City Hub 7 August 2014

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August 7, 2014

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Fears develop over rise of racism in the inner city “This incident would have been very disturbing for international students who saw or heard about the posters. It would make them feel very unnerved and unsafe,” she said.

Shortly after this incident occurred, the Australia First Party called a meeting at their Tempe office on Saturday July 26. The meeting was titled ‘Ending the Ethnic Cleansing of Australians from our Education Institutions’.

Australia First Party chairperson Jim Saleam told City Hub the meeting resulted in a unanimous decision

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The residents drew up a letter that read: “As Chippendale residents, we were appalled to receive last week’s pamphlet from the Australia First Party attacking International Students. We love Chippendale’s diverse and accepting community and think that racism has no place here.”

This, as well as other anti-racism flyers, has begun to be distributed to letterboxes around the area in an attempt to counter the Australia First Party campaign.

These incidents of anti-immigrant sentiment by AFP, in light of last week’s ‘Anti-Ramadan’ protests in Marrickville, have caused concern among Sydney residents that the prevalence of xenophobic acts is in the rise in Sydney.

Ms Hinman feels the current political climate is emboldening far-right groups to express their views.

“This government is pushing the atmosphere whereby sentiments of xenophobia are more tolerated,” she said.

Ms Leong also said the current political climate in Australia and in Sydney were contributing to the growth of this kind of discriminatory politics.

“It is clear there are some undercurrents of this kind of activity within the city,” she said.

“This is highly concerning to me – when national and state leaders choose to not oppose racism loudly and clearly when it occurs can mean this kind of action starts to surface.”

A Greens NSW MP and spokesperson for multiculturalism agreed with this concern.

“Although the intolerant views of emerging extremist right wing parties are a minority, there is no doubt that the government’s dog whistling, such as on asylum seekers, creates an atmosphere that is readily exploitable.”

Mr Greenwich said he feels these incidents are isolated and that it is important not to give this kind of extreme political activity much attention.

“It is always important to monitor this kind of radicalism but it is also important not to give it too much oxygen,” he said.

Jenny Leong, Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC and local resident distributing anti-racism flyers in Chippendale.

Wilson Street squat cleared, residents’ property discarded

BY GeOrGia Kriz and Lucia OsBOrne-crOwLeY On Monday (August 4), City Hub was informed the furniture and personal belongings of the tenants of The Hat Factory squat in Newtown had been removed from the property and destroyed.

The residents’ property was destroyed and placed in a large skip early on Monday morning. The residents had not been informed of the clear-out, nor had they given their permission, according to longtime resident Ben. Ben preferred not to divulge his surname.

Ben said he arrived at the scene and attempted to salvage some of his personal belongings without success.

Last Thursday (July 31), the squat on Wilson Street in Newtown was forcibly evicted by riot police, causing concern among residents and local politicians over the legality of the sudden eviction.

The squat has operated in its current state since 2001.

According to information obtained from NSW Land and Property Information, the building’s private owner bought the property in 2003 – two years after it become a squat.

A long-term resident of the building who preferred not to be named said the tenants had entered into verbal agreements with the owner to allow them to

use the premises as a squat since he acquired the property. According to the resident, the landlord changed his mind very suddenly and ordered the eviction.

A hearing to determine whether tenants’ rights were upheld in the eviction was scheduled at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) for August 8. Residents were not expecting any action to be taken before the case was heard, however the forced eviction occurred over a week before the scheduled hearing.

Ben said that the eviction was an “extreme and unexpected reaction”.

“They clearly wanted us out very badly,” he said. “They completely overstepped normal police procedures and used a massive amount of resources.”

“Everyone was pretty upset – I know the other residents of Wilson St were really confronted and outraged by this massive scary police siege.”

“The amount of force they used was just unnecessary.”

The building, known locally as The Hat Factory, has allegedly been occupied by squatters since 2001.

City of Sydney Greens Councillor Irene Doutney said that the plight of the Wilson St squatters highlighted the worsening affordable housing crisis in Sydney.

“Instead of paying exorbitant rent, these people have chosen a

The Sydney City Local Area Command of the NSW Police said

political action and they have been met with a terrible overreach from the police and the City. This is just extremely heavy-handed and it has created a lot of fear in the area.”

A spokesperson for the City of Sydney Council said council had inspected the property following a resident complaint, but that the eviction and surrounding incidents were ordered by the owner.

“NSW Police were involved in the removal of the squatters on Thursday. The operation was instigated by the owner of the property.”

the eviction occurred “without incident”.

It is expected that NCAT will hand down its ruling this coming Friday (August 8).

If NCAT determines the eviction was unlawful, the owner could face a substainal fine.

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to launch a large-scale campaign against international students in Sydney.

Immediately following this decision, the Party began letterboxing houses in the inner city with flyers and posters calling for the removal of all international students and immigrants in the area.

Members of Greens for Newtown and Chippendale residents, Danielle and Tony, received the literature in their letterbox and decided to launch a campaign to assure Chippendale and inner city residents that this type of racism is not tolerated in the area.

Photo: Greens for newtown

BY Lucia OsBOrne-crOwLeY Local residents have voiced concerns about xenophobic flyers distributed to inner city suburbs this week. Community activists have speculated that the federal government’s lenient approach towards discriminatory speech may have fostered this activity.

As City Hub goes to print, the federal government announced it would abandon proposed changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Greens for Newtown, headed by preselection candidate Jenny Leong, has organised a letterboxing campaign to counter xenophobic literature that has been distributed around Chippendale and Newtown.

The literature, delivered to letterboxes around the area early this week, referred to an Australia First Party (AFP) campaign to remove international students from Sydney’s universities and instead “give Australian university places to Australian people”.

Ms Leong said the counter-initiative was intended to show residents of the inner city that they would not tolerate racist attitudes in their community.

“This initiative was generated by local residents who really just wanted to show that the inner city community only accepts tolerance and diversity and is willing to stand up to racism wherever it occurs,” she said.

“We wanted to make clear that this kind of racism has not role to play in the type of community we want to live in.”

Independent MP Alex Greenwich agreed that the inner city community does not tolerate these acts of racism.

“These incidents do not reflect the views of inner city residents.”

This letterboxing campaign follows an incident late last week when the Australia First Party covered the glass shop-front of Glebe’s Resistance Bookshop with antiimmigrant signs and posters.

Green Left Weekly spokesperson Pip Hinman arrived at the bookshop early on Friday morning to find the posters covering the shopfront and called the police.

The eviction at Wilson street on July 31

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BY Elliott BrEnnan A spokesperson for the Rozelle Residents Action Group (RRAG) has raised questions about the possible future of a CBD Metro link with the Western suburbs. The concerns come in light of the extensive redevelopment of the Bays Precinct area that will include the Rozelle rail yards.

Plans for a West Metro failed in 2010, but in cancelling the project, then Premier Kristina Keneally said she still saw a metro as part of Sydney’s future.

In both the final draft and all those that came before, the Rozelle Rail yards were intended to integrally serve the Metro as the main interchange, and the holding and service yards for the Metro trains.

Following the 2010 setback, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) continued to actively protect the theoretical corridor that the Metro would follow underneath Victoria Road.

In a letter obtained by City Hub dated June 2012, TfNSW rejected one of the Rozelle village plans almost exclusively on the grounds that they were protecting the corridor, and more specifically the foreseen use of Rozelle station.

“Encroachment of the proposed building basement excavation within the Zone of Influence is expected to be of a high risk to the potential future Rozelle Metro Station,” the letter read.

“Landowners would need to enter in to a deed agreement with TfNSW. The deed would ensure that the ability for the future Metro to be developed would not be compromised.”

In addition to this evidence of active protection from TfNSW, the corridor remains in The State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 legislation, specifically mentioned in clauses 88A-88C. In dialogue with a lawyer specialising in infrastructure planning, City Hub was told that the removal of any rail corridors from protection would simultaneously see them removed from legislation, meaning that the CBD metro is theoretically still alive.

This future became questionable with the

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Photo: Glebe Society

Bays Precinct developments could signal the end of West Metro

The Bays Precinct

publication of The Bays Precinct Taskforce, which identified the strategic value of the rail yards for the easing of congestion problems that would come with the Bays Precinct developments.

“Making this public domain area safer and more accessible is reliant on the delivery of the proposed new port access road via Rozelle Rail Yards, which has

the support of all task members,” the report read.

The Rozelle Residents Action Group spokesperson said the construction of this road would make redundant the legislation and the years of protection TfNSW has given the corridor.

“Developing the land would definitely put an end to any plans for a metro. That is unless they were able

to find an alternate site for their holding yard,” the spokesperson said.

In support of this claim, section 45 of The State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 outlines the restrictions and risk factors when building within 2 metres above the caverns needed for an underground rail system, specifically in regards to the electrical networks that come with rail works.

As Glebe Island and White Bay are still operational ports, infrastructure for the transport of heavy freight such as cement would need to be provided by the access road, meaning that the road would need to be reinforced and would probably have an adverse effect the feasibility of a Metro.

A spokesperson for TfNSW did not address any questions regarding the CBD Metro corridor or the proposed access road through the rail yard, but did reveal that they would be used as a depot for the new CBD and South East Light Rail extensions.

“The depot will provide facilities for the maintenance of light rail vehicles,” the TfNSW spokesperson said.

Additionally with the Bays Precinct and Rozelle train yards representing the last large tracts of unused land close to the CBD, it is difficult to ascertain where an alternate site could be located.

Despite the Rozelle Residents Action group having been one of the Metros’ most vocal opponents, the spokesperson said that if the corridor is redundant, it would represent the loss of “a great opportunity for the city of Sydney”.

“Had the plans extended all the way to Parramatta, then we couldn’t have argued with the need for such a system. It wasn’t going to service a need if it only went to Rozelle; it simply wasn’t enough to justify the cost or the inconvenience,” the spokesperson said.

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Independent John Stamolis triumphs in Leichhardt Council by-election

BY Jessica Yun Independent John Stamolis will be representing the ward of Birrabirragal (Balmain) in Leichhardt Council once again, electoral results reveal.

In a by-election held in Balmain on Saturday, four candidates ran for election to the empty seat that had been vacated by Liberal councillor Melinda Manikas, who passed away in May. Mr Stamolis, who was a Leichhardt councillor between 2008-2012, had missed out on being re-elected by a thin margin in the last election, meaning there were no Independents in council from 2012 onwards.

“We’re bringing Independents back,” said Mr Stamolis. “I think the community has sent a signal that they would like to see a diversity of voices on council.”

“I think that’s the biggest signal that our community has sent – that they would like to see an Independent returned, and not for all the party politics … Leichhardt is one of the councils in Sydney that is dominated by the three parties.”

Ruth Davis, 51, was one Balmain community member who placed her vote with Independent John Stamolis.

“I think it is good to have an Independent rather than one of the mainstream parties. And I know that he’s been on council previously, and I think he did a good job,” said Ms Davis.

“I think he’s passionate … And the fact that he was on council and he’s been off, and he wants to get back on again – that shows that he’s really dedicated. I think he really wants to represent the area.”

Of the votes counted only from Election Day on Saturday, Independent John Stamolis came in the lead with 35.49% of votes from Balmain residents.

Next was the Labour Party’s Aaron Di Pietro who held 22.81% of the votes with Greens’ Derek Bolton coming a close third at 21.23%. Liberal Michael Manikas accumulated 18.56% of votes.

The election of an Independent councillor has meant the balance of power in Leichhardt Council has shifted.

Where the makeup of council had previously been an evenly balanced 4 Labour, 4 Liberal and 4 Greens councillors, the new council will comprise of 4 Labour, 3 Liberal, 4 Greens and 1 Independent.

“I have my own policies. And I will be ensuring that I drag the parties across to me, that I seek their

newS In brIef

vote on my policies.”

Having been a councillor in previous years, Stamolis felt his advantage was in his previous experience in local government.

Mr Stamolis says the central focus during his term would be in improving amenities for residents and families in the Balmain community.

“My biggest goal is to make sure local government addresses local issues,” said Mr Stamolis.

“It’s about local government. It’s about the amenities for the communities. It’s about having a strong functioning community that enjoys living in Balmain.”

Concerns build over UrbanGrowth Memorandum BY nick RichaRdson

The City of Sydney has voted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UrbanGrowth NSW in support of the NSW government plans to develop the inner city. The move makes UrbanGrowth NSW the primary agency for the development and renewal of inner Sydney, including the Central-Eveleigh area, Parramatta Road, and the Bays precinct. However community group RedWatch is concerned that insufficient community consultation will lead to a development plan that does not reflect the wants and needs of a diverse inner-urban community.

“Once the council enters into the MOU, it becomes much more difficult for council to talk to the community about it,” said RedWatch spokesperson, Geoffrey Turnbull. “Under the MOU there would be involvement from the Mayor, the CEO, and staff. Our concern is if council has all these people

working with UrbanGrowth, who works with community to ensure their voices are heard?” RedWatch is also concerned the authority of Council to make decisions could be undermined by the MOU, a fear shared by City of Sydney Greens Councillor, Irene Doutney. “If the councils are assisting the states in development, it’s helpful for development,” said Cr Doutney. “UrbanGrowth is the landowner, developer and authority. If that isn’t a conflict of interest I don’t know what is. I wasn’t elected to represent developers, I was elected to represent constituents.” UrbanGrowth has begun conducting focus groups in the area.

“The aim is to gather inputs from a wide cross section of community members, develop draft concepts for the corridor and specific precincts in the corridor, and then test these concepts on the wider community - all before the development proposal is lodged,” said a spokesperson for UrbanGrowth NSW.

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BY EmilY Contador-KElsall Marrickville council is fighting funding cuts to Family Day Care [FDC] in a bid to safeguard the future of childcare in Marrickville.

Marrickville council is acting against funding cuts to FDC services announced in the May Budget and changes to funding eligibility that threaten the presence of FDCs in Marrickville.

For more than 35 years, FDC services across Australia have received operational funding from the federal government to support staff and centres.

Posing further change to the childcare infrastructure in Marrickville is the single, means tested childcare subsidy recently recommended by the productivity commission to replace current ranges of subsidies.

The Productivity Commission has proposed to combine the childcare rebate and benefit into one payment and means test it.

Marrickville Mayor Jo Haylen said the callous, indefensible budget cuts to FDCs would make keeping up with current demands for childcare almost impossible.

“There is already a significant gap in meeting current childcare needs in Marrickville. With almost 2000 names on our waiting lists, we need to be securing more services for our residents, not struggling to maintain what we have already.”

Council said that the FDC service model is unique in that it provides affordable, flexible and after-hours education and care options for families.

“Access to high quality affordable, accessible and flexible child care is a critical factor in supporting workforce participation by both women and men.”

Leanne Gibbs, CEO of Community Childcare Cooperative said the cuts to funding have affected the potential for quality in FDCS. “These [funding cuts] will affect the FDC sector by reducing the availability of operational funding to run FDC services. These operational funds provide coordination support and administrative support and

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Photo: marrickville Council

Uncertain future for childcare in Marrickville

Family Day Care under threat

have been available to both for profit and not for profit services.”

Council is an approved provider of Marrickville FDC and currently supports 21 individual FDC educators in the area.

In the motion against federal budget cuts to childcare, Marrickville council resolved to write to federal MPs including Minister for Education Christopher Pyne, expressing concern about the ongoing feasibility of FDCs since the changes to funding guidelines.

Council will also write to local NSW Government requesting it to lodge a submission on behalf of NSW local councils requesting urgent consultations be held about the impacts of funding changes.

Marrickville’s Manager childcare services said it was too soon to say what the single childcare subsidy would mean for Marrickville’s childcares and what the future of

childcare would look like in Marrickville.

Marrickville council is currently analysing the many proposals and recommendations in the Productivity Commission’s report.

Leanne Gibbs said the measures proposed by the Productivity Commission need more testing, modelling and better links to research.

“Means tested subsidy is probably overdue but the measures proposed may not alleviate the costs for those under $60,000.”

“Initial modelling shows greater relief for those with incomes between $60,000 and $160,000 and some question as to what this looks like for those under and over may not differ.”

The future of childcare for FDCs under revised guidelines that take effect from July 1 2015 is clearer.

Under these guidelines, a FDC service will be eligible

for funding from the community services program only if it is the sole FDC service provider operating in a regional, remote or disadvantaged area and there is an unmet demand for childcare.

No FDC services in metropolitan Sydney are likely to be eligible for funding under new guidelines, a change which will deeply affect Marrickville where there is already a significant gap in meeting childcare needs.

There are currently between 95-105 equivalent full time places provided for Marrickville children in FDC services according to council.

“The demand for childcare here in Marrickville is only growing. Council’s recent Community Facilities study identified a desperate need for more childcare services, with an additional 650 kids aged 0-4 years expected to be living in the LGA by 2031,” said Mayor Haylen.

Marrickville council is investigating several options for the future of FDCs when funding is withdrawn mid-next year. These options include ceasing to be a FDC provider, increasing fees and charges or funding the $125,000 funding shortfall per annum from council’s budget.

Transition planning is already underway in Marrickville with FDC staff, educators and Coordinators meeting to explain proposed funding cuts and eligibility changes and review the FDC business model and viability.

Council has also held a meeting with FDC educators and issued a letter to families using the FDC service, advising them of proposed changes and opportunities for their input. Council made a strong commitment to maintain ongoing discussion with families, staff and educators over the next 12 months.

“Marrickville Council takes the increasing demand for childcare very seriously. That’s why in November last year we made a commitment to build and operate a new 60 place centre in South Marrickville,” said Mayor Haylen “This is part of Council’s strategic approach to dealing with the current baby boom and planning for our future.”

BY EmilY ConTador-KElsall The re-development of major areas at Bondi Beach is set to continue on its path with Hotel Bondi up for sale.

The historic Hotel Bondi, owned by the family of hotelier and pub developer Cyril Maloney is on the market after 44 years in the family.

The sale of Hotel Bondi has received huge interest, holding great potential for re-development in a property hot spot.

Bondi Beach Resident Gabriella Melocco is concerned about the development of Bondi Beach with the sale of large, iconic properties like Hotel Bondi.

“I want Bondi to remain as it is and not turn into another Surfers Paradise.”

“The less over-built Bondi is, the better.”

The four storey Hotel is adjacent to the luxury Pacific apartments currently under construction and close to the recently opened Toga Group’s Boheme apartments and Adina Hotel complex.

Hotel Bondi is heritage listed by the NSW government.

The statement of significance, last updated in 1999, states Hotel Bondi is an important landmark building in the Bondi Beach townscape that was built in the early years of Bondi’s popularity and retains architectural interest for its individual design and unusual styling.

The state heritage listing of Hotel Bondi does not mean it cannot be redeveloped.

According to the NSW government’s environment and heritage branch, state listing normally prevents demolition: “The Heritage Council cannot approve demolition of a state-listed item.

However, in some circumstances listed places can be partly demolished with approval.”

“If a listed place has lost its heritage significance or long-term conservation is no longer necessary, the place can be removed from the heritage list or demolished with government approval after assessment and advertising for public comments.”

Bondi resident Georgia Locke said development poses many problems to Bondi.

“The heritage buildings of Bondi should definitely not be overdeveloped into drab modern architecture as they are an important part of Bondi’s history.”

Homeless community in Wentworth Park face property removal Photo: Tom Psomotragos

Hotel sale sparks concern over Bondi’s future

Members of the Wentworth Park homeless community

Early on Tuesday (August 5), the City of Sydney Council informed occupants of Wentworth Park in Glebe their property would be removed as part of a council cleanHotel Bondi up, according to a local resident.

The occupants were informed all Miss Locke and Melocco both hope elements of Hotel Bondi will remain their personal items such as shelter intact. and mattresses would be removed, “Hotel Bondi is an important part of Bondi as it is well renowned and has a excluding clothing items. lovely period appearance/facade which should be preserved,” said Miss Locke.

The removal of the occupants’ “I just hope that in whatever way the new building is built, that it will be pleasing to the eye and make people that live in Bondi proud,” said Ms Melocco. property has raised concern among “Bondi is a famous beach and there still are some beautiful old apartments, but local residents as Monday, August 4 marked the beginning of National huge new developments take away from the originality and quirky personality Homeless Persons Week.

Bondi has and makes it seem like any other beach with sky rise buildings.”

A City of Sydney spokesperson said the items were removed in order to keep the public space tidy.

“City of Sydney staff removed some items from the park to tidy up the public space, following complaints from the community.

Rough sleepers were notified of the clean-up beforehand and consented to removal of nominated items,” the spokesperson said.

FROM THE MAYOR Council to Consider Former Balmain Leagues Club Site Rezoning In response to last week’s State Government decision to refer the former Balmain Leagues Club site back to local authorities, Leichhardt Council has now resolved to accept responsibility to consider updating controls for the site.

It is a relief that the State Government has finally abandoned its hope of approving 20 storey towers on the former Balmain Leagues Club site in Rozelle through the State appointed Planning Assessment Commission (PAC).

The State Government promised to return planning powers to local communities but has spent the three years since its election doing exactly the opposite.

A sensible, much smaller scale development, which does not turn Rozelle into Bondi Junction, can be achieved on this site.

Council wants to see the Balmain Leagues Club return to its Rozelle spiritual home.

The best chance of that occurring is for the current owner of the site to sell the property to someone with a less grandiose expectation of what can be built there.

 Leichhardt Council  7-15 Wetherill St Leichhardt  Ph 9367 9222  Fx 9367 9111   www.leichhardt.nsw.gov.au  leichhardt@lmc.nsw.gov.au   facebook/LeichhardtCouncil  twitter@leichhardtmc 

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Charles Laseron: a renaissance man sadly out of season

By gavin gatenBy Museums and antique shops have always fascinated me. Natural history has always fascinated me. These interests were fostered by my parents who were keen museum-goers, and, in the 1950s and early 60s, I was often taken to the Australian Museum (where I would later, briefly, be the chief guide) and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) on Harris Street Ultimo, which eventually moved down the road a little and became the Powerhouse.

Of the two museums, my parents were perhaps keenest on the MAAS, because they collected English Staffordshire figurines, and I recall that they bought the museum’s slim catalogue of the pottery and porcelain collections. Old pottery did not much interest me, so I was not to discover, until very recently, that the catalogue’s author was not just a remarkable sydneysider, but a true renaissance man who made a unique contribution to his city and to Australian science and connoisseurship.

I stumbled on him in a curious way. Sorting through my father’s effects after his death in 2002, I

came upon a small military training booklet entitled Direction Finding by the Sun and Stars written by a Staff Sergeant Laseron. It had been published in Sydney in 1942, seemingly as a private venture. In just 48 pages, with simple, hand-drawn illustrations, it was an erudite guide to practical astronomy and military field navigation and included a description of a do-it-youself sun compass designed by the author.

Twelve years after I found the booklet, while googling for information on Reuben Hannam, the convict brickmaker on whose land-grant our Turrella home is built, I came across a Hannam who had been on Douglas Mawson’s 1911-13 South Pole expedition and associated, with was him, a Charles F. Laseron. Surely this could not be the same man as Staff Sergeant Charles F. Laseron?

It was, and with a few clicks, the story of an extraordinary life spilled down the screen.

Charles Laseron was born in 1887 in Wisconsin, USA, the third and youngest child of the Rev. David Laseron, an English clergyman of eastern German origin. The Laserons moved back to the UK in 1888, then migrated to Australia, reaching Sydney in 1891.

Things did not go well. In June 1892, at Redfern, in a railway carriage, the Rev. Laseron was shot in the back by a hideously drunk member of the NSW Parliament (who later went on to be the attorneygeneral of WA). He recovered, but thereafter suffered from depression, in spite of which the Anglican Church appointed him to Lithgow. Here young Charles was raised before being sent to St Andrew’s Cathedral School.

Laseron did not attend university, probably because of his family’s straitened circumstances.

Instead, he enrolled at Sydney Technical College where he gained a diploma in geology. Just 19, he joined the staff of the Technological Museum –

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The young Charles Laseron as a member of Mawson’s South Polar expedition (Mitchell Library).

which became the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences – as a collector, and published his first scientific paper (on the geology of the Shoalhaven district). He also began investigations in botany and paleontology.

In 1911 Laseron joined Mawson’s Antarctic expedition as taxidermist and biological collector, taking part in two long sledging journeys during which he made important discoveries in geology.

Back in Sydney, he took over the museum’s geological collections, but in September 1914, just after the outbreak of World War One, he enlisted in the AIF. Laseron’s first military career was brief. He was wounded on the second day of Gallipoli, put on a boat back to Sydney, and discharged in 1916.

He returned to the museum and in 1926 was

appointed officer-in-charge of a new venture into “applied arts” – meaning the application of design and decoration to everyday objects to make them aesthetically pleasing.

For someone whose training was in geology and natural history, Laseron took to this new field with alacrity. Within the museum, and publicly, he fought for an applied arts collection that was appropriately funded and housed. According to his entry in the National Dictionary of Biography: “Later developments at the old Ultimo power house and elsewhere in Sydney have realised part of Laseron’s vision, but with little acknowledgement to a man out of season. Beyond setting up the New South Wales Applied Art Trust to promote the cause, he could make no headway and, frustrated by attitudes within the museum, resigned in 1929.”

Laseron then set up as an antique dealer (his shop was at 19 Castlereagh Street) and an auctioneer of books, coins and stamps, making a success of this even in the hard years of the depression. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he re-enlisted. For some reason, he was never commissioned, serving as a navigation instructor in his First World War rank of staff sergeant until 1944 when he was discharged because of bronchitis and heart trouble.

Post-war, Laseron never went back to antiquedealing, working as a clerk with the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. But you can’t keep an instinctive man of science down, and he took to writing and amateur natural history. In 1947, he published South With Mawson, an account of the 1911-13 expedition.

Laseron’s Antarctic pants are in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum, but a far as I can tell, absolutely nothing in Sydney is named in honour of him, which is a great shame, really.

Where the Locals Go - guide to Pyrmont-Ultimo New research reveals that almost half of all Pyrmont-Ultimo shoppers live or work locally and most prefer to invest their money as well as time in the area. Tourists attracted to the Peninsular on the other hand are those that seek more authentic, local experiences - beyond shopping malls and cookie cutter ways to view the Harbour city.

Responding to these findings the PUCC are once again launching “Where the Locals Go” – an annual guide promoting the best Pyrmont-Ultimo retailers, experiences and things to eat, drink and do in the area.

As well as providing visitors with a handy directory of what’s on offer in Pyrmont and Ultimo a big focus of the initiative is fostering community support to promote the local economy as well as benefit the environment.

“Where the Locals Go” will be published in September as an insert in The City Hub newspaper as well as being produced as a stand-alone glossy, booklet distributed throughout Pyrmont, Ultimo, Darling Harbour and the CBD amongst key retailers, pubs, bottle shops, cafes, restaurants, galleries, tourist destinations, UTS; TAFE and residents in Pyrmont and Ultimo.

Other findings from The City of Sydney’s independently commissioned research include: • 46% of Pyrmont shoppers live locally • 37% of all Pyrmont shoppers work locally • 71% of Pyrmont shoppers shop locally two to three times a week • 62% of Pyrmont customers dine in or take away from a restaurant or café weekly or more often • 14% of Pyrmont customers came from Overseas and a further 5% from other states “Where the Locals Go” is a joint initiative of the City of Sydney, the Pyrmont Ultimo Chamber of Commerce and the Alternative Media Group of Australia.

To find out more or to advertise call 02 9212-5677.

Booking deadline: 31 August 2014 Distribution date: 11 September 2014

Seafood Spectacular

Eleven up-and-coming chefs. Eleven mouthwatering seafood creations. One iconic venue…

Thanks to last year’s success the PUCC’s “Seafood Spectacular,” in collaboration with Sydney Fish Markets, Sydney Seafood School, SydneyTAFE and The City of Sydney, is back.

The must-attend event - the last PUCC networking initiative of 2014, is on Tuesday 16 September at Sydney Seafood School at the Sydney Fish Markets. The evening will include: live cooking theatre, a menu of eleven seafood canapés designed by SydneyTAFE apprentice chefs. Tickets are free for PUCC members as well as invited Sydney Fish Markets and Sydney TAFE guests. For others a fee of $50 applies.

Capacity is limited. To RSVP and for tickets go to: http://seafoodspectacular. eventbrite.com.au/?s=27163141

WIN with PUCC

The Pyrmont Ultimo Chamber of Commerce with the support of the City of Sydney has partnered with Good Food Month and Maree Sheehan - Director of The Sydney Connection, to stage two Ultimate Progressive Dining Walks of Pyrmont-Ultimo on October 8th and 15th, 2014.

Hosted by city walking tour specialists The Sydney Connection, the event is described as a “moveable feast” that will visit some of Pyrmont finest establishments including: The Apprentice, Bar Zini, Blue Eye Dragon, Hotel 1888, Gallon and Foundry 616.

To give new PUCC subscribers a taste of this truly unique dining experience - just ahead of Good Food Month, one lucky person will WIN a private dining tour for two on 25 September valued at $300. Go to the www.pucc.com.au and sign up to subscribe to the newsletter to be in the running.

Pyrmont-Ultimo in shape: Grattan Institute

A new report carried out by independent research and think tank - The Grattan Institute, ranks Pyrmont-Ultimo as the fifth top performing economy within the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area.

The study also concluded that the national economy had shifted away from the country’s prosperity residing mainly in primary industry or suburban manufacturing to more knowledgeintensive city-based businesses finding that unlike in the past the overwhelming majority (80 per cent) of the nation’s production overall occurs in cities.

Pyrmont-Ultimo’s top five ranking itself is impressive but more so considering the region was outperformed only by the production powerhouses of (in order): the CBD, North Sydney, Macquarie Park and Parramatta.

In yet more positive local news The City of Sydney estimates that about 2,000 jobs a year will result from its record $1.94 billion infrastructure program. The City’s ten year

Reuse and save: 80 Bay cafe

plan includes major financial commitments for projects across Sydney including almost $40 million towards integrating Barangaroo with its near neighbours and another $220 million earmarked to go into central Sydney transformation projects as light rail is installed in the area.

“For the past 10 years the City has delivered budget surpluses. Through sensible financial management we have secured the money needed to invest in the kind of services and facilities our community deserves,” Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, says.

To read more or download the full Grattan report go to: http://grattan.edu. au/publications/reports/post/mappingaustralias-economy-cities-as-engines-ofprosperity/

PUCC member: theeyecarecompany

80 Bay café in Ultimo is one of a number of Sydney cafes doing their bit to promote more sustainable caffeine drinking habits by offering its customers a 20 per cent discount on take away coffee purchased in a reuseable cup.

When you think about all the coffee consumed in not always easy to recycle take away containers looking at more sustainable ways to mange Sydney’s growing caffeine addiction makes a lot of sense.

As Justin Bonsey from waste management awareness group, Responsible Runners, explains: “There are one billion takeaway cups and lids wasted in Australia every year – which are recyclable only in certain conditions and composted in even more limited conditions – so the only answer is to encourage a culture of re-use.”

80 Bay café: 80 Bay Street, Ultimo.

Head online for more news & events With so much happening in Pyrmont/ Ultimo, we can’t always fit everything in our print newsletter. For more news and events, head to pucc.com.au

Join us on Linkedin LIKE us on Facebook

Optometrists and PUCC member theeyecarecompany are an independent business providing professional, personalised eyecare services at four central locations in Sydney including; George and King St in the CBD along with Top Ryde and Liverpool.

The 100 per cent Australian- owned company is committed to providing the best eye care products at the best possible price and delivering exceptional customer service including comprehensive eye tests bulk-billed to Medicare.

Comprehensive eye tests at theeyecarecompany involve: a detailed discussion of your symptoms and visual activities along with your previous eye and general health history, prescription test for distance, reading and intermediate (computer distance) vision, comprehensive eye health test of all aspects of the health of your eyes. The company also routinely does anterior eye and retinal imaging - a contemporary procedure that takes a magnified, high-definition scan of the front and back of your eye. For more information or to make an appointment go to www.theeyecarecompany.com.au

Submission guidelines The Pyrmont Ultimo Chamber of Commerce welcomes submissions for the newsletter from area businesses. These could be about sales, promotions, special offers, changes in the business and other developments.

Ideally, each submission should come with an image, such as the company logo or company staff. Please also provide contact information: website, e-mail, telephone and address (if applicable). Submissions should be sent to admin@pucc.com.au no later than the third Friday of the month for inclusion in the following month’s newsletter.

The newsletter is published monthly in AMG publications and on the PUCC website, www. pucc.com.au. The PUCC e-mail database has about 800 subscribers. Please note that inclusion is limited to space and timeliness.

For inclusion in the PUCC Business Directory please provide all relevant contacts, a short paragraph describing the business, and business logo, to admin@pucc.com.au.

To join the PUCC, go to www.pucc.com.au and download the application form.

For more information please e-mail admin@pucc.com.au or call 0410 338 331

BY LuCIA OSBORNE-CROWLEY Against a backdrop of increasing tension over the Israeli invasion of Gaza, the 11th Israeli Film Festival and the 14th Arab Film Festival will overlap during the last two weeks of August.

Each festival can expect to be surrounded by controversy, with activist groups from across the political spectrum likely organising protests to contest both.

Following an Anti-Ramadan protest organised by the far-right Party for Freedom at Marrickville Woolworths last weekend, concerns have been voiced that similarly minded right wing parties would demonstrate against the Arab Film Festival.

City Hub was told the Party For Freedom and the Australia First Party were organising protests against the film festival, however both organisations have denied this.

The sentiment of opposition to Muslim culture being expressed in Sydney that was evident at last week’s Marrickville protests has led members of the public to be concerned about other far-right groups being emboldened to protest the festival when it arrives in Sydney later this month.

The Party for Freedom and Australia First Party’s express anti-Muslim sentiment in recent weeks has also led to concerns about the freedom with which Arabic culture can be celebrated in inner Sydney.

Ghada Daher, conductor of the Andulas Arabic Choir, said the Arab

Film Festival and other cultural events are important ways to celebrate Arabic culture in Sydney, but that more has to be done.

“Multicultural events from councils and other efforts such as the Arab Film Festival are great to promote a positive picture of the Arabic culture and showcase its richness and creativity,” she said.

“It would also help to have more programs or schemes from the government to fund music performances projects. What is available at the moment is not enough and does not cater for small organisations.”

A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also said the festival is an important way to project positive reflections of Arabic culture in Sydney.

“The Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR) provided a grant to Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) in support of the 2014 Arab Film Festival, and has supported the festival for a number of years.”

“The Arab Film Festival is a good example of a community event that

Self Made

promotes mutual understanding and projects contemporary images of Arab society.”

Tension also surrounds the Israeli Film Festival, however in this case it is for reasons of political activism rather than anti-multicultural sentiment.

The Israeli Film Festival’s public relations campaign began shortly following the Israeli military’s invasion of Gaza on July 17, with the festival due to begin in Sydney on August 21.

City Hub has been told by activist groups Jews Against The Occupation and the Palestine Action Group that they will be protesting the decision to allow the Israeli Film Festival to take place in Sydney.

“This festival, as a part of the Australia Israel Culture Exchange, is part of an effort to strengthen relations between Australia and Israel. This is precisely the opposite of what Australia’s response to Israel should be at this time, and we strongly protest the festival on these grounds,” said Rebecca Hynek, spokesperson for the Palestine Action Group.

“We plan to boycott the festival as part of the Boycott Divestments and

Cartoon: Peter Berner

Warring film festivals Sanctions (BDS) action. BDS calls on the public to boycott any organisation, event or company connected to the Israeli state, which includes cultural events such as this film festival.”

Ms Hynek said the Palestine Action Group was planning to convene in the near future to discuss organised action in protest of the festival.

A spokesperson for Jews Against The Occupation echoed this sentiment.

“We protest the festival on the basis that Sydney should not be promoting the state of Israel, its military actions or its culture in any way.”

“Sydney should condemn Israel for the war crimes it is currently committing and allowing this festival to take place sends precisely the opposite message,” she said.

Israeli Film Festival curator Keith Lawrence said the festival was not intended to be a political event.

“The festival is about sharing the stories that come out of Israel – it is not meant to be political.”

Mr Lawrence says he is confident the festival would still get a positive response this year.

The Arab Film Festival opens at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre with the film When I Saw You. The Israeli Film Festival opens with film Self Made. (LOC) Arab Film Festival, Aug14-17, Riverside Theatres Parramatta, $15-85 (marathon package), arabfilmfestival.com.au; Israeli Film Festival, Aug 21-Sep 4, Palace Norton St & Palace Verona, $15-140 (10 film pass), aiceisraelifilmfestival.com

EAT & DRINK

Waitan After a shaky start, Haymarket’s ten million dollar player has found its feet. Over a MouTai Cocktail ($25) I muse: it’s a totally different restaurant to the one I first visited late last year for the launch and a subsequent dinner. All traces of the somewhat uneasy fusion between East and West have vanished (along with the previous chef). They have retained David Blackmore’s wonderful wagyu - try it as buttery $ - mains less than $15

$$ - mains between $15-$22

ROCKS & CBD Casa Ristorante Italiano “I’d come here for espresso martinis and the chocolate tart,” declares my dining companion at the end of our meal. She’s not wrong – the Sovereign Espresso Martini ($18) with Patrón XO Café and Grey Goose makes an affable post-meal companion for their standout Warm Chocolate Tart ($12). Old Smokey ($18) uniting Remy Martin VSOP Cognac and Ardbeg 10-year is a cut above what I’d expect to be drinking in Darling Harbour, at the site formerly known as Casa di Nico. For drinking snacks, pumpkin and smoked mozzarella Arancini ($16.90) eat better than most.

You’ll also find wood-fire pizzas and a charry 400g Angus Bistecca

12

By Jackie McMillan Dry-Aged Ribeye ($49.80/100g) sizzled tableside on hot stones then accentuated by sauce Bordelaise.

So complete is the change, some menu specials are printed only in Chinese. Never fear, I ordered a Lamb Hotpot ($69.80) from this menu anyway, enjoying the rich hearty flavour brightened by chrysanthemum (tong hao) leaves. Precede your hero proteins with one of the Chinese cold dishes I’ve come to love Sichuan Poached Chicken ($19.80) with chilli oil and sesame dressing - or experiment with beautifully toothsome Wood Ear Fungus with Onion and Wasabi Oil ($12.80). Even the Duck and Preserved Egg Terrine ($18.80) impresses as an accessible way to explore salty preserved egg. For the finale, get your hands dirty with Singaporean Chilli Crab with Chinese ‘Grissini’ (Market Price) perhaps with some Braised Bean Curd with Vegetables ($19.80) and a mound of utterly compelling Fried Rice with Wagyu and Crispy Rice ($28.80).

1/405-411 Sussex Street, Haymarket (02) 8218 1000 waitan.com.au Chinese $$$$ $$$ - mains between $22-$30

Alla Fiorentina ($34.90) cooked on the bone and served with lovely rosemary potatoes.

42-48 The Promenade, King Street Wharf, Sydney (02) 9279 4115 lovecasa.com.au Italian, Pizza, Cocktails $$$-$$$$ 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

$$$$ - mains over $30

Cauliflower Salad ($8) with chickpeas, parsley, tahini and black sesame seeds. Cocktails shine – perhaps a cleverly designed absinthe float on a gin and pink grapefruitbased Good Voodoo ($18) or Keep On Keeping On ($18) with bananainfused Tennessee whisky.

Basement, 58 Elizabeth Street, Sydney (02) 9223 5585 thespicecellar.com.au Cocktails, Bar Food $-$$ DARLO, KINGS X & SURRY HILLS Chica Linda You’d be forgiven for thinking designer Mike Delany dropped a tab of acid before choosing this riotous colour scheme. Begin your mock South American vacation

Zushi When Raymond Ang first opened Zushi in Darlinghurst back in 2005, he tells me they were the only ones doing the special inside-out rolls that are now a staple on modern Japanese menus. Flash to today and his business, having outgrown its previous digs, is now in Surry Hills. And those rolls – including the Tiger Roll ($18) featuring tempura Queensland banana prawns – are still proving popular. Raymond with arepas - dense corn flatbreads stuffed with Smoked Pork Belly ($6) with 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 on-table 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 $$-$$$ The Colonial Some Indian restaurants celebrate authenticity; some celebrate a particular region; this one celebrates

first ate the food of South Korean Head Chef Yoon Jae Lee at Yoshino, in the Kings Cross Hyatt. In Raymond’s current favourite dish, Ika Somen ($15), chef turns calamari into piles of gossamer ribbons with julienned carrot, nori and salmon roe. Swished through dashi dipping sauce, they’re a textural adventure your mouth is unlikely to forget. The menu offers up modern reinterpretations of Japanese dishes.

Sashimi Tacos ($17) show off Huon Tasmanian salmon to good effect against delicate wasabi granita and sweetened wonton chips. Okonomiyaki ($16) updates everyone’s favourite curling bonito-covered pancake with Balmain bugs and a honey-mustard twist to the usual Kewpie mayonnaise. As I sip the last mouthfuls of a 2013 Trevelen Farm Dry Riesling ($43/bottle) selected from their short but reasonably priced list with the pretty Scallop Carpaccio ($18), it’s easy to see why this solid, everyday Japanese restaurant has nearly notched up its first dining decade.

2A/285A Crown Street, Surry Hills (02) 9380 8830 zushi.com.au Modern Japanese $$

the time period of the British Raj, and the evolution of Indian cooking to the individual made-to-order dishes the British favoured. Chicken Tikka Masala ($17) is a staple in the British military’s meal packs. Expect to find it alongside a range of curries inspired by London’s Brick Lane, including bright Chicken Chettinad ($16) with coconut, mustard and chilli. Breads, from Naan ($2.50) to wholemeal Roti ($2.50), are well handled. Low-priced entrees are quite generous, from fat chicken drumsticks marinated in mint yoghurt, spices and cheese, Tangari Kebab ($10) to cottage cheesestuffed Paneer Jalapenos ($10).

118 Crown Street, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6700 thecolonialrestaurant.com.au Indian $$ The Soda Factory The Prohibition era vibe comes

through strongly with white shirted, apron-clad barmen at your beck and call. Wanting to stay adult with my cocktail selections, I skipped the soda syphons for a black pepperspicy Mexican Standoff ($19). The menu has expanded from hotdogs to Harlem heart attacks: Fried Chicken and Waffles ($16) with pots of clarified butter and maple syrup.

The Pulled Pork Burger ($15) is not too wet, but not too dry; the Texan BBQ Pork Ribs ($14) are equally delightful, while Cheeseburger Spring Rolls ($9) offer some finger food fun with tomato and mustard.

This sort of food calls for beer, and the best beer here is the on-tap Monteiths American Pale Ale ($9).

16 Wentworth Avenue, Surry Hills (02) sodafactory.com.au American, Cocktails $

EAT & DRINK

By Jackie McMillan

Swanson Hotel Another notch in the belt for Sydney’s expanding pub gentrification with Erskineville’s former Kurrajong Hotel being refitted and re-imagined British West Indies-style. Not that I’m complaining, Balmain Pub Group - who also own The Riverview and The Balmain Hotel – do good work; opening their public houses up to a wider range of people. Start in the first floor cocktail bar where a caramel smear makes EASTERN SUBURBS & BEACHES

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 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 $-$$ Centennial Parklands Dining We checked out Centennial Parklands Dining, albeit on a rather sultry winter’s day, with sweet anticipation of a Sunday Roast. The Chef’s “Special” Roast ($65) (rotates weekly) comfortably serves 3-4 people on Sundays. We had the lamb – cooked to pink perfection with roasted potatoes, turnip, beetroot, carrots, onion and gravy. Matched with a Phillip Shaw merlot, it’s the kind of meal you need to schedule a nap after. Also worth trying is the Ploughman’s Lunch ($23) - basically the prettiest tradie’s meal ever, with ham hock terrine, a cute jar of green

Restaurant at 3 Weeds This pub’s a cosy spot to hole up on a cold and blustery night; from happy hour in the comfortable front bar where I sink an Austrian Stiegl ($4/middy), to the dark brown wine bar with pressed tin ceilings; the chic red lounge, or the popular (though more cavernous) back bar. Tonight my heart’s set on the restaurant, decked out with bright Aboriginal art from Utopia. I’m here to check out new Chef Nathan Jackson – well he’s not exactly new, he first cooked here under INNER WEST Rocketboy Pizza Dan Luxford is a man “on a mission” - taking four of the five Doughboy stores in a new direction. Inspired by appearing on Matthew Evans’ Gourmet Farmer, Dan took a look at the products he was putting on pizzas, and decided to make a sustainable switch. First in line: the prawns.They’re now wild-caught Aussie prawns, best against fresh parsley, garlic, lemon and baby spinach, on the simple Chilli Prawn Pizza ($17/M, $22/L, $26/XL).You’ll also find organic Inglewood Farms chook popping up on the new Chicken Gorgonzola Pizza ($15/M, $21/L,

the Espresso Martini ($18) rather special. Move to a table in the long 80-seater restaurant to investigate Executive Chef Brad Sloane’s menu. It reads like home cooking but has a technical edge you’ll appreciate, starting with pungent piccalilli accompanying a rustic Pork Terrine ($16). Sloane’s Beef Tartare ($16) is well balanced and served with smoky bread. If you’re having trouble picking, both dishes feature on the Tasting Plate for Two ($30) alongside Merimbula oysters and a pretty kingfish carpaccio. The hero of the menu is the Char-grilled Spatchcock ($26), served on a fighting combination of Brussels sprouts, bacon, lentils and chilli. It’s a perfect match for the 2012 Howard Park Flint Rock Chardonnay ($15/glass), while the smallrun 2013 Amato Vino Vermentino ($12/glass) best accompanies the Herb Gnocchi ($22) made vividly green by peas, asparagus and spinach. 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 $$$ tomato chutney, cheese, egg, apple salad and grilled sourdough. For a cosy, winter dessert, the Pumpkin Pie ($15) served with cinnamon ice cream, is a beauty.

Grand Drive, Centennial Park (02) 9380 9350 cpdining.com.au Modern Australian $$ Light Brigade Hotel At its heart, the Light Brigade is a sports bar. The classic pub menu here comes out of the La Scala On Jersey kitchen, and I suspect that now Chef Massimo Mele has bedded in his Italian sharing menu upstairs, we’ll see some movement down here. Now that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with a 250g Char-Grilled Rump Steak ($22), especially on Wednesday nights when they knock ten bucks off the price. It sings against one of the best

Leigh McDivitt. Now holding the reins, he’s producing a short menu accentuated by a great wine list. My unusual selection – the 2011 Domaine Bruno Sorg Sylvaner ($74/ bottle) from Alsace – performs well against an interesting House Smoked Mackerel ($18) scattered amongst a collection of greens, horseradish, pickled radish and potato gaufrettes. Fontina and Truffle Tortellini ($18) – a shade thick for my liking – are sound on flavour with shaved Serrano ham and mushroom consommé. The Spatchcock ($32) comes with nice brioche and herb dumplings, but pales in comparison to the somewhat pricy 7+ Wagyu Flatiron ($40), its flavour amped by bone marrow butter, pine mushrooms and ox tail jus. Ultra-thin ginger nut biscuits make the Salt Caramel Parfait Sandwich ($14) something that gives Pat & Sticks a run for their money.

197 Evans Street, Rozelle (02) 9818 2788 3weeds.com.au Pub Bistro, Modern Australian, Wine $$$$

$25/XL). On your accompanying crisp Caesar Salad ($10) you’ll find free-range eggs and bacon, with an Organic Chicken ($2.50) option.

Shop 3, 88-94 New Canterbury Road, Petersham (02) 9550 9988 rocketboypizza.com Pizza $$ The Workers This’ll bring a tear to the eye to Labor Party faithful who remember the glory days of Whitlam, Hawke and Wran.

They’re the dudes on the roof – the question Bar Manager Jeremy Baldi gets “asked the most”. Mosey across the Astroturf,Woodlands Margaret River Chardonnay ($43/bottle) in hand, to gaze at photographic

memorabilia.Tuck into Chihuahuas ($5.50/each) – mini Mexican hot dogs with grilled franks, jalapenos and cheese – searching for the birth of land rights: Gough pouring sand into Vincent Lingiari’s hands. Dude food like Más Verduras ($5.50/ each) – fried zucchini tacos and Quesadillas de Espinica ($13) – grilled spinach and ricotta tortillas - with a Blood and Sand ($16) Whisky cocktail help Wednesday night comedians go down.

1/292 Darling Street, Balmain (02) 9318 1547 theworkersbalmain.com.au Bar Food, Wine, Cocktails $

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,” according to former Claude’s manager Abby Meinke. Under her stewardship the floor is seamless.

Abby’s formidable wine knowledge now extends to soju, and her recommended Moonbae-sool Soju ($10) speaks of pear, and it’s a pleasant way to kick-start your green peppercorn sauces I’ve tried in a pub. Mushroom isn’t bad either, especially with a plump Chicken Breast Schnitzel ($19). Accompany them with toasty Matilda Bay’s Ruby Tuesday ($6.80/schooner) or the 2012 Partisan ‘Trenchcoat’ GSM ($44/bottle, $9/glass).

2A Oxford Street, Woollahra (02) 9357 0888 lightbrigade.com.au Pub Bistro $ NEWTOWN & ENVIRONS

Botany View Hotel The front bar feels like a scene from Cheers - for locals, it’s clearly a place where everybody knows your name. Drink specials abound: from ten-buck Aperol Spritzes “all day every day” to twelve-buck jugs of mainstream beers, to quirky

evening, as rice crackers, kombu and thyme dissolve on your tongue.The wine list holds much excitement; I passed over interesting wines from France, Italy and America to stay local with the 2013 Ochota Barrels ‘The Flint Vineyard’ Chardonnay ($85). It suited anju (bar snacks) like Moonlight Flat Claire de Lune Oysters ($4.50/each) topped chilli threads and plum vinegar, and briny Sea Urchin Roe ($6/each) presented on seed biscuits with black garlic. Familiar cabbage-wrapped beef bulgogi - Ssam ($7/each) - were a meal highlight, as was an unusual smoky Eggplant with Egg Custard ($16) dish topped with nicely textural lotus root.While Green Beans with Ssamjang ($6) were ordinary, and Samgyeopsal ($29) pork belly with diamond clams and crown daisy had too much unrendered fat for my taste, overall this is an exciting and innovative addition to Sydney’s Korean dining landscape. 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 $$$

Absolut Vodka ($25/4) mixes. On the menu put out by Darley Street Bistro, the regulars are divided. One tells me: “it’s a bit over-rated, they put too many things on the plate,” but others swear by it. Greek Style Chicken Breast ($23) with skordalia, feta, oregano, tangy mash and a well-dressed tomato and cucumber salad was beaten by Beef Fillet ($31), loaded with bacon/thyme hash-brown, eschallot puree, garlic spinach, truffle brisket croquette and jus.

597 King Street, Newtown (02) 9519 4501 botanyviewhotel.com Pub Bistro $$$ Three Williams In a part of Redfern not overflowing with great brunch options, Three Williams made a splash. Despite the stripped-back minimalism of

concrete, ramps and plywood, it’s welcoming to people who stretch beyond hipster clichés, including little people. The yummy Mummy set select slick salads like Chicken, Spice Roasted Carrots, Avocado, Cashew and Citrus Dressing ($14) with house-made Pineapple and Mint Soda ($12/jug). On naughty days it’s Crunchy Brioche French Toast ($14) with roasted pecans, blueberries, yoghurt and maple syrup, or Beef Brisket, ‘Slaw ‘n’ Gerkins ‘Narnies’ ($14). I’m all about egg cartons of creamy Fish Croquettes ($3/each) with lemon, aioli and dessert in a glass: Banana, Medjool Date and Walnut Praline Smoothie ($7).

613a Elizabeth Street, Redfern (02) 9698 1111 threewilliams.com Café $

FOOD NEWS Popping into Simmone Logue Double Bay for a Devonshire Tea last month reminded me of how useful her freshly made dinner options were, particularly back when I was living alone and time poor. While I was tucking into fluffy golden scones with house-made preserves and cream ($12/person), most visitors to the store were loading up on takeaway dinner, from hearty serves of chunky split pea and ham soup, to Vietnamese Chicken Pho to rich beef bourguignon. You can also head down to the wide, leafy, tree-lined streets of Double Bay for a Sunday Roast ($27.50/person) until the end of August.

After admiring their counter of sweet stuff, I’d suggest you throw in a traditional pudding like sticky date, bread and butter, or apple crumble ($5.50/person) to make the most of your Sunday away from the washing up! By the way, this popular café has both indoor as well as outdoor (dog-friendly) seating.

2 Cross Street, Double Bay (02) 9327 5700 www.simmonelogue.com

BAR FLY

By Rebecca Varidel

RAMBLIN’ RASCAL TAVERN What is the latest ‘hot’ spirit in town? We’ve done whisky, gin, rum… Sydney seems to have done it all. Where is the Cognac? Maybe my mind was working overtime as we meandered from one bar to another, or maybe my intuition was in fine form, but as I sidled up to the Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern, Charlie Lehmann confided that he is about to change the cocktail list. Cognac, it seems, is indeed the new cocktail order. So he tempted me with a Brandy Crusta. This is not the sugar-sweet cocktail I remember, but a tantalising concoction. Then we turned to my favourite Sazarac and he tempted me into a half Cognac, half rye variation. Watch out for the new list, though Cognac is not the only reason for rascally love – the basement bar is dark fun and CBD central.

Basement, 60 Park Street, Sydney

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

then I think they should definitely come along and see it,” says O’Sullivan. (RBM) Aug 13-Sep 7, Darlinghurst Theatre, 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst, $30-43, darlinghursttheatre.com

DARk VoyAGER What a hoot! A flimsy narrative almost collapses under an avalanche of one-liners, (Bette Davis says to Joan Crawford: “You had sex with Nixon? Not even his wife does that!”).

Dark Voyager ultimately provides an alternate theory on Marilyn Monroe’s death, with a sub-plot involving 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 the

PRESENTATIoN NIGhT (fEAT. JuDE BoLToN & uRThBoy)

In Australian culture most people tend to fall into two main categories regarding their passions, they’re either sports fanatics or music lovers. It is these two tribes of people that Presentation Night hopes to bring together.

The latest incarnation of popular website Presentation Night is a conversational show between iconic Sydney Swans footballer Jude Bolton and Australian hip-hop star Urthboy as they discuss the trials and tribulations of professional footballers and musicians, and the crossovers between those worlds.

Urthboy, a longtime Sydney Swans fan says: “I never imagined that my time as a musician

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a&e

ice-maiden Joan Crawford; Lizzie Mitchell is familiarly beautiful but vague as Monroe; for degree of difficulty 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.

The performance 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

would result in an invitation to talk about football and music with a legendary footballer such as Jude, so I jumped at the opportunity and I’m really pumped.”

The best description of the show is “a relaxed convo at the pub, about music which is sometimes referred to as art and footy, which I think has an artistic quality about it with the athleticism, movement, and skill on display” says Urthboy.

To ensure a smooth flow to the night, the show is hosted by broadcaster Francis Leach, who has extensive experience in both music and sport having hosted Triple J’s Three Hours of Power before moving onto ABC Radio’s Grandstand Breakfast. (JA) Aug 13, Vic On The Park Hotel, 22 Addison Rd, Enmore $23.50, oztix.com.au

15 STAGE 16 SCENE 17 SCREEN 18 SouNdS

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

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

JAzz IN ThE GLEN 2014

Known for his gravelly voice, his spontaneous scat, and his trumpet virtuosity, Louis Armstrong was a jazz giant for the ages.

ARIA award-nominee Geoff Power and his band, as well as local musicians, will celebrate the melodies and memory of the legendary great Satchmo at the annual Jazz in the Glen.

The festival is famous for its food, wine, and, of course, fabulous jazz.

Power says, “As all jazz lovers know, Louis was the greatest jazz musician that ever lived. So much of what us jazz musicians do was invented by him.

“He was one of the most popular

Academic and musician Joseph Toltz has spent over 17 years researching music’s place in the memory of Holocaust survivors. It was during this work he discovered the children’s opera Brundibár, performed 55 times by the prisoners, for the prisoners, at Terezín Ghetto concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Brundibár’s simple fable of children coming together to overcome a town bully became a powerful symbol of hope and resistance for many in the camp.

“It being an allegory, you could make of it what you wanted.A lot of people interpreted Brundibár as being representative of the oppressors, of the Nazis, of Hitler,” says Toltz.

In collaboration with Opera Prometheus and the Sydney Jewish

and beloved entertainers of the 20th Century. And to this day, we still often hear that voice and that trumpet on TV commercials and movie soundtracks. His music is part of the soundtrack of our lives.”

Power will perform several landmark jazz recordings from Armstrong’s early career, including Hot Five, Hot Seven and King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. The second half of the tribute celebrates Armstrong’s later years with the All-Stars, including his big hits Hello Dolly and Mack The Knife.

Promising to capture Armstrong’s inimitable swing and sense of fun, Power confidently says, “I’ve made a lifetime study of his trumpet style – when you close your eyes and listen to that trumpet, you’ll be hearing Louis.” (CC) Aug 9, Glen Street Theatre, Glen St & Blackbutt Rd, Belrose, $10-75 (festival pass), glenstreet.com.au

Museum,Toltz will present the first ever performance of Brundibár in Sydney.

With many Holocaust survivors living here,Toltz believes it is more important than ever to stage Brundibár.

“We have survivors here who can talk about their time and what it meant to them,” he says.“It will come to a point where there aren’t any survivors around.”

Most of all Toltz hopes that through Brundibár audiences will reflect on what music means to them.

“When you’re deprived of all sorts of other things, how much more powerful will that musical meaning be in your life?” (MT) August 14, City Recital Hall, 2-12 Angel Place, Sydney, $25-60, (02) 8256 2222, cityrecitalhall.com Photo: Lisa Channell

Photo: Natalie Boog

REVIEW

Photo: Helen White

CoNSTELLATIoNS

Nick Payne’s Constellations will light up Sydney theatregoers this August, with an avant-garde production performed at the Eternity Playhouse.

Portrayed by Sam O’Sullivan and Emma Palmer, this love story will be a special piece of imagination to share with audiences using the ever-interesting 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 stories. One relationship, infinite possibilities,” says O’Sullivan.

“It’s all to do 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,” he says.

A play that will leave audiences star gazing for a while, the lustre of Constellations will continue to grow. “I can’t think of a play that this is like at the moment. If people want to explore the multiverse theory, and how it could apply to their lives,

BRuNDIBàR Contributors: Alexis Talbot-Smith, Anita Senaratna, Catherine Knight, Cheryl Northey, 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

Photo: Kate Williams

“Sex workers deal with a lot of stigma and I’m worried – why don’t we value someone’s life equally?” asks actress Peta Brady, referring to St Kilda sex worker Tracy Connelly, who was murdered in July last year.

Brady, who splits her time between working as an actress and a drug and safety outreach worker in St Kilda, was commissioned to write and star in the raw and evocative theatre performance, Ugly Mugs.

Recognised for her roles in Australian drama series Neighbours, Kath and Kim, and most recently The Slap, Brady was one of the last people to see Connelly alive before she was murdered.

Combining her love of acting and

Photo: Greg Barrett

Photo: Kate Williams

Mr Kolpert ugly Mugs

writing with her important outreach work, Ugly Mugs “raises awareness about the current inequalities existing in Victoria,” Brady says.

Borrowing its title from the ‘big sister’ pamphlet that was founded by the Prostitute Collective of Victoria in 1986, Ugly Mugs emerged in response to the abusive and violent underbelly of illegal sex work in Melbourne.

“I want people to be aware that a program like Ugly Mugs exists and ask what and why is this happening, and have a discussion about the violence around misogyny.” (EC) Until Aug 23, SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross, $32-49, griffintheatre.com.au

Celebrity theatresports 2014

Pantsguys break the surface this year with their newest provocative play, David Gieselmann’s Mr Kolpert. Directed a decade after conception by James Dalton, this production is buzzing with maddening anticipation.

“I found that underneath it all, although it’s quite a madcap play for an audience to experience, there’s some exciting ideas in there.Where we have added our own signature to this piece is more through cosmetic ideas, as well as updating the music that appears in the show,” says Dalton.

“There are so many things that are happening in our world, that we can’t actually justify logically, and sometimes that’s how reality works, things just happen. In the play there’s an attempt by certain characters to find some kind of

theatre &

perForMaNCe 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

question of order, and then at the same time revelling in the chaos that seems to be found everywhere,” says Dalton.

This wild and eccentric display will challenge the audience as they realise what they’re reacting to, and perhaps therein lays the message of the show.

“Learning that no matter how violent and extreme circumstances can be sometimes, all you can do is just let it happen to you and laugh it off afterwards. It’s a play you need to experience. Come in with an open mind, and just be prepared to accept the ride, because the logic is very mad,” he says. (RBM) Until Aug 16, ATYP, Studio 1, Pier 4/5, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, $20-30, atyp.com.au

auditorium. But Williams’ innovative staging design is just one ambitious decision of many.

For Williams, 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, 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,

When faced with making a decision can one ever really know what is right or wrong?

Kathy Petrakis explores the human moral code through the dark underworld of Sydney – homelessness, drugs, and violence – in her dark and realistic production, Black Rainbow.

The story follows the double life of teenage boy Ahmed Khoury as he struggles to keep his two lives separate, one as a scholarship student at a private school, and the other as a drug dealer running wild on the streets.

“It’s about this character and how he lives in this environment of violence, you wouldn’t guess from seeing him that he lives this completely different lifestyle,” Petrakis says.“He is involved whether he wants to be or not,

$50-109, (02) 9250 1777, sydneytheatre.com.au THE EFFECT Connie (Anna McGahan) is a psychology student – a thinker who faces the world by trying to understand it. Tristan (Mark Leonard Winter) is a drifter – impulsive and a risk-taker.

When they sign up for a new anti-depressant drug trial, they fall in love – but is it the real thing or is it just too much dopamine?

Lucy Prebble’s play is engaging on many levels, beautiful,

Adam Spencer.

This year RocKwiz and Eurovision queen Julia Zemiro hosts the show and the all-star line-up is outstanding.

The contestants range from

sporting personalities such as Matthew Mitcham to actors such as Shari Shebbens, radio personalities, news reporter Angela Bishop and many more.

he doesn’t have a choice.”

Performed in the intimate Tap Gallery, Petrakis says the production is about the emotional and internal conflict of Ahmed as he struggles in this morally ambiguous world, and is designed to make audiences question what they would do.

“The violence is suggested through sounds and lights and after effects, it’s the impact they have that is more important,” she says.“Everyone has their moral code, even if you are a criminal.

What is right or wrong is never clear.” (SOC) Aug 13-24,Tap Gallery, 1/278 Palmer St, Darlinghurst, $20-30, kathypetrakis.com/ blackrainbow/

disturbing and sometimes annoying. A sparse, clinical set on a stark, fluorescent light box gives way to the warm incandescence of a deserted asylum, where love blooms.

Winter is endearing as his emotional dial gets turned up and McGahan is achingly good as she unravels her feelings... only to unravel too far. (GW) Until Aug 16, Sydney Theatre Company, Pier 4/5, Hickson Rd,Walsh Bay, $50-99, (02) 9250 1777, sydneytheatre.com.au

“What’s really good about it is that the audience is always excited and supportive and especially at a night like this where half the people onstage have never done this before,” says Spencer.

Regardless of whether the audience is laughing at them or with them, Celebrity Theatresports promises to be an eventful night and it’s all for a good cause. (CT) Aug 9, Enmore Theatre, 118-132 Enmore Rd, Newtown, $28-65, ticketek.com.au

Photo: Michael Twomey

The annual Celebrity Theatresports challenge pits the country’s brightest comedic minds against each other in an effort to raise money for CanTeen, the organisation that helps young people afflicted by cancer. It’s a night full of laughs, celebrities and unexpected events.

“They take experienced theatresport players who are still on the circuit and pair them up with celebrities and in the course of the night we just get thrown challenges,” says comedian and theatresports superstar

blaCK raiNbow

MOTHER BARE Comedienne, Denise Scott, is baring it all on the stage and exploring motherhood in her hilarious new production.

Based on her personal experiences, Scott explores all the phases in life of being a parent: toddlers, kids, adolescents, adult kids and even death.

The Aussie icon doesn’t hold back in her 90-minute show, telling stories about all things motherhood, from giving birth to losing her own mother to Alzheimer’s.

After a successful run in Melbourne, which saw families of up to three generations attending together, Scott says she is looking forward to bringing her show about family life to Sydney.

Laying out her life on the stage, Denise goes back to the fundamentals of great theatre, simple storytelling, but with a few surprises along the way. (SOC) Until Aug 10, Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, $44.90-49.90, sydneyoperahouse.com 15

PublIC ArT – who NEEDs IT?

By Coffin Ed, Miss dEaTH & Jay KaTz If public reaction means anything it hasn’t been a good week for Clover Moore and her announcement that the City will splurge around $9 million on a series of grandiose art installations across the CBD. Already the $3.5 million cloud arch destined for the George Street mall has been labelled “the tapeworm” and a giant milk crate earmarked for Belmore Park is now attracting claims of artistic appropriation from another sculptor.

The latter is obviously just another manifestation of the Australian obsession with gigantism, in this case thinly disguised as a work of iconic art. Goulburn has The Big Merino, Coffs Harbour The Big Banana and Sydney, wait for it – The Big Crate.

Surely if we really wanted to go ‘big’ we could have conjured up something more distinctively Australian than a by-product of the Dairy Farmers co-operative. Why not The Big Ibis, The Big Monorail Car, The Big MDMA pill, or even a massive statue of the late Pro Hart engineered to fire paint bombs all over the park, much to the delight of kiddies and tourists alike?

Of course it’s all about our desire to stake our claim as an international city and festoon the joint with the kind of oversized monumentalism that will bring “oohs” and “aahs” from all over the globe. The grand centrepiece of all this cultural chest thumping will be the projected $180 million civic square, fronting the Sydney Town Hall and segueing into the George Street mall. The beloved Woollies corner, the real hub of our current metropolis, will be demolished to make way for the kind of Stalinist brutalism that once defined all public spaces in Eastern Europe.

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Okay, that might be overstating the tragedy but these ambitious civic upgrades always look great on paper.

The reality is that they never really live up to the artist’s impression and inevitably become a kind of concrete wasteland, especially after dark, when discarded milk crates (there we go again!) blow through like tumbleweeds in the American mid-west.

There’s also the question of priorities and whether the City should be spending millions on cosmetic upgrades and overpriced baubles when the homeless still sleep rough. If you want to see milk crates in a public space, albeit of the normal size, go down to Walla Mulla Park in Woolloomooloo, where men and women sleep regularly under the railway bridge and store their meagre possessions in a discarded crate.

On another note it seems local artists have been very much overlooked when it comes to commissioning items like the tapeworm and the crate. Admittedly international tendors were called in to create these contraptions but where are the Aussies? Even Britain’s controversial Tracey Emin (remember her grotty condom-laced $2 million unmade bed) has been invited to join the party with a series of 60 bronze bird sculptures.

It’s cultural imperialism on a grand scale with Sydney ratepayers footing the bill. For God’s sake please don’t tell the Lord Mayor that the city of Esperance in WA has a life-size stone replica of Stonehenge and even worse, it’s up for sale! Given the popularity of the jumping castle version at this year’s Sydney Festival, we might one day see druids gathering to celebrate the winter solstice in Sydney’s ‘retro’ civic square, dotted with hundreds of poxy unmade beds, a grotesque graffiti daubed tapeworm monster, and a fifty metre high statue of Kim Jong Un.

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 three dimensional 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

THE NAKED CITY

ThE CurTAIN brEAThED DEEPlY – JusTENE wIllIAms

‘The Curtain Breathed Deeply’, by Justene Williams.

With The Curtain Breathed Deeply, artist Justene Williams has produced an aural and visual omelette that both entices and confronts.

The installation begins with a stark white ute supporting a trio of screens simultaneously displaying images of chequered fingers, vaginas, and a distorted digital shaman who invites the visitor to continue their journey.

A series of rooms hosts intriguing displays of visual decadence and aural discombobulation. In one, masked figures and plastic owls gaze upon a wading pool which doubles as a wishing well. In another, a natural landscape is playfully dismantled.

This extensive collection of video art and sculptural experiment is a dissonant stroll through the paths of uncharted imagination. The vibrant colours and random noises suggest a rough passage through a storm-tossed sea, but the perturbed subjects are somehow comforted through the raging tempest.

With this show Artspace continues a tradition of provocative exhibitions which elongate the boundaries of abstraction. (LR) Until Aug 10, Artspace, 43 Cowper Wharf Rd, Woolloomooloo, free, artspace.org.au

lIfE INTErruPTED: PErsoNAl DIArIEs from worlD wAr I Before the end of the great war of 1914-1918, the NSW 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)

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

The surreptitious arrival of a young half-Chechen, half-Russian man in the city leads to an investigation of his motives and those of his lawyer, the young, idealistic Annabel

Richter. (Rachel McAdams). Bachman decides to manipulate the pair to catch more important prey.

This is a world of suggestive looks, simple words, and deceptive nods. It is a tale of movement in the shadows where good and evil are indistinguishable and perhaps indefinable.

The movie 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) WWW½

9th PoSSIble WorldS FIlm FeStIvAl

The 9th Possible Worlds Film Festival arrives in Sydney, bringing a selection of the very best independent films from the US and Canada.A diverse range of comedies, dramas, thrillers, westerns, and documentaries will screen, of which one is a world premiere and thirteen are Australian premieres.

“250 films were submitted from which only 18 were selected,” explains festival director Mathieu Ravier.“These are not blockbusters nor are they mainstream films.They were produced outside of the Hollywood factory and few will have cinematic releases outside of this festival.”

“This film festival opens a window into the alternate universe, offering stories with different perspectives,” Ravier notes.

Divide In Concord is a documentary which explores an 83-year-old lady’s quest to have the sale of plastic water

lucy An expat American living in Taiwan is kidnapped and forced to become a drug mule as her captors sew the newest synthetic drug into her lower abdomen for transportation.

What follows is highly inventive and equally unbelievable as the bag bursts, the drug surges into her body, and Lucy ultimately becomes a super-evolved human who can unlock the full potential of her mind.

Scarlett Johansson is intense and slightly comical as Lucy, who slowly comes to understand the higher purpose of everything and at the same time, doesn’t really seem to understand anything

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 shattering truth which leads to an incredible race against time.

This psychological crime thriller is superbly written, dark, and gritty, in which the mystery and nail-biting suspense ensures audience interest is maintained. Momentum accelerates at a fast pace leading to the disturbing climax which is brilliantly heightened by an effective musical score. (MM) WWW½

about being human anymore.

Lucy has enough going on to give some philosophical pause but don’t look too closely or writer/ director Luc Besson’s film will throw up too many complicated questions about its convoluted plot.

The addition of Morgan Freeman lends credibility to the film but unfortunately little clarity.

Enjoy the original storyline, action sequences, and special effects and stifle a giggle at the borderline cheesy moments of wonderment as Lucy has many robotic-like epiphanies. (LL) 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 an end-of-the-world party, but instead opts to rescue an 11-year-old girl (Angourie Rice).

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

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

bottles banned in her home town.

Air Sex:The Movie is a riotous documentary about a new act in the American comedy circuit where players pretend to have sexual encounters with imaginary partners.

Faults is a compelling psychological thriller about a young lady under the control of a mysterious cult and her parents attempt to have her abducted and deprogrammed.

The Mends is an emotionally charged drama about a dysfunctional family and Our Man In Tehran revisits the true story behind Ben Affleck’s Hollywood film Argo.

“The Possible Worlds Film Festival has become known as the friendliest film festival where film-lovers can meet filmmakers, attend complimentary drink receptions, Q&A sessions and film trivia nights,” says Ravier. (MM) Aug 7-17, Event Cinemas, 505-525 George St, $18, possibleworlds.net.au

Grumpy real estate agent Oren Little (Michael Douglas) becomes interested in his lounge singer neighbour Leah (Diane Keaton) who is still reeling from the loss of her husband.

All of a sudden his estranged son drops off his previously unknown nine-year-old granddaughter Sarah (Sterling Jerins) whilst he goes off to serve time in prison.

Much to the disgust of the emotional and nurturing Leah,

delIver uS From evIl Deliver Us From Evil is a decently crafted crime thriller with a supernatural twist, based in the Bronx, New York. Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana) is a police officer with an inherent tendency to uncover the city’s sudden series of occult happenings.

Somewhat unoriginal in story and dialogue, yet contrastingly genuine in performance and fright, the film does entertain.

Edgar Ramírez nearly

HERCULES The legendary hero comes to life on the big screen as Dwayne Johnson in the title role provides his trademark actionpacked performance for viewers.

The screenplay is a little tongue-incheek as it turns the well-known myth on its head, but the changes are essential to develop the newly presented character arc.

A multitalented and amusing supporting cast of mercenaries take the pressure off Johnson and provide added value entertainment.

This is one of the more immersive 3D experiences and it works very well.The scenery is especially breathtaking.

The Rock proves there is more to him by thoroughly exceeding expectations, and audiences won’t be disappointed. (LC) WWWW

Oren is resistant and palms Sarah off to care, whilst the audience waits for his heart to melt.

This Rob Reiner comedy is very standard fare. Keaton is her usual likeable and quirky self and Douglas does grumpy very well but there is unfortunately a certain lack of chemistry between the two.

Still, it might make a good date movie. (CC) WWW½

And So It GoeS

steals the spotlight as an unconventional priest, focused on the rituals of exorcism.

The two coincide with some blood-curdling scenes that demand attention and reprimand lack of faith.

Although at first seeming gratuitously scary, the story will grip the audience with its acute final moments; which manage to hold their own in this stock-standard genre.

(RBM) WWW

THE SELFISH GIANT Childhood naïveté and the stark reality of poverty come to a head in Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant.

After they are expelled from school, young teens Arbor (Conner Chapman) and Swifty (Shaun Thomas) meet scrap dealer Kitten (Sean Gilder).With the opportunity to make money in a community with no other prospects, the boys begin to collect scrap metal, at times resorting to illegal means.

A haunting and tragic reimagining of Oscar Wilde’s fable; it is beautifully understated and brilliantly portrayed.

It is a shame that the ending is so rushed when the rest of the film is paced so delicately. (ATS) WWW REACHING FOR THE MOON This film is a biographical drama set in the 1950s when same-sex

relationships were unacceptable.

When poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) travels to Brazil to regain her poetic flair, she meets famed architect Lota De Macedo Soares (Glória Pires) and a decade-long romance flourishes, restoring her literary brilliance and confidence.

Performances are faultless and the production stylish, with stunning locations, but the story is initially tarnished by the unrealistic, hasty commencement of the romantic entanglement.

Reaching For The Moon lacks substance and only audiences who are familiar with the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop will find this mandatory viewing. (MM) WWW THE LUNCHBOX A one-in-a-million mix-up with Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects

a neglected housewife (Nimrat Kaur) with a curmudgeonly accountant (Irrfan Khan). What follows is a series of increasingly honest hand-written notes through which the two strangers find a new lease of life.

Don’t be fooled by what is, on paper, a somewhat cheesy premise: this isn’t Bollywood.The debut feature from Indian writer/director Ritesh Batra is a bitter-sweet romance that offers cinéma véritéstyle realism, good-natured humour, and relatable characters as well as thoughtful observations on the human condition, including the value of companionship.

A charming little drama that will leave viewers in high spirits, with an insatiable hankering for a spicy curry.

(JH) WWWW

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Fractures – Fractures The easiest way to describe the Fractures sound is dark, alternative, pop rock.

Multi-instrumentalist Mark Zito plays and produces every element on the EP and creates a beautifully emotive, yet calm sound. Cadence is a prime example of this with its slow, heartbreaking melody melding seamlessly with silky bass guitar and higher, yet subtle, guitar notes.

Zito, however, isn’t confined to guitars and drums as he then introduces piano in It’s Alright to continue the tranquil mood before shifting gears with Twisted, which ups the tempo with a more pronounced drum and synth package.

A fantastic first release. (JA)

Mere WoMen – Your toWn Mere women’s second record Your Town is bursting with punk energy and counteracting any post-punk burn with beautiful voices, blending effortlessly into the mix without overshadowing it.

This is Your Town, don’t be shy, come in and have a listen, it’s edgy and it’s raw and it’s got that melodic sound that punk has never been famous for.

Mere Women mix some potent aspects together creating a mix of teasing crashes, disquieting drops, blood-curdling undertones, well-rounded structure, and a little sweetness to boot. It’s a concoction of venom and antidote that’s hard to resist. (SP)

HAnSOn

It’s been almost 20 years since they Mmmbopped their way to the top of the charts in Australia, and despite musical and personal ups and downs the band of brothers known as Hanson are making music better than ever.

The trio from Tulsa, Oklahoma have just released their sixth studio album, Anthem, which eldest brother and guitarist Isaac describes as having an “aggressive nature to it”.

The release is being likened to AC/DC’s High Voltage, full of raw energy and bold guitar riffs, but is still recognisably Hanson with their trademark melodies and ‘60’s-inspired soul style.

“It’s got our own twist on it as well, which is inevitable, after all, it is our record,” Isaac laughs.

“The record runs the gamut, but anyone who is particularly familiar with a Hanson record knows that we are a bit schizophrenic.When it comes to musical styling we tend to run the gamut from poppy to rocky to R&B to somewhere in between... on any given record.”

Inevitably their music has evolved as their lives have, far from the fresh-faced pre-teens of the nineties, the brothers are now family men with 11 children collectively.As we chat, Isaac is multitasking and

LIVE WIRE Bielfield and Glen: These Julliard-trained musicians, Lachlan Glen and Kyle Bielfield, come together to play renditions of classics by Simon and Garfunkel, Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra, Fleetwood Mac and Dolly Parton, as well as sounds from The Wizard of Oz. Fans have been anticipating this Australian tour following the release of their album

nursing his brand new, very content baby daughter.

“Parenthood is the hardest and most rewarding work you’ll ever do, but that is always true because the harder you work on something, the more rewarding it is.”

The guys have certainly never shied away from hard work and they have a lot to show for it. Between ever expanding families, the trio also participate in countless fan-only events, take to the streets with their HIV/Aids charity Take the Walk, release music under and run their own label 3CG, and have even released their own beer.The opportunistically named Mmmhops was created to coincide with the 21st anniversary of the band.

Growing up and working closely together for over two decades can’t always be easy and Isaac reveals there was a possibility that Anthem might never have been made.

“We had a bit of a falling out.We spent very little time together in the summer of 2012.Tensions got high and things got said that shouldn’t have been said and people were reasonably upset.Actions and words do hurt sometimes.You have to take a little bit of time to learn to say you’re sorry. We took that time, then walked in carefully to the process

and luckily made a record that I feel extremely proud of, but it wasn’t without challenges,” he says.

With a renewed bond and fresh focus the band wanted to find a way to thank their “extremely enthusiastic and ever loyal fans” on this trip to Australia. Isaac says,“The Australian fans have been so amazing over the years and so engaged and so enthusiastic.We thought ‘We should add a few shows to this run’.”

Those extra shows will include set-list voted gigs

– where fans can visit the band’s website and vote for the songs they want to hear.

“We try to find things that we feel would be interesting if our favourite band did it.The good thing is whatever the fan’s favourite songs are, they get to decide and it doesn’t really matter what my favourites are,” Isaac says. (LL) Aug 8,The Enmore, Newtown, $65;Aug 13, The Hi Fi, Moore Park, $65-120, hanson.net

SydnEy LIVE MuSIc GuIdE

Stopping By, and they have rave reviews in Europe, The States, and Canada.

Thu, Aug 7th,The Metro.

Lowtide: It’s been a long three years for Lowtide fans.

The last heard from the band was back in 2011 when they released their single, Underneath Tonight.They’ve finally finished tweaking and re-tweaking their dreamy, shoegazing, Brit-poppy sound,

and have embarked on an East Coast album tour.

Fri, Aug 8th,The Roller Den. Fractures: Melbourne-born instrumentalist Mark Zito is Fractures.With the help of a five-piece band he melds eclectic sounds to create emotive songs that are based on infectious pop hooks and overlayed with ominous lyrics.This gig makes up for his cancelled 2013 show

when he ironically fell and fractured his neck.

Fri, Aug 8th,The Vanguard.

Kasabian: It’s hard to believe Kasabian are up to album number five.This one, 48:13, is a continuation of the band’s signature experimentation presented in each of their albums thus far.The difference this time is that they’ve taken the opportunity to put rock music behind them while they

explore rave/electronic beats.Their performance, in true Kasabian style, will be obnoxious, catchy, and without a doubt, a rollicking crowd mover.

Sun, Aug 10th, Hordern Pavilion.

Regenerate: This is a welldeserved City to Surf recover party. Bondi Beach Radio’s studio has prime viewing of the race from the greens of Bondi Golf and Diggers Club,

so they’re taking the opportunity to throw a massive party with some of Sydney’s best DJs. Guests can watch the race from the lawn, grab a drink with friends, and party well into the evening to the likes of KlevaOne and JNR, Ben Ashton, Mark Galpin, and many more. (AE) Sun, Aug 10th, Bondi Golf and Diggers Club.

FREEWILLastroLoGY

by Rob bRezsny

a

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t just be smart and articulate, Aries. Dare to be wildly wise and prone to unruly observations. Don’t merely be kind and well-behaved. explore the mysteries of healing through benevolent mischief. Don’t buy into the all-too-serious trances. break up the monotony with your unpredictable play and funny curiosity. Don’t simply go along with the stories everyone seems to believe in as if they were the Truth and the Way. Question every assumption; rebel against every foregone conclusion; propose amusing plot twists that send the narratives off on interesting tangents.

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): breve orazione penetra is an old Italian idiom. Its literal translation is “short prayers pierce” or “concise prayers penetrate.” you can extrapolate from that to come up with the meaning that “God listens best to brief prayers.” In the coming week, I invite you to apply this idea whenever you ask for anything, whether you are seeking the favors of the Divine Wow or the help of human beings. Know exactly what you want, and express it with nononsense succinctness.

C

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): every February, you go through a phase when it’s easier to see the big picture of your life. If you take advantage of

this invitation, your experience is like being on a mountaintop and gazing into the vastness. every August, on the other hand, you are more likely to see the details you have been missing. Transformations that have been too small and subtle to notice may become visible to you. If you capitalize on this opportunity, the experience is like peering through a microscope.

Here’s a third variation, Gemini: Around the full moons of both February and August, you may be able to alternately peer into the microscope and simulate the view from a mountaintop. I think that’s about to happen.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22): you wouldn’t sip dirty water from a golden chalice.

Am I right? nor would you swig delicious poison from a fine crystal wine glass or tenyear-old vinegar from a queen’s goblet. I’m sure you will agree that you’d much rather drink a magical elixir from a paper cup, or a rejuvenating tonic from a chipped coffee mug, or tasty medicine out of a kids’ plastic soup bowl you bought at the thrift store. Don’t you dare lie to yourself about what’s best for you.

e

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): every 12 years, the planet Jupiter spends about a year cruising through the sign of Leo. It’s there with you now, and will be with you through early August, 2015. What can you expect?

eXPAnsIon! That’s great, right? yes and no. you might love to have some parts of your life expand; others, not so much. so I suggest you write down your intentions. say something like this: “I want Jupiter to help me expand my faith in myself, my power to do what I love, and my ability to draw on the resources and allies I need. Meanwhile, I will prune my desires for things I don’t really need and cut back on my involvement with things that don’t inspire me. I don’t want those to expand.”

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): TV comedian stephen Colbert confesses that his safeword is “pumpkin patch.” Does that mean he participates in actual bDsM rituals? Is it the codeword he utters when he doesn’t want the intensity to rise any further, when he doesn’t want his next boundary crossed? I don’t know.

Perhaps he’s simply joking or speaking metaphorically.

Whether or not you engage in literal bDsM, Virgo, there’s an aspect of your life right now that has metaphorical resemblances to it. And I suggest that you do the equivalent of using your safeword very soon. nothing more can be gained from remaining embroiled in your predicament. even if the ordeal has been interesting or educational up until now, it won’t be for much longer. escape your bondage.

g

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): If you’re planning to hurl a

thunderbolt, make sure you are all warmed up and at full strength before you actually unleash it. It would be sad if you flung a halfassed thunderbolt that looked like a few fireflies and sounded like a cooing dove. And please don’t interpret my wise-guy tone here as a sign that I’m just kidding around. no, Libra. This is serious stuff. Life is offering you opportunities to make a major impression, and I want you to be as big and forceful and wild as you need to be. Don’t tamp down your energy out of fear of hurting people’s feelings.

Access your inner sky god or sky goddess, and have too much fun expressing your raw power.

h

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In your dreams you may travel to stockholm, sweden to accept the nobel Prize or to Hollywood to pick up your oscar.

There’s a decent chance that in your sleepy-time adventures you will finally score with the hot babe who rejected you back in high school, or return to the scene of your biggest mistake and do things right this time. I wouldn’t be surprised if in one dream you find yourself riding in a gold chariot during a parade held in your honor. I’m afraid, however, that you will have to settle for less hoopla and glamour in your waking life. you will merely be doing a fantastic job at tasks you usually perform competently. you will be wellappreciated, well-treated, and well-rewarded. That’s not so bad, right?

i

k

j

l

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Lake superior state University issues a “Unicorn Questing Privilege” to those people who are interested in hunting for unicorns. Are you one of them? I wouldn’t be surprised if you felt an urge like that in the coming weeks. Unusual yearnings will be welling up in you. exotic fantasies may replace your habitual daydreams. Certain possibilities you have considered to be unthinkable or unattainable may begin to seem feasible.

Questions you have been too timid to ask could become crucial for you to entertain. (you can get your Unicorn Questing License here: http://tinyurl.com/ unicornlicense.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): your ethical code may soon be tested. What will you do if you see a chance to get away with a minor sin or petty crime that no one will ever find out about? What if you are tempted to lie or cheat or deceive in ways that advance your good intentions and only hurt other people a little bit or not at all? I’m not here to tell you what to do, but rather to suggest that you be honest with yourself about what’s really at stake. even if you escape punishment for a lapse, you might nevertheless inflict a wound on your integrity that would taint your relationship with your own creativity. Contemplate the pleasures of purity and righteousness, and use them to enhance your power.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “The thorn arms the roses,” says an old Latin motto.

The astrological omens suggest you’ll be wise to muse on that advice in the coming weeks.

How should you interpret it?

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions, of course, but here are a few hints. It may be that beauty needs protection, or at least buffering. It’s possible that you can’t simply depend on your sincerity and good intentions, but also need to infuse some ferocity into your efforts. In order for soft, fragile, lovely things to do what they do best, they may require the assistance of tough, strong, hearty allies.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If you go to an American doctor to be treated for an ailment, odds are that he or she will interrupt you no more than 14 seconds into your description of what’s wrong. but you must not tolerate this kind of disrespect in the coming days, Pisces -- not from doctors, not from anyone. you simply must request or, if necessary, demand the receptivity you deserve. If and when it’s given, I urge you to speak your truth in its entirety. express what has been hidden and suppressed. And this is very important: Take responsibility for your own role in any problems you discuss.

Pyrmont Bay Wharf upgrade Community information session 12 August 2014 The NSW Government is upgrading the Pyrmont Bay Wharf to improve safety and amenity for customers.

The wharf will be connected to the existing wharf structure and will include a fixed bridge and an aluminium gangway connecting to a floating pontoon. The pontoon will have a curved roof, glass panels, new seating and will be held in place by four steel piles.

The Alternative Media Group - publishers of The City Hub, City News, Bondi View and Inner West Independent - are looking for writers. Opportunities in print and online are available to opinion makers and up and coming journalists.

You are invited to a community information session: Where:

Australian National Maritime Museum, Waterside Studio, 58 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont.

When:

Tuesday 12 August 2014 from 5pm to 7pm (drop in anytime).

Project information, posters and artists’ impressions of the upgraded wharf will be available.

Send a CV, writing samples and a covering letter to: citynews@ alternativemediagroup.com

For more information contact the community information line on 1800 770 973, email: WharfUpgradeProgram@rms.nsw.gov.au or visit rms.nsw.gov.au/wharfupgrades

N45752

Members of the project team will be on hand to answer questions about the upgrade.

We look forward to seeing you there.

WRITERS AND OPINION MAKERS WANTED