief and loss in his tragicomedy Unholy Ghosts.

Based on Decent’s personal experience of losing his parents, actor James Lugton, who plays the son, says the play is about a man dealing with the impending and eventual death of his parents.

“I think the experience of the son is one that everyone will experience, everyone loses their parents one way or another at some point in their life,” he says.

Relatable and moving, Decent explores the portrait of life in both a tragic and comic way, to reflect the madness of life.

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photo: Brett Boardman

UNHOLY GHOSTS

When German movie star Klaus Kinski sat down to write about his life as an actor, he instead wrote an explosive memoir of his sordid sexual exploits.

Now it is finally coming to the stage in the edgy Sydney Fringe Festival production Kinski & I, written and performed by CJ Johnson.

“I read it over fifteen years ago and my jaw dropped,” he says.

15 STAGE 16 SCENE 17 Sounds 18 SCREEN

“I thought the book was so crazy that one day I would have to bring it to an audience.”

Sourcing material from the original manuscript, and from Kinski’s daughter, Pola, who alleges that he sexually abused her, Johnson focuses on the candid and disturbing reality of Kinski’s life.

“It has this crazy, mad start and then it’s followed with this intense and incredibly difficult reality,” he says.

“Maybe he wasn’t having fun, maybe he was a monster.”

Resonating with the stories of modern celebrities like Rolf Harris and Robert Hughes, the production explores Kinski’s sexual addiction.

“When you first hear all this Kinski stuff it seems funny, but this is sexual addiction, and it gets these people into the worst sort of trouble,” says Johnson.

“It is very much adults only, something you want to approach with an open mind.

It’s guaranteed to make your jaw drop.”

(SOC) Sep 3-14, Old 505 Theatre, Suite 505, 342 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills, $18-22, kinskiandi.com.au

Cam Knight 100 per center After a successful season at the Sydney Comedy Festival, Cam Knight is back by popular demand for one more encore show. The comedian will be discussing everything from religion to fatherhood.

“We went to Thailand and I’d just had my Buddhist fortune told as a bit of a joke, like one of those things you do when you’re on holiday, like braid your hair, get a henna tattoo, or do nine months in a Bali prison,” says Knight.

“I asked what was in store for me and my wife, and it was just shit, it said my life was going to be this constant struggle.

I started looking back at my life so the show is a retrospective, the misfortunes that have come my way and the things I’ve learnt from it.”

Knight says his show promises a blend of high-energy and thought-provoking pathos: “There’s a great set structure to my shows, I always have holes in it to allow for audience interaction and crowd work. I like working with people one on one. There’s an honesty that is starting to resonate with people. I like to think that people walk out of this show thinking

“Campion has written it beautifully, it’s not sentimental or self-indulgent, it’s poetic but matter of fact,” Lugton says.

Bare and intimate, the production aims to connect with audiences individually, and for each person then to take something from it personal to their own story and circumstances.

“I think everyone will take something different away from it, so what one person takes away will be completely different from the person sitting next to them,” Lugton says.

“It’s about the relationships and the words and everything in between.” (SOC) Until Sep 20, Griffin Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Darlinghurst, $28-35, griffintheatre.com.au

a&e

Kinski & I

Arts Editor: Leigh Livingstone Music Editor: Chelsea Deeley Live Wire: Alexandra English

For more A&E stories go to www.altmedia.net.au

about it, rather than just saying ‘Well, that was funny’.” (GF) Aug 30,The Comedy Store Sydney, The Entertainment Quarter, $25, (02) 9357 1419, comedystore.com.au

Contributors: Alexis Talbot-Smith, Anita Senaratna, Catherine Knight, Ciaran Tobin, Craig Coventry, Elise Cullen, Georgia Fullerton, Greg Webster, Hannah Chapman, Jamie Apps, Laurie Hackney, Leann Richards, Linda Carroll, Marilyn Hetreles, Mark Morellini, Mel Somerville, Melody Teh, Michael Muir, Michelle Porter, Peter Hackney, Rocio Belinda Mendez, Ruth Fogarty, Sean May, Sharon Ye, Shauna O’Carroll, Siri Williams

Wolf Lullaby

“They are just the most beautiful characters, social rejects dedicated to truth in a society that lies,” she says. “They can’t see the good in themselves, but the audience can, and it’s about that journey for them.

“It is very intimate, which I prefer because you get to feel what the audience feels, and vice versa,” Evans continues. “You experience what they experience, and though they are outcasts they are loveable.You want them to succeed.” (SOC) Until Aug 30, Roxbury Hotel, 152 St Johns Rd, Glebe, $25-30, littlespoontheatre.com

Renowned playwright, Hilary Bell, presents her latest production Wolf Lullaby. The play is interpreted by theatre director, Emma Louise, at the helm of her first full-length production, and performed by a small cast of four: Lucy Miller, Peter McAllum, David Woodland, and Maryellen George.

Louise believes we all have different facets, some we hide and others we share freely.

“One of the things we’re playing with in this production is ‘the shadow’, it’s the dark side of our personality and it’s alive within every person. We have to constantly keep that in check and well balanced with our conscious ego in order to stay healthy human beings. This play shows an example of what happens if ‘the shadow’ or ‘the

danny

Europe

photo: Kurt Sneddon, Blueprint Studios

and the Deep blue sea

When Aussie bloke, Douglas, and European actress, Barbara, have a fleeting fling in Australia they leave it like many holiday romances – they’ll try and “see each other again.”

But when hopeful Douglas flies to Europe to see if he can rekindle the affair, Barbara is wary. Over the next 24 hours, they wander through a quintessential European city talking, arguing, flirting and ultimately discovering more about each other.

While the play is ostensibly a romance between Barbara and Douglas, the deeper love affair is the one of Australia for Europe.

“Australia looks to Europe as the kind of mature, cultured civilisation

Children of the Sun

photo: Michele Aboud

Maxim Gorky’s 1905 play, Children of the Sun, is revisited by celebrated playwright Andrew Upton and The Sydney Theatre Company.

Delineated as a tragic comedy, this production has previously been very well received and it is now adapted further for its approaching STC curtain call featuring a prima cast: Justine Clarke, Jacqueline McKenzie,

THEATRE &

PERFORMANCE DARK VOYAGER Dark Voyager ultimately provides an alternate theory on the death of Marilyn Monroe, with a sub-plot that involves Joan Crawford’s son.

The egotistical bitchiness, backstabbing and power plays of Hollywood and its connection with J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, Nixon, and the Kennedys is a setting in which the cast shine.

Belinda Giblin plays the corrosive Hedda Hopper; Kate Raison is

Chris Ryan, Toby Truslove and Helen Thomson.

“This version is slightly more streamlined than the original adaptation. It’s about a family circling around this mad scientist who’s on the verge of a great discovery around the time of the Russian Revolution.

Everything is falling apart in this big, old, meandering house; he’s blinded to it and everyone else is trying to keep it together – inside the house and the chaotic outside world,” says Toby Truslove.

This intriguing backdrop is brought to life with Upton’s artistic direction and vision whilst dancing around social and political statements, and ultimately the exploration of those topics within a creative, colloquial context.

“Those people who are incredibly wealthy are sort of blind to the wider, imminent, falling down of their world. Being oblivious to other people’s misery, ultimately, will lead to your downfall,” says Truslove.

“It’s a big, rambling, heartbreaking and hilarious play,” he says. (RBM) Sep 8-Oct 25, Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Pt, $50-99, (02) 9250 7111, sydneytheatre.com.au

the ice-maiden Joan Crawford; Lizzie Mitchell is familiarly beautiful but vague as Monroe; an award might go to Eric Beecroft whose character, Skip, learnt to ‘tango’ in a submarine; but the show-stealer is Jeanette Cronin’s shambolic, mischievous Bette Davis. It could be twenty minutes shorter and have more impact but this is currently the most fun you can have seated respectably. (MMu) Until Aug 30, Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall St, Kirribilli, $30-65, ensemble.com.au

LOVEBiTES

Wooden Horse Productions is bringing the exploration of love and relationships to Sydney in the critically acclaimed musical, LOVEBiTES. The production depicts a song series of seven short stories about falling in love from both perspectives.

“It has some extraordinarily powerful stories that was [sic] written six years ago now and it explores all sorts of different parts of relationships. In particular it explores the idea of gay marriage being legalised and six years later, nothing has changed on that front,” says director Troy Alexander, “so I think it’s important to re-tell these stories, get more people involved, and have that shown here in Sydney.”

CONSTELLATIONS Portrayed by Sam O’Sullivan and Emma Palmer, this distinct love story will be a special piece of imagination to share with audiences using the everinteresting multiverse theory as inspiration.“A couple fall in love; in some instances they choose to spend their life together and in other instances they choose to go their separate ways.

There’s no one story, it’s a collage of assorted stories. One relationship, infinite possibilities,” O’Sullivan explains. “It’s all to do

wolf’ takes over,” Louise says.

“It’s a very dark set, we’re playing with the lights and shadows in this production as we move from scene to scene in the 80 minutes onstage. It’s a challenging performance and it’s confronting, you’ll be questioning yourself throughout this short masterpiece.”

This deliciously engrossing, albeit disturbing play, with its incendiary subject matter and undeniably talented cast and crew, promises to leave audiences howling.

“Come and see Wolf Lullaby, it’s a brilliantly written, thought-provoking play, with an amazing team of actors,” says Louise. (RBM) Until Sep 13, New Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown, $17-32, newtheatre.org.au

that has much to inform us of,” says director James Beach. “It’s that whole thing about the cultural cringe. We might be starting to shake it off but those issues are still things we talk about all the time.”

Although Michael Gow’s comedy Europe was written in 1987, Australia’s continuing fascination with the continent still makes it relevant today.

“More Australians will have a direct personal experience of what it is to go that far, to see those things, to test the limits of their personality, and have those flings that probably weren’t possible when this was written,” says Beach. (MT) Sep 10-27, Seymour Centre, City Rd & Cleveland St, Chippendale, $25-38, (02) 9351 7940, seymourcentre.com

The original production of LOVEBiTES was staged in 2009 at the Seymour Centre and played at the Playhouse Theatre in Perth in 2010. The show has also played in London and New York. Alexander’s recreation portrays a new level of the featured music.

“Peter Rutherford, the composer, has a whole new orchestration.

This production will have five instruments; cello, bass, guitar, drums and piano,” says Alexander.

LOVEBiTES aims to shed new light into the audience’s own relationships by letting them observe the ups and downs of others, and ultimately explore what love can be and how it can change over many years. (CT) Sep 10-Oct 5, Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point, $42.90-49.90, hayestheatre.com

with free will, how choices early on in life can have different outcomes, and a certain butterfly effect on your circumstances later in life. I believe the message is: you’ve got the power to choose, that your life is yours, and that you only live it once, so go for it,” says O’Sullivan. A play that will leave audiences star gazing for a while, the lustre of Constellations will continue to grow. (RBM) Until Sep 7, Darlinghurst Theatre, 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst, $3043, darlinghursttheatre.com

MACBETH Shakespeare’s classic tale of ambition, betrayal and brutality has been imagined onstage many times. However, director Kip Williams of Sydney Theatre Company’s new adaptation has a keen determination to set it apart from the rest. In a complete reversal of all theatre norms, the audience will sit on the stage itself while the play unfolds in the abandoned auditorium. But Williams’ innovative staging design is just one ambitious decision of many. For Williams,

photo: Blueprint Studios

Can one encounter change your life? Little Spoon Theatre is bringing the raw and touching American play, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, to Australian shores for the 30th anniversary.

Set in a deserted bar in the Bronx the production focuses on two characters, Danny and Roberta, outcasts of society who meet and share an explosive night of passion, tenderness, and discovery.

Actress Karli Evans, who plays Roberta, says the characters are extremely relatable and help each other through their demons.

in characterising Macbeth as a villain, the audience begins to disassociate themselves with his behaviour by the end of the play.

In STC’s version, starring Aussie icon Hugo Weaving, there’s an “open-ended identification with the terrible downfall of this individual,” he says. Despite the blood and brutality of Macbeth, it’s a play Williams believes is relatable to all. (MT) Until Sep 27, Sydney Theatre, 22 Hickson Rd,Walsh Bay, $50-109, (02) 9250 1777, sydneytheatre.com.au 15

THE NAKED CITY

Last of the fleabags (R.I.P)

By Coffin Ed, Miss Death & Jay Katz You may have seen it in the Underbelly TV series, in which this notorious Darlinghurst Road hotel did an admirable job of playing itself. One newspaper reported it as being “a hotbed of drug crime, violence and prostitution”.This week another Kings Cross ‘institution’ looks set to disappear as the Astoria ‘budget’ hotel goes up for sale, destined to never be quite the same again.

Unlike some of the other muchloved, now deceased KC institutions such as the New York Restaurant and Barons, it’s unlikely there will be any tears shed when the last of the Kings Cross fleabags goes up for auction next September. Home to a shady collection of itinerants, drug dealers, addicts and prostitutes, it was recently alleged that the Astoria was also receiving money from the State Government to accommodate transient Housing Commission tenants.

Whilst locals were well aware of its seedy reputation it occasionally snared the unsuspecting tourist, slugged $100 a night for a room that came with its own needle disposal bin. Like many of the fleabag hotels which still survive in the US and often trap the gullible traveller, its foyer was relatively clean and well kept and said nothing of the horrors that awaited within – a kind of venus fly trap for the budget minded.

Peruse the various internet reviews on sites such as Tripadvisor and you’ll soon come up with: “After check in walking 3 flights of stairs, smells like urine, come to my room, sheets and blanket looked 40 years old, had some poo stains and blood.

Bathroom had used soap and razor left from previous guest.TV had just one channel of clear picture. A guy suddenly

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just walked into my room and said “oh, sorry wrong room” – it was clear the locks aren’t working. I complained downstairs to the receptionist (Ron), he didn’t care, even made a joke about, at least you didn’t have to bring your own soap and razor, they are supplied by the previous guest, your [sic] kidding right? went to do my laundry and my clothes got stolen and the washing powder, talk about desperate.”

The same writer goes on to say: “Underneath my bed, that was tilted to one side I found used condoms, tampons, stockings, underwear and dry vomit or something repulsive.This place is not fit for human inhabitation and really the place needs to get their act together. $100 per night is rip off, $10 a night would be more the going rate.”

Yet another comment after a traveller left the relative charm of the reception for the hell within: “As soon as I walked up the stairs the look and smell of the place changed dramatically.The place was filthy and stinking, it sounded like a cross between a brothel and a crack house from the movies and had plenty of unsavoury characters hanging around the halls which smelled of a mixture of body odour and piss. Once inside the room, things didn’t get any better. It stank just as badly, everything was smashed and the graffiti on the walls spoke of rape, child abuse and police brutality.”

Whilst these kinds of skid row hotels have a certain fascination for crime writers and filmmakers, in reality they do nothing but exploit the vulnerable and rip off the naïve. It’s cockroach capitalism at its very worst and the owners invariably walk away with a tidy profit. Who knows what will happen when the Astoria is finally sold – A backpackers’ maybe or even a complete makeover into groovy apartments? Given the current climate it’s most unlikely to ever become another fleabag, which is bad news for the bed bugs and cockroaches that will soon be checking out.

20 Years of Grace – Merri Cyr This month marks the 20th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s sole studio album, Grace. As a celebration of this momentous milestone in music history, Blender Gallery is presenting an exhibition of unique images of the famous American singer.

Photographer Merri Cyr followed Buckley on tour and captured the many shades of his personality through the lens.

The showing features both posed and casual shots. One, that shows Buckley staring intently into a lit match, is a poignant reflection on his short life and incandescent career. In another he is reflected leaning pensively against a door frame, whilst a startling black and white triptych captures the intensity and spontaneity of a live Jeff Buckley performance.

The sadness and joy of these pictures illustrate the intimate life of the man yet maintain the charisma and aura of the star.

For fans of Buckley and rock photography, this show is a must-see. (LR) Until Sep 13, Blender Gallery, 16 Elizabeth St, Paddington, free, blender.com.au

‘Electric’ by Merri Cyr

Life Interrupted: Personal Diaries from World War I Before the end of the great war of 1914-1918, the State Library began collecting personal accounts of the battlefields. One hundred years later, Life Interrupted presents these words and images in an exhibition that is poignant, confronting, astounding and sad.

These reminiscences show all the complexities and vagaries of wartime experience. Pictures of smiling young men surrounded by the mysteries of Egypt sit beside stark black and white photos of bodies strewn across the sands of Gallipoli.

Flowered silk postcards, their colours still vibrant, jostle for space next to descriptions of the conflict as ‘a disgrace to Christianity’.

The humour of the troops is displayed in their many sketches and water colours and their courage shown in the restraint and integrity of their journals.

This is an honest attempt to balance a national mythology with a brutal history and an apt commemoration of those whose lives were forever haunted by the horrific war that changed the world.

(LR) Until Sep 21, State Library of NSW, Macquarie St, Sydney, free, sl.nsw.gov.au

“577” Writing Home. Henry Charles Marshall (1890-1915). Kensington to Cairo and from Cairo to Gallipoli. Album of photographs (1914-1915)

Collages – John Stezaker John Stezaker’s Collages is a unique experiment in dislocation and disassociation.

Inspired by surrealism, the works consist of yellowing Hollywood head shots overlaid with early 20th Century postcards and the results are striking.

Sharp lines and oblique contours signify the disconnect between two visual worlds. They contrast and merge in an odd collision which shatters ideas of gender, form, and the natural world.

In Muse, the artist unites a male and female to produce a hybrid human representation that matches in facial features yet questions traditional portrayals. Its zig-zag edges and diagonal perspective further twist the conventions of the familiar photograph.

The subversion continues with Path I which shows a generic audience staring at an imposed image of green pathways and trees producing a strange threedimensional effect.

With its unusual combination of shapes, colours, and themes, this exhibition is a provocative discourse about accepted artistic expression and social norms. (LR) Until Sep 6, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Carriageworks, 245 Wilson St, Darlington, free, annaschwartzgallery.com

‘Muse’ by John Stezaker

Kimbra – The Golden Echo A While pop aficionados will be acquainted with Kimba’s debut album Vows, to the world at large she’s that girl from Somebody That I Used To Know.

The Golden Echo is a decent stab at changing that.

Carolina is a shimmering pop gem, Miracle is a fabulous slice of nu-disco goodness, and 90s Music is a joyful tribute to the songs of Kimbra’s birth decade – in fact, every track here is memorable in some way.

The downsides? The album jumps all over the place in a manner that can be jarring.

Some will enjoy this, others might decry a lack of cohesiveness – either way, this album displays an energy and flair that’s bound to win new fans. (PH)

Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (Deluxe Edition) How can an album released in 1981 still sound so incredibly fresh and modern? This reissue is a startling blend of funk, reggae, soul and synth pop, it contains some of Jones’ best-known songs including Pull Up To The Bumper, Demolition Man and her evocative cover of Walking In The Rain by Sydney’s own Flash and the Pan. But what really strikes the listener is the total lack of filler. Every track – not just the singles – is a masterclass in flawless, sophisticated pop.

A bonus disc of remixes (many previously unreleased) sweetens the deal on this already excellent remastered album. (PH)

Mere Women When thinking outside the box means recording your sophomore album in a cold-storage warehouse in the height of a rural New South Wales summer, there’s bound to be some questions.

Questions that Mere Women axe-man and co-vocalist Flyn McKinnirey is only too happy to shed some light on when discussing Your Town.

“Our engineer’s brother, who owns the place, wanted to record something in there and he thought we were the perfect band to do it,” McKinnirey explains. “It was in Orange, which was probably 35 degrees, but it must have been about four degrees inside the place. We were completely rugged up the whole time!”

The sound that they exited Orange with, however, was nowhere near as freezing as their toes were.

LIVE WIRE Megan Washington: Washington seems to be on a cathartic spree lately after her time on Australian Story, she is touring her most honest album yet. She has written about everything she has avoided thus far – anxiety, bad sex, being in love, being unfaithful, and losing her best friend. While the album is inspired by infectious ‘80s pop, the lyrics speak of an inner darkness and every

“We wanted to get a lot of natural reverb from where we recorded, we love [that] effect,” he says. “But it’s strange because we recorded in such a cold environment, yet we were trying to make it the opposite. We wanted a really warm-sounding record. So in that sense, it’s strange to think [about].”

The warmth of the record isn’t the only thing that leaps out at listeners who trawl through the 10 enigmatic tracks of Your Town.

In comparison to their debut release, Old Life, the most recent effort is what McKinnirey describes as ‘cohesive’.

“There is a lot more song structure, which we have never actually worked with before. We were pretty happy with it,” he says. “Some of our more popular songs on the new album have that structure and I think that’s what

people like with constant rhythms.

Not everyone likes that constant chopping and changing that we did on Old Life.

“Those songs sound like they’re going on a journey and different paths, which is because sometimes it was two ideas completely mashed together,” he continues.

“Particularly on Old Life we didn’t write each song in one go, it was more like a bunch of ideas put together and we made it work.”

With a brand new Korean and Japanese themed clip for their next single, Heave Ho, things in the Mere Women camp are definitely becoming more defined.

Their previous single Our Street focused on their perceptions of home and upbringing, which makes this stand in stark contrast.

Catch them as they support US noise punksters Pity Sex. (CD) Aug 28, Newtown Social Club, 387 King St, Newtown, $25+bf, newtownsocialclub.com

Sydney Live Music Guide

lyric is about someone real.

Thu, Aug 28th, Oxford Art Factory Pity Sex: This four-piece are heading from Michigan to Australia as part of Poison City Record’s The Weekender festival. It’s the first time the band has brought their foggy, lo-fi noise pop and fuzzed-out walls of sound to Aussie shores. Those listening for the first time may notice references to Dinosaur Jr.,

Sonic Youth, and Hum. Thu, Aug 28th, Newtown Social Club Daniel Merriweather: Dual ARIA winner, Daniel Merriweather is considered somewhat a leading man in Australia’s new soul movement. This Sydney gig is an excuse to promote his newest album and also play the hits from his back catalogue. Merriweather has collaborated with the likes of

Adele, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. This is a one-off show that shouldn’t be missed.

Fri, Aug 29th, Oxford Art Factory Dandy Warhols: These guys are regarded as one of the best live bands around.

This year marks The Dandy’s 20th anniversary as a band that have spent the majority of the past two decades putting on hand-clapping, sing-a-longs that deliver more than any other recording has.

Fri, Aug 29th, Enmore Theatre

Bob Dylan: In all honesty, audiences never know how a Dylan performance is going to go. His backing band is a well-oiled machine and Dylan’s voice never strays from its signature snarl but The Man himself can be a little hot and cold. His arthritis means he probably won’t pick up a guitar but he’ll make up for it by spending ample time on piano and wailing on harmonica.

Wed, Sept 3rd, State Theatre

Cam Avery: As founding member of Pond, recently recruited bass player for Tame Impala, close friend of Kevin Parker and Nick Allbrook, and lead singer of The Growl, you could say that Cam Avery is Perth’s music scene personified. He is also on a solo adventure to tour his new material for The Growl’s next album. (AE) Wed, Sept 3rd, The Vanguard

Predestination

In this Australian production, American actor Ethan Hawke plays the Temporal Agent who must neutralise the one offender that has eluded him through time.

Robert A. Heinlein was one of the genius writers of science fiction and the twin Spierig brothers (writers/ directors/producers) have taken on the challenging task of telling one of his stories

visually. Largely the audience for the film could be evenly split between those who love it and those who are frustrated by it.

Some may feel that predicting the outcome is an academic exercise, certainly it’s a film that puts a new spin on the familiar tale of the agent working to prevent a terrorist outrage. What’s different here is the method used: time travel. (MMu) WWW

Sydney Latin American Film Festival 2014 The Sydney Latin American Film Festival (SLAFF) has a reputation for displaying the best talent pulsating from Latin American cinema and culture and this is its ninth year.

“As an actor I believe that film has a unique ability to affect humans emotionally which causes us to empathise and expand our outlook on the world. This year SLAFF presents 15 feature-length films and 23 short films. Our aim is to present Latin America in a different light, and inspire you to see the world through new eyes,” says Brazilian ambassador of SLAFF Glenn McMillan.

Apart from the creativity it endorses every year, with its critically acclaimed selection of dramas, comedies, documentaries and animation, SLAFF has raised more than $110,000 for 23 worthy organisations in Latin America and Australia through ticket sales – a beautiful combination of entertainment and welfare assistance to enjoy with amigos.

Starting off the festival with a bang is the film Conducta (Behaviour) from contemporary Cuba, it

Felony

Magic in the Moonlight Magic in the Moonlight is Woody Allen’s latest film, and it has a lot in common with 2011’s Midnight in Paris. Both feature a beautiful French backdrop, stunning 1920’s costumes, and themes that ponder our relationship with reality.

Colin Firth plays Stanley, a self-important illusionist who is invited to expose the swindles of a psychic medium named Sophie (Emma Stone). When Sophie seems to be the real thing, Stanley is forced to concede that his grouchy rationalism may be

amiss.

Visually, Magic in the Moonlight is a joy thanks to the cliffs of the Côte d’Azur and the delightful Emma Stone. But Firth’s Stanley is such an insipid, caustic know-it-all, a much less lovable Mr Darcy. His unpleasantness is necessary given the themes of scientific certainty. But it’s hard to truly love a movie when you wish the protagonist wouldn’t open his mouth, and when the age difference between the love interests is so cringe inducing.

(HC) WW½

Joel Edgerton writes and performs in this intense story about a good cop who does a bad thing that results in a young paperboy fighting for his life.

A lie snowballs quickly but the avalanche to come is a slower process as he battles his own demons, the senior detective all

Locke

Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) has the perfect life – a loving family and a prosperous career as a construction manager, but the mobile phone call he receives whilst driving will shatter his life, resulting in the loss of his job, family and home.

Locke is an incredibly riveting, low-budget British film set entirely in a car at night, with the camera positioned mostly on Hardy’s face. The other characters including Locke’s

20,000 DAYS ON EARTH You can immediately tell that cultural icon and focal point Nick Cave had a say in 100 per cent of everything that’s going on in this film. It’s an incredibly intimate portrait of a man, his dreams, his memories, his obsessions, his processes, and his thoughts.

The storyline, the staging and the soundtrack cannot be faulted; the film also features a slew of Cave’s friends and colleagues including Kylie Minogue. Diehard fans will find themselves witness to a side of the enigmatic Cave that the world has hitherto not been privy.

(AE) Limited release. WWWWW PALO ALTO Based on the short stories of controversial Hollywood star James Franco, Palo

18

Alto explores the turbulent, confusing and lonely time known as adolescence.

The directorial debut from the next generation of Coppola clan, Gia Coppola, transforms the film into something beautiful to watch.

Sadly there’s only a semblance of a narrative to follow but considering the film’s subject matter perhaps that’s the point.

Although wonderfully shot, well acted and a poignant insight into adolescence, it has all been said before. (MT) WWW THE EXPENDABLES 3 Barney (Sylvester Stallone) replaces his current Expendables team with young blood, but when they’re captured and held hostage the old gang reform and a stunning rescue mission follows.

is already gaining recognition with awards under its tough belt. Between this intriguing start there are films from Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and even some in collaboration with Jamaica, USA, France and Haiti.

The curtains will close with a Peruvian/Spanish collaboration called Sigo Siendo (I Still Am) that follows the lives of musicians through their journey in Peru.

This Latino film festival promises to take Sydney by tormenta! (storm). (RBM) Sep 3-10, Event Cinemas, George St, 505-525 George St, Sydney, $15.50-25, sydneylatinofilmfestival.org

Star-studded Hollywood heavyweights including Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been assembled for this mammoth sequel, with Antonio Banderas hilarious as the chatty wannabe-expendable.

After the release of this film’s cheesy predecessor the tired format was revamped, with the elimination of the self-parody and re-introduction of the more conventional serious style of action storytelling.

This has successfully revitalised the franchise, still remaining comical but adding an edge that should arrest audiences and secure yet more sequels. (MM) WWW½ A MOST WANTED MAN A banker, lawyer, preacher, and spy

too ready to cover it up (Tom Wilkinson), his conflicted wife (Melissa George), and the idealist relentless in his pursuit to expose him (Jai Courtney).

Director Matthew Saville, whose previous credits are mostly for the smaller screen, takes us on an uncomfortable but compelling ride, whilst the performances are full of strength and subtlety. (CC) WWW½

wife, his boss and a few work colleagues are simply voices on the phone but very powerful and instrumental to the story.

The success of this film is reliant on Hardy’s performance. As the movie progresses, the intensity of the numerous situations escalate and Hardy utilises his versatility as an actor to brilliantly convey a roller-coaster of emotions.

There are consequences for decisions and the audience is sitting in the passenger seat enthralled, as this modern tragedy unfolds. (MM) WWW½

combine to provide mystery and intrigue in John le Carré’s A Most Wanted Man. Set in a blue- and yellow-soaked Hamburg, one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last movies sees him portray the dissipated and avuncular Günther Bachmann, the head of a small Secret Service section of dubious legality.

This is a world of suggestive looks, simple words, and deceptive nods.

It is a tale where good and evil are indistinguishable.

A Most Wanted Man is understated rather than sensational and sustaining the suspense over two hours is problematic. It is probably more suitable for an older audience that is willing to wait for an ambiguous denouement.

(LR) WWW THE KEEPER OF LOST

CAUSES From Denmark comes a crime sensation that will have audiences at the edge of their seats. When disgraced chief detective Carl Morck (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and assistant Assad (Fares Fares) investigate the cold case of a missing politician who allegedly committed suicide, they unearth the truth which leads to a race against time. This psychological crime thriller is superbly written, dark, and gritty, in which the mystery and suspense ensures audience interest is maintained.

Momentum accelerates at a fast pace leading to the disturbing climax which is heightened by an effective musical score. (MM) WWW½ THESE FINAL HOURS This Australian drama/thriller set in

Perth asks how would you spend your final hours on Earth?

With only 12 hours until the end of the world, James (Nathan Phillips) is travelling to a party, but opts to rescue an 11-year-old girl (Angourie Rice) instead.

Basically this is a pre-apocalyptic road-trip film. The performances are strong – Phillips and Rice work well together – and stereotypical hoodlum characters aid in painting a very grim picture of society as the end approaches.

Adversely, the film looks cheap and the screenplay is flat, lacking the edge and momentum for films in this genre – ultimately a somewhat uneventful and mediocre film. (MM) WW½