Prodijee #19

e e j i d pro 13 20143 Issue #19

a i o m A e n e l r a Ch

contents FEATURES

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58 The Chameleon

With an amazing ability to play very diverse characters, Charlene Amoia will never be type-cast.

70 To be? That is the question

A new Australian film is wowing film festival audiences all over the world.

72 A passion for pizza Meet the new world champion pizza maker.

86 Play it loud

Old school rock n’ roll band Stonefield take their music around the globe.

102 Fast talker.

Samantha Stevens is one of Australia’s few female automotive journalists - she’s a handy steerer, too.

114 The Logies

All of the red carpet action from Australian television’s night of nights.

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REGULARS NEWS 4 What’s Goin’ On 38 Going Postal 40 What’s Hot

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ROAD TESTS 50 Gatineau Nutriactive Mediation Barrier Cream and Nourishing Glycomasque 51 Isowhey Protein Pops 51 Natio Tinted Lip Balm 52 Well, Naturally Chocolate Bars and Slendier Instant Drink Mix

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COLUMNS 56 Lily’s Life 68 London Calling 74 Food Couture 84 Reality Bites 96 Just Sayin’ 100 Sharp Shooter 112 Wined and Dined

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n o ’ n i o g ’s t a h w BANNOCKBURN, SCOTLAND: Battle performers and clans unite for a one-off Scottish Festival, Bannockburn Live, a Homecoming Scotland 2014 signature event, immerses you in Scotland’s history and culture, commemorating the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn and celebrating the very best of Scottish folk music, food and drink.

The spectacular Bannockburn battle performances have been choreographed by Clanranald, famous for their work on Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, Robin Hood and Thor II. Each day (June 28-29) there are three opportunities to watch the re-enactors do battle, ensuring plenty of time for all to enjoy the action, as well as the other cultural entertainment at this one off festival.

Capturing every essence of Scottish culture, the atmospheric Bannockburn Battlefield will transform into five distinct areas: • Medieval Encampment - Step back in time to June 1314 and explore the bustling interactive encampments and experience the sights, sounds and atmosphere of fourteenth century Scotland.

• A Scottish music stage - awardwinning folk and contemporary artists performing throughout the event. Featuring Julie Fowlis – the voice of Disney Pixar’s Brave – Dougie MacLean, Karine Polwart and more than 300 others.

• Clan and Family Village Around 40 clans from across the UK and overseas will converge at Bannockburn, along with expert genealogists from the University of Strathclyde, providing an opportunity to trace your Scottish roots.

• Food & Drink Village - Curated

by Scotland Food and Drink, visitors to Bannockburn Live can sample and savour delicious WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

Scottish products, whiskies, real ales and more as well as meet the passionate producers behind them.

• Storyville - ‘A festival within a festival’, theatre, storytelling, debate, stand-up comedy, dreaming and wonder.

There will also be a comprehensive children’s

programme, including hands-on bush craft, wildlife and outdoor activities as well as opportunities to participate in sports like archery and medieval Highland games.

Get your tickets now at: www.ticketsoup.com/tickets/ bannockburn-live-2014-15166/ default.aspx www.bannockburnlive.com

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Ever wanted to jump out of a plane, but just hate the thought of actually Jumping out of a plane? Then iFLY Downunder is the answer... and, they say, it’s saddictive!

With the doors opening to the general public on the 26th April, Australia’s first indoor skydiving facility is already proving to be a huge success with over 500 hours of tunnel time sold in the last few months!

“We knew that indoor skydiving would be a popular attraction in Australia’ comments iFLY Downunder chief marketing officer, Brett Sheridan, “but we are still absolutely overwhelmed with the support we are getting from the public.”

The iFLY Downunder indoor skydiving facility is a state of the art centre that delivers an exhilarating, thrilling and high energy experience that the whole family will want to share.

According to iFLY, indoor skydiving is a safe and fun adventure activity which anyone from ages three to 103 can enjoy.

“Our facility will allow people to get a real experience of skydiving in a fully-controlled and safe environment’ added Brett. “This is the biggest and most powerful vertical wind tunnel in the southern hemisphere and we can’t wait to open our doors so everyone who has ever dreamt of flying, can now fly.”

IFLY Downunders’ parent company, Indoor Skydive Australia Group, is headed up by ex-SAS soldiers, Wayne Jones and Danny Hogan. The two hatched the idea to build the facility after experiencing similar facilities around the world.

“While we were serving and training overseas we were exposed to these indoor skydiving facilities as part of our training,” said Wayne. “The simulation is so close to the real thing that military and skydivers have been training in these facilities around the world for a number of years… and now Australia can experience flight for

the first time!”

“It has been a huge journey from those initial discussions to our doors opening in a few weeks’ time’ added Wayne, “but the reward will be on the faces of people flying for their first time.”

The facility, located in the adventure capital of Penrith, has a five-metre wide glass flight chamber, which is one of the largest and most technically advanced in the world.

The facility can comfortably hold up to eight experienced flyers and is powered by four 450-horse power fans that can achieve speeds of up to 250km/h, which is powerful enough to lift anyone into flight on a cushion of air. iFLY Downunder is suitable for people of all skill levels, from first timers to advanced flyers.

Packages start from $89 per person and are available now through the iFLY Downunder website www.iflydownunder.com.au.

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HELSINKI, FINLAND: Finnair, Norwegian and SAS passengers will benefit from decreased checkin times following the decision by Finnish airport operator, Finavia, to choose Type22 as supplier for self bag drop at Helsinki Airport.

Finavia has a comprehensive network of 25 airports, enabling international connections from Finland, and to different parts of Finland. Helsinki Airport is the leading long-haul hub in Northern Europe and a popular transfer airport connecting flights between Europe and Asia.

Finavia was convinced of the benefits of self bag drop following a pilot program, which identified the benefits of higher check-in capacity and a better passenger experience. Finavia was looking to implement a solution that supports the current infrastructure and future needs of the airport to improve airport efficiency and effectiveness.

Type22 delivers baggage handling products for airports and airlines to make hassle-free baggage handling become the standard. The company’s products are simple to use and are designed

LONDON, ENGLAND: Beaty Heart has signed globally with Caroline to release its debut album, Mixed Blessings, in Australia and New Zealand.

Hailing from South London, Beaty Heart’s signature tropical-infusedpop, has created waves around the globe with the band recently performing at the BBC Recommends showcase and supporting Jungle on their European tour.

These waves echoed across the pond, with their first Australian single, Kanute’s Comin’ Round, receiving early support on FBi Radio and triple j’s 2014 The release of Mixed Blessings in Australia and New Zealand is part of a global release deal with Caroline label services.

Launched in Australia in 2013, WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

to fit seamlessly into the airport environment. Type22 works with the complete process in mind, not just the product.

Finnish people are known as early adopters of self-service and quickly adopted check-in kiosks, so the next logical step for Finavia was two-stop self bag drop, where passengers first print a bag tag at a kiosk (or at home) before they drop their bags at Scan&Fly. Passengers and airport benefit because the occupation time of the check-in

facility is minimum, which means more capacity on the existing check-in isles.

Scan&Fly is an intuitive self bag drop solution that, because of its retrofit design, doesn’t require major overhauls of the existing check-in desks. With Scan&Fly, Finavia also receives Info&Fly, an innovative mobile application that supports hosts to deliver proactive service to passengers, bringing passengers the best Self Bag Drop experience.

Caroline work closely with Universal Music to provide full label services across the globe, recently playing an instrumental part in the success

of Glass Animals, Mac Demarco, St. Vincent and Bombay Bicycle Club, among others. www.facebook.com/Beatyheartmusic

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Red Bull has launched the beautifully shot video, Sally Stories Season 2, an intimate look into the life of professional surfer, Sally Fitzgibbons.

Shot in five short episodes.

Sally Stories Season 2 follows the Aussie golden girl as she sets out on her world title challenge, a journey that takes her to all corners of the globe.

From the icy waters of Nova Scotia, to the Gold Coast, Sally Stories Season 2 watches Sally break the shackles of tour surfing to rediscover the pure joy of being at one with the water – even if is it ten degrees below zero. www.redbull.com.au/sallystories

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Step out and stay warm this winter with more than 100 food and wine events as part of The Roast Collection, June 1-30, conducted by the makers of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by Bank of Melbourne.

From caramelised vegetables and whole-roasted snapper to pitsmoked lamb and mulled wine, some of Melbourne’s best chefs and restaurants will serve up their take on the humble roast.

More than 20 events will take place in regional Victoria showcasing the state’s bountiful winter produce in glorious settings including Brown Brother’s Milawa Vineyard (High Country), Mornington Farmers’ Market (Mornington Peninsula) and Tuki Restaurant (Goldfields).

The true spirit of the roast is a shared experience, so gather your friends and family for Winter feasting this June. www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

QUIRKY SIBLINGS Belle Roscoe’s quirky new clip is the result of chance encounters, a melting pot of international talent and a single creative vision. While they were living and working in Paris, Matthew and Julia Gurry teamed up with visiting Australian actress and director, Alyssa McClelland, to make an impromptu video clip for their single “Let Me Cut In” which is featured on their second album BOOM BOOM, currently released in Australia.

Check it out here: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=3gFhsH5PgXM BLISS N ESO PHOTO BOMB AFGHANISTAN Bliss n Eso have released a short video documenting their life-changing trip to the Middle East with the Australian Defence Force in September 2013.

The Sydney hip-hop trio were invited by Forces Entertainment, a specialised unit of the ADF, who coordinated a specialised trip to the Middle East Area of Operation (MEAO) which also included comedians Doug Chappel Jr and Nick Cody alongside Brisbane four-piece band, The Bertie Page Clinic. The acts were tasked with providing morale-boosting entertainment to deployed multinational forces.

Watch the short documentary: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SSzyeo66NtQ&HD=1 BASE JUMPERS NEW ADVENTURE Felix Baumgartner: From Heaven to Green Hell, is an eight-part video series that follows the world’s greatest base jumper who became famous after jumping from the stratosphere for Red Bull Stratos. The first episode is now available at http://win.gs/R5u2Sv PRODIJEE.COM WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

INDIANAPOLIS, USA: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway will once again host an award-winning list of Big Machine Label Group country music artists, including headliners Brantley Gilbert, The Band Perry and Justin Moore, at the Brickfest Music Festival on Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27 during the Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard. All performances are free with admission to the track for each day.

On Saturday, July 26, ACM Vocal Group of the Year, The Band Perry, and ACM New Artist of the Year, Justin Moore, will perform following the NASCAR Nationwide Series Indiana 250 race. Joining later that evening will be southern rock/ country band, A Thousand Horses.

The hit songs will continue on Sunday when an array of additional Big Machine Label Group artists take the stage at the Brickfest Music Festival and will culminate with headliner, Brantley Gilbert.

Opening sets will include Lauren Jenkins, Scotty Emerick, Drake White and A Thousand Horses with their second appearance over the weekend on the Brickfest stage.

This musical lineup continues the relationship between Big Machine Label Group and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that began with superstar group Rascal Flatts performing on the main straight and legendary entertainer Reba singing America The Beautiful before the start of the 2011 Brickyard 400.

The Band Perry performed on the front stretch at IMS prior to the start of the 2012 Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Big Machine Records, and Moore served as the featured performer before last year’s Crown Royal Presents the Samuel Deeds 400 at The Brickyard. Also last year, the winner of season three of NBC’s hit show, The Voice, Cassadee Pope, sang the national anthem, and multifaceted entertainer Laura Bell Bundy performed America the Beautiful.

Big Machine Label Group, led by President and CEO Scott Borchetta, includes Big Machine Records, The Valory Music Co, Republic Nashville and Big Machine Music.

The twenty-first running of the Crown Royal Presents the Your Hero’s Name Here 400 at the Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com on Sunday, July 27 will be the climactic event of the third annual Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard.

Consumers 21-plus can visit CrownRoyalHeroes.com through June 2 to vote for the hero they think is most deserving of having the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race renamed in his or her honor.

The weekend schedule also features NASCAR Nationwide Series racing in the Indiana 250 Saturday, July 26 on the IMS oval, and TUDOR United SportsCar Championship racing on Friday, July 25 on the recently reconfigured IMS road course.

MARANELLO, ITALY: The Ferrari F12berlinetta has been awarded the Compasso d’Oro (Golden Compass), one of the oldest and most prestigious international design accolades. Accepting the award on behalf of Ferrari in the Officine Ansaldo exhibition hall in Milan last night was Ferrari’s Senior Vice President of Design, Flavio Manzoni.

In presenting the award, the ADI design jury praised the F12berlinetta

for its flowing, dynamic forms that use innovative aerodynamic solutions in a true marriage of technology and aesthetics. Designed

by Ferrari’s Styling Centre in collaboration with Pininfarina, the F12berlinetta is the most powerful, high-performance Ferrari road car ever built and epitomises the perfect balance between maximum aerodynamic efficiency and the elegant proportions typical of Ferrari’s front-engined V12 cars.

This important accolade is not the first for Ferrari. In 2001 Luca di Montezemolo received the Compasso d’Oro for the company’s achievements as an innovative industrial and engineering reality.

Ferrari was praised for its incessant technological research and its universally-acclaimed aesthetic excellence which is the result of an entrepreneurial culture which puts the requirement of the people who work at the factory, and the working environment in general, at the heart of all developments.

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Compasso d’Oro which was instituted to recognise and promote Italian design excellence.

The award ceremony is held every three years by an international jury of designers, specialists, historians and journalists, and just 20 awards are assigned to those products that, in the previous three years, have been judged to exemplify Italian creativity and expertise.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The simplest of philosophies has led to the reimagining and reincarnation, of one of Sydney’s longest standing heavy acts - where art is concerned, there is no right way or wrong way, there is only what you do, and what you don’t, you must simply do what you feel is right, what you believe in. As such, in 2014, Daemon Pyre is born.

Throughout nine successful years, which included the commercial release of two albums and an EP, the band operated under the name As Silence Breaks.

Over that time, the band grew a worldwide fan base with a host of successful achievements, which included signing with New Justice Records, signing with international management, a US West Coast tour, countless Australian performances and tours, as well as supporting international artists like At The Gates, Arch Enemy, Darkest Hour, Carnifex, Periphery, Tesseract, Mnemic, Sybreed Comeback Kid, For The Fallen Dreams and many more.

In November, 2013 the band began recording the follow up

to their successful release, The Architecture of Truth, which was recorded in San Diego, California under the supervision of US buddy, Daniel Castleman (As I Lay Dying, Carnifex, Allegaeon) and Mastered

By New York Wizard, Alan Douches (Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, Deicide).

Along with the release of their self titled album, Daemon Pyre, the second half of 2014 will feature a number of shows around Australia and a yet to be announced European Tour, with some of the world’s most talented metal acts.

Under the guidance of Josh McMorran and Andrew Palmer (Chaotic Tapestry Management/ Future PR) and Chris Maric (Maric Media), the band will be blasting the international metal community with the news that Daemon Pyre has arrived. www.facebook.com/daemonpyre WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Comic-Con is making its way back to Melbourne with tickets to the epic celebration of all things geeky-cool on sale now.

In 2013, the Melbourne public showed their appetite for Oz Comic-Con events, with a massive crowd of geeks, nerds, comic book lovers, cosplayers, fans and families turning up for the pop culture party. It’s all about the heroines, hunks and handymen in 2014. Headlining the event is Hollywood sci-fi royalty Veronica Cartwright (Alien, The Witches of Eastwick), Tom Skerritt (Alien, Picket Fences, Top Gun), and Richard Dean Anderson, known for bringing to life the gadget building and wielding title character on the iconic TV series Macgyver and the wisecracking Jack O’Neil on the long-running sci-fi show Stargate SG-1.

To be held at the Royal Exhibition Building on July 5 and 6, Oz Comic-Con Melbourne will not only give fans the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of their favourite stars, it will also feature two days of celebrity panels, autograph and professional photograph opportunities, special screenings, industry master classes, portfolio reviews and a huge range of vendors selling exclusive merchandise.

Families are encouraged to attend with their little super heroes and to make it more affordable, Oz Comic-Con offers one free child’s ticket for each adult ticket purchased.

Tickets are on sale now through Showclix and via the Oz Comic-Con website (www.oz.comcon.com).

Tickets purchased in advance through those portals will have a discounted price from those available at the door.

Anyone who pre-purchases tickets to Oz ComicCon Melbourne will go into the draw to win a trip for two to New York Comic Con. The prize includes return flights for two to New York City, two VIP passes for the four days of the convention (October 9-12, 2014) and six nights’ accommodation. www.ozcomiccon.com

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LAVASA CITY, INDIA: Lavasa City came alive when more than 15,000 music lovers, art aficionados and food and wine connoisseurs attended FAME (Food-Art-Music-Entertainment) 2014 Festival held from May 30 to June 01.

Three hours from Mumbai, Lavasa is India’s first planned hill city and has been developed by Lavasa Corporation Limited.

Spread over 10,000 hectares, the hill city provides a combination of contemporary and timeless architectural designs, with multiple options for housing including rental housing, apartments and villas and has state-of-the-art infrastructure and amenities.

The festival got off to an energized start with an exciting line up of performances by Shibani Kashyap and Mame Khan, the Classical Quintet, Sharon Prabhakar, Niladri Kumar and DJ Ankytrixx.

The Wine and Food festival opened up with its colourful flea market and the grape stomping got the pulse racing of all the visitors. The promenade was abuzz with activities and fun

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and entertainment, including Salsa and Zorba dancing, art exhibitions, street dancing, theatre performances and karaoke.

Artists displayed their art works and also offered the opportunity to appreciate and learn creative art and painting under their guidance and that of other art teachers.

Leading chefs prepared global cuisine in the form of street food, finger food, live grills and sumptuous multi course meals.

To add to this, festival attendees were also able to taste some of the best domestic and

international wines, and beer brewed by local breweries.

Commenting on the successful FAME 2014, Nathan Andrews, president and CEO, Lavasa Corporation said, “We are extremely happy with the overwhelming response to FAME 2014. This response reiterates our continuous endeavour to make Lavasa City a preferred tourist destination that offers a unique experience to its residents and visitors. Going forward, we plan to make FAME an annual feature in Lavasa’s calendar.”

www.kellystephens.com.au

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Cirque du Soleil is returning to Australia with an all-new Big Top production – Totem – a fascinating journey into the evolution of mankind.

Since its world premiere in 2010, more than three million people across 25 cities have been mesmerized by the intimacy and beauty of Totem.

The all new, awe inspiring production has been touted as thrilling, a celebration of sheer human achievement and whimsically seductive.

2014/2015 AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES Sydney – From October 28, 2014 – Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park Melbourne – From January 21, 2015 – Flemington Racecourse Brisbane – From April 10, 2015 – Northshore Hamilton Adelaide – From June 11, 2015 – The Plateau in Tampawardli Perth – From July 31, 2015 – Belmont Racecourse

Tickets are available at www.cirquedusoleil.com/totem or by phone on toll free 0011-800-1-548-0000

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CANNES, FRANCE: Chivas Regal, the world’s first luxury whisky has celebrated another year as an official sponsor of The Cannes Film Festival, acknowledging once again the artistic importance of the silver screen through its partnership with Finch & Partners at the annual Charles Finch Filmmakers Dinner.

The event pays homage to those who consistently strive to push boundaries in the world of film.

Chivas Regal 25 also paid tribute to its longstanding charity partner FilmAid, a charity which aims to use the power of film to bring aid, hope and education to refugees and other communities in need of help around the world, at the highly anticipated Charles Finch Filmmakers Dinner.

Held against the stunning backdrop of the Riviera, this annual event, hosted by Charles Finch of Finch & Partners, is the most glamorous place to dine at the start of the Festival’s first weekend.

The evening culminated with a toast by Chivas Regal 25 honoring Alfonso Cuáron and Christopher

PORTLAND, ORE. USA: In 1994 a groovy little band out of Portland, Oregan burst into life – they were called The Dandy Warhols. They were a group of friends who ‘needed music to drink to’.

Regarded as one of the best live bands around, The Dandy Warhols, or the Dandys as the band is affectionately known, has earned its reputation by delivering outstanding performances all over the world.

For a band that’s been doing this for as long as they have, it’s refreshing to see them still clearly loving what they do.

With an impressive back catalogue, each show guarantees

Hampton as well as the work carried out by international charity FilmAid with Chivas Regal donating $100,000 to the charity.

Caroline Baron, Oscar-nominated film producer who founded Film Aid in 1999 commented “At Film Aid we witness the power of film every day – to change lives, shape communities and give voice to refugees. We are very grateful to Chivas Regal for their ongoing support and commitment to our

charity.”

Richard Black, Global Brand Director, Chivas Regal added: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to honour Christopher Hampton and Alfonso Cuáron for their unrivalled contribution to the film industry and continue to support our partners at FilmAid, at the Charles Finch Filmmakers Dinner. We are proud to be a part of another legendary year at the Cannes Film Festival.”

the Dandy’s set list is jam packed with hook-laden pure pop gems and crowd favourites including, We Used To Be Friends, Horse Pills, Get Off, Godless, Everyday Should Be A Holiday, Boys Better and of course the evergreen crowd pleaser Bohemian Like You. www.metropolistouring.com/current_tours_dandy_warhols_australian_tour.html WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

MONTEBLANCO, SPAIN: Ho-Pin Tung – the first Chinese driver to ever test a Formula 1 car – reckons that the all-new FIA Formula E Championship will feature “super-close” racing, after testing the fully-electric SparkRenault STR 01E race car for the first time last week.

Tung, who has tested F1 cars for Williams and Renault, piloted the single-seater at the Circuit Monteblanco in Spain. He completed three race simulations and was impressed by what he experienced.

“There’s going to be super-close racing because you can brake really late,” said Tung. “Having seen the Beijing track layout, it looks like there’s going to be lots of overtaking opportunities and with the Fan Boost system you will have to be really strategic with the way that you use it. Obviously you can save on some laps and then use extra energy on the other laps, so an energy saving strategy is going to be very important during the race and I think you’ll see a lot of drivers looking for and creating chances and making an opportunistic move on the inside into a corner.”

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO: A new short film directed by Riley Blakeway celebrates the subcultures that sit hand-in-hand with the Corona Extra lifestyle.

Someplace Else is a collective of free wheelin’ and talented individuals pulled together for a bus trip down the back roads of the Mexican coast.

The mission was to find the common threads that bind creative souls. And what brings people together better than a few Coronas?

“It’s very rare that you get a bunch of people together who don’t know each other and walk away from it super tight,” said muscian, Hanni El Khatib. “I’d like to be trapped with WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

The 31-year-old, who currently races in the Asian Le Mans Series and the Asian Carerra Cup, was surprised by the performance of the first ever all-electric singleseater which will be used by all 10 Formula E teams when the season gets underway in Beijing on September 13 2014.

“It’s very different from what I expected and I think the main reason being that I didn’t really know what to expect! Obviously everything is different from every other Formula car I’m used to. It’s got a very different type of tyre, which is a significant difference.

The construction of the tyres make the tyre very stiff, which I would

these dudes all the time.”

The film portrays six strangers piled into a decommissioned transporter for seven days and nights, travelling dusty wastelands, surfing, skating, painting, jamming, meeting locals, getting lost and experiencing the true heart and soul of Mexico.

By trips’ end they had forged brilliant friendships and banked memories that would last a lifetime.

THE CAST HEK: LA-based musician Hanni El Khatib grew up in San Francisco listening to his parent’s punk, garage rock, blues and R&B records. He’s released two albums (the latest

say is even more influential than the fact that it’s a grooved tyre. It’s got no sidewall and has a very big diameter – 18 inch – and so the sidewall is very stiff and that makes the car very stiff.”

Having raced in A1GP and Superleague Formula, Tung reckons the Formula E concept has great potential.

“I think Formula E might well be the future of racing,” he said.

“Sustainability and environmental responsibility is something that is very high on the agenda for racing but also in daily life and I think this is a great initiative.” www.fiaformulae.com/multimedia/video

produced in Nashville by the Black Key’s Dan Auerbach).

JC: Fellow San Franciscan, Jeff Canham, is a globally recognised artist and graphic designer. Jeff got his start in the surf industry, as art director of Surfer magazine for a time, and put all these creative skills to work in Someplace Else.

WRONG: Ozzie Wright is a professional surfer, artist and musician based on Sydney’s northern beaches. Ozzie lives the life many dream of.

BROPHY: Originally from the Western Australia, professional

WOLFSBURG, GERMANY: The first worldwide Volkswagen Design Contest has been launched, with the manufacturer seeking young design talent to submit concepts for an exciting car and scenario for a video game. The closing date for entries is August 15, 2014. A jury of experts from Volkswagen Design will judge the contributions submitted. The three winners can look forward to a six-month internship in the Volkswagen Design department in Wolfsburg.

Create a cool video game

car for Volkswagen: that’s the challenge for the first worldwide Volkswagen Design Contest.

Students from the fields of interior and exterior design, interface design, graphic design and/or colour and trim design can submit concepts for a car that is perfect for a video game. The typical character of a Volkswagen should at least be somewhat recognisable. Students have almost four months to visualise and submit their ideas on three charts, either in individual work or as a team.

The winners of the contest will be selected by Klaus Bischoff, Head of Volkswagen Design, and the management team of his design studio, and announced on September 30, 2014. Klaus

Bischoff is looking forward to receiving lots of submissions: “We are always interested in the perspective and attitude of young designers to mobility topics and this is why we decided to take a new approach to finding fresh design talents with the Design Contest.”

The three winners will subsequently be invited to do an internship in the Volkswagen Design studio.

In 2011 Volkswagen successfully initiated the Volkswagen Design Contest with the theme “The first electrical Volkswagen for my country…!”. This contest was aimed solely at students from Russia, India and China. As part of the international orientation of the company the contest is now open to students from around the world. The aim of Volkswagen in organising the Design Contest is to find talented students. At the same time the company is interested in establishing long-term cooperation with international universities and design academies. www.volkswagen-design-contest.com

skateboarder Andrew Brophy is now based in Melbourne. He is the owner of one of the highest ever ollies (87 skateboards laid flat or six cartons of Corona stacked high).

GRAVES: Dylan Graves is one of the funniest and happiest professional surfers you will ever meet, he also leads the life that so many aspire to - free surfing around the world and writing songs about pro surfers.

ROSE GIRL: Rose Ashton is a Sydney based model and artist with an expansive lineage in the visual arts. Her infectious enthusiasm is always on display, whether riding on elephants in Africa, surfing in remote locations, or painting on boulders and buses in Mexico. www.coronaextra.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

LONDON, ENGLAND: UK chef, Fergus Henderson has been awarded The Diners Club Lifetime Achievement Award, as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2014. Sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, the event is widely considered to be the highlight of the global gastronomic calendar.

Henderson is the founding partner of one of the UK’s most influential restaurants, St John in London, which opened in 1994.

Over more than two decades, Henderson has raised the profile of British food through the promotion of nose-to-tail cooking – the use of every part of the animal – which is now practised in many kitchens in the UK and across the Western culinary landscape.

The nose-to-tail approach has become an intrinsic part of today’s gastronomy due to Henderson’s unashamed celebration of offal and indigenous food. He has pushed the boundaries of restaurant cooking and is revered across the world by chefs and diners alike for his intelligence and affable manner.

As one of the patriarchs of the UK restaurant industry, Henderson was recognised in 2005 when he received an MBE for services to gastronomy. Under him, great cheffing talent has been nurtured, with a number of his young protégés currently blooming in solo ventures.

Having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the late nineties, Henderson has proved that major obstacles can be overcome. In 2012, he released his third book on nose-to-tail dining, The Complete Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking.

Helena Rizzo of Mani Restaurant, in São Paulo, Brazil has been named the 2014 Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef.

Winner of last year’s Veuve WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

Clicquot Latin America’s Best Female Chef award at the inaugural Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in September 2013, Brazilian-born Rizzo moved to São Paulo aged 18 to pursue a modelling career. She began working in kitchens part time and, before long, had turned her back on modelling to nurture her love of gastronomy.

This year Rizzo will release her first cookbook and open a second restaurant.

Mani Restaurant featured on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the first time in 2013, ranking at number 46.

Danish restaurant Noma regained its title as The S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant. After nine years on the list and three consecutive wins in 2010, 2011 and 2012, Noma celebrates once again as it returns to the coveted number 1 position.

Noma chef-owner René Redzepi is recognised for his highly original, sometimes visceral version of new Nordic cuisine.

His food strives to reflect the Danish landscape and culture with signature dishes such as Blackcurrant Berries and Roses.

Redzepi’s meticulous attention to detail, innovative approach to foraging and experimentation with fermentation – all driven by passion and a relentless curiosity – has once again brought his restaurant to the pinnacle.

Attica in Melbourne takes the title of Best Restaurant in Australasia, sponsored by Acqua Panna, for the second year running, coming in at No.32.

Led by Ben Shewry, the cuisine is unique, imaginative, innovative and nature-led in its execution.

Believing a chef should express himself through his cooking, Shewry takes his own experiences and memories, often from childhood, and portrays them through several dishes on Attica’s tasting menu. The result is a playful yet humble reminder of all that Mother Nature has to offer.

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THE CAIROS’ NEW ALBUM Following on from their critically acclaimed EP, Colours Like Features, in 2012, The Cairos has spent more than a year working away on its debut album, Dream of Reason, which has just been released through Island Records. The Cairos have released the first single from Dream Of Reason, Desire.

CANNES, FRANCE: One of the gems shown at the Cannes Film Festival last month was Australian film, Revolving Doors.

Shot at Marina Quays on Australia’s beautiful Gold Coast, Revolving Doors, is a film that follows two stories.

The first story follows a late night check in, who pays cash, but as he makes his way to his room decides not to stay the night, and the story

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The world-first, Australian-developed Veloster Race Concept car has become the latest star of the global mobile gaming phenomenon, Real Racing 3.

First unveiled in late 2012, the Veloster Race Concept has recently been digitally recreated for inclusion in the mobilebased racing game. The freeto-download Real Racing 3 was also developed in Australia and is played by millions of gamers worldwide.

The Veloster Race Concept was developed by a specialist engineering team to withstand the extreme rigour of tarmac rally racing. It was stripped down to a body shell and rebuilt to exacting

about the cash, which seems to make its way through the establishment.

Revolving Doors is directed

by Darwin Brooks, Australianbased filmmaker with 15 years of professional experience in the film industry, along with director of photography, Ross Giardina, who has a Masters in Cinematography, and starring, Ian Stenlake, Joss McWilliam, Jack Finsterer and Jordanna Allen.

standards by a dedicated team, using Hyundai technical and engineering know-how.

The project was led by the same technical team that conduct all ride and handling tuning for Hyundai production vehicles in Australia.

The Concept made a huge impression on both Hyundai Motor Company in Korea and Melbourne-based Firemonkeys, whose games are played by more than 150 million gamers worldwide.

Real Racing 3 is free via the App Store, Android App on Google play and Amazon appstore for Android by visiting www.firemonkeys.com.au/ downloadR3/

LOTUS GETS NEW CHIEF Jean-Marc Gales, until recently the CEO of European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) and prior to that president of PSA Peugeot Citroen, has been appointed CEO of legendary British sports car and motorsport company, Lotus.

CCD LAUNCH SINGLE With winter now upon us, Melbourne’s City Calm Down remain in hibernation as they continue to write their debut LP. The four friends have been tinkering and toiling over a considerable amount of demos (and the carcases of what were once demos) in the search for the perfect collection of songs.

As they carry on this process, the band has presented a new offering in the form of a single track titled Pavement, which is out now through I OH YOU. CALLAM JOINS ELITE Jaguar design director, Ian Callum, has joined LinkedIn as an Influencer, a group of the top minds in business who share their views and opinions with LinkedIn’s 300 million members across the world.

LinkedIn now has around 500 Influencers including the likes of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman.

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: It was in 1984 that Geoffrey Atherden penned the first episodes of Mother & Son. It was an instant hit with television viewers and very quickly became an award winning television series.

Now, 30 years on, Geoffrey brings the much loved characters – Maggie, Arthur and Robert - back in a brand new stage comedy opening at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre on July 18.

Starring Noeline Brown as Maggie and Darren Gilshenan as Arthur, the show is set to be a huge success with audiences Australia wide.

“I love the stage so I’m thrilled to be returning to Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre to play Maggie,” said Noeline Brown. “For the last few years I’ve been heavily involved with issues affecting our ageing community, so it’s a timely honour to play such a beautifully written character. Even if she does drive her family a little bit crazy!”

Get in quick for your tickets as this is a strictly limited season of three weeks.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW MELBOURNE COMEDY THEATRE From July 18, 2014 Strictly limited season

www.motherandsononstage.com.au

LAUSANNE, FRANCE: A unique piece of sand art on the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy has marked 100 days to go to the start of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in France.

French artist Christophe Dumont created a spectacular piece of sand art featuring giant, 2.3 by 2.5 metre horse’s hoof prints in a huge ‘100’ on the famous Normandy beach. The artist and a team of 20 people battled against time and tide to produce the unique piece of artwork, so that it could be captured on camera before the waves washed it away.

Inspiration for the sand art came from the tracks made by horses on the beach and Dumont used the idea to create a distinctive and unique message for the 100-day countdown to the Alltech FEI World

Equestrian Games 2014.

This year’s Games, which run from August 23 to September 7, will feature the world’s finest equestrian athletes competing in the seven official FEI disciplines: Jumping, Dressage & ParaEquestrian Dressage, Eventing, Driving, Reining, Vaulting and Endurance.

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 will also see a record number of nations taking part, with 72 countries having already declared their intention to compete at the event in Normandy, making this the world’s greatest global equestrian sport event.

Fabien Grobon, CEO of the Normandy 2014 Organising Committee, said, “With just 100 days to go until the start of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy, preparations are right on track to stage the world’s most global equestrian event.”

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General tickets: www.ticketmaster. com.au or 1300 111 011 Group Bookings: email groups@ ticketmaster.com.au or 1300 889 278

MADRID, SPAIN: Rodney Loges, from Occoquan, Virginia, USA, has become the first traveller in the world to reserve a hotel room using the Google Glass. The businessman is the first client of Hotel Near Me, the edge-cutting app developed by Destinia.com to search for and reserve a hotel. Loges booked a room at the Holiday Inn in Woodbridge (Virginia) for $142.

“I needed to reserve a hotel nearby for some investors coming to visit me, and I was surprised how easy it was, literally in the blink of an eye,” said Loges, founder of the financing company One Degree Capital and confessed geek.

Hotel Near Me is the first application in the world for booking hotels through Google Glass. The app has only just been released on the website http:// hotelnearme.com. Users can find the closest hotels to their GPS position, see photos and hotel information, filter by price and then book the hotel. The app can show a map of how to get to the hotel and give directions right up to the front door. The user can control the app either by swiping and tapping on the Google Glass or else by using voice commands such as “book hotel”.

Google Glass became available to the public on May 15th at a price of $1,500 while the Hotel Near Me app is completely free.

“We were thrilled to already get the first reservation”, said Amuda Goueli, CEO of Destinia. com. “The wearable technology market is set to grow

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: It has been a big year for Buried in Verona. Album number four, Faceless, debuted at #15 on the ARIA charts and was followed by a national tour in April, with Brisbane and Perth shows selling out. The band is currently treating European crowds to their brand of relentless riffage and in your face lyrics.

Hot on the heels of their Euro jaunt with Born of Osiris, Buried in Verona will pick up right where they left off and treat their loyal Australian fans to a massive run of shows throughout July and August. A band that tours for three months straight has a certain dangerous edge to their live show – adding a whole new level of intensity to the razor sharp precision that is Buried in Verona.

Joining BIV on The Mid Year Mayhem tour are New Zealand’s Antagonist A.D whose modern hardcore with old school ethics approach has earned them high praise for their honesty and sincerity.

Hailing from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Stories is fast becoming one of the scenes hottest properties.

exponentially over the next few years and we aim to lead the travel sector in developing technology for it”, he added.

Destinia plans to add more functionality to the app, and is also developing an international version with multiple languages and currencies for the Android and iOS platforms on smartphones.

Destinia is an international online travel agency with offices in Spain, Egypt and Dubai. Founded in 2001, it now has over 100 employees and a million clients.

It offers 230,000 hotels and 500 airlines, permitting reservations in 25 languages. According to ComScore, the website had 63 million unique users in 2013.

Destinia is also the first travel agency to accept Bitcoin payments for a wide range of products. http://destinia.us

Blending peace with chaos into a uniquely heavy signature sound, the band has proved themselves time and again on tours supporting the likes of In Hearts Wake, Counterparts and Veil of Maya.

The 12 date tour kicks off in Brisbane on July 17 and includes All Ages shows, so everyone has the opportunity to shake off the cold and get involved in the mayhem.

Tickets from www.tickets.destroyalllines.com, or 1300 762 www.oztix.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

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PARIS, FRANCE: Leading companies from across motor sport will gather next month in Munich for FIA Sport MotorEx2014, a new industry-themed showcase and discussion forum organised by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), the governing body of motor sport worldwide.

FIA Sport MotorEx 2014, to be held from June 24-26 at the impressive headquarters of Germany’s largest motoring organisation, ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V.) will run in parallel with the FIA’s second annual Sport Conference and will give representatives of motor sport organisations from around the world access to top industry experts, event promoters and leading figures from racing and rallying.

As well providing a forum for industry to interact with sport organisers from around the globe, FIA Sport MotorEx will offer a platform for the analysis of future trends and opportunities in motor sport through a range of special events featuring key decision-makers and experts from across the sporting spectrum.

Commenting on the event’s exciting format, FIA President Jean

Todt said, “FIA Sport MotorEx affords ASNs and industry figures a unique opportunity. For the motor sport industry it is a chance to map the future of their businesses in the form of the aspirations and requirements of ASNs from around the world.

For sporting authorities this week’s exhibition represents a chance to tap into the know-how and business acumen of companies with decades of motor sport expertise.”

Among the providers represented at the FIA Sport MotorEx are Global Partners, Ellis Clowes and Magneti Marelli.

A leading provider of professional and personal insurance, Ellis Clowes has more than three decades of experience as a motor racing specialist, having worked with some of the sport’s most famous names, from individual competitors and teams to championship organisers and governing bodies.

One of the world’s most respected producers of hi-tech systems and components for the automotive sector, Magneti Marelli has been involved in motor sport since 1919 and since then has developed ground-breaking products for a host of world championship-winning

teams. Since 2008 the company has also been heavily involved in the development of Kinetic Energy Recovery systems for motor sport.

FIA Sport MotorEx will host exhibitors from every area of motor sport supply, including Formula E Holdings, legendary timekeeping specialists Tag Heuer, official FIA racewear partner OMP, leading racing chassis design firm Mygale and Tatuus circuit design experts HoK and Apex, racing equipment supplier Stand 21, safety devices experts Tecpro, Geobrugg and MDD Europe for medical kits, 3M Peltor for Communication solutions, cutting edge Sport design Agency Leroy Tremblot, Full tank supplier Merin, industry representatives PRI & MIA and finally Kiti Sport Management System.

While the event’s exhibition space will host 19 of motor sport’s industry leaders, such as a FIA Lounge and a Central stage for demonstration and panel discussions, event tickets are also being offered to representatives of all motor sport businesses interested in visiting the FIA Sport MotorEx – all under one roof. www.fia.com/championship/2014/fiasport-motorex WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Docklands Studios Melbourne has celebrated its tenth anniversary as the major international film The Moon and the Sun, starring Pierce Brosnan and acclaimed Chinese star, Fan Bing Bing, began shooting in its sound stages.

With a site comprising five purpose-built, world-class sound stages, production offices and a large workshop, the Studio plays a critical role in attracting domestic and international productions to Victoria and has accumulated a list of enviable credits in its first ten years of operation.

Major productions have included: I, Frankenstein; The Pacific; Ghost Rider; Knowing; Where the Wild Things Are; Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark; Killer Elite; Patrick; Kath & Kimderella; Crawlspace and the soon-to-be-released Predestination, starring Ethan Hawke.

Demonstrating its versatility, 120 hours of television drama and more than 650 hours of audiencebased television programming have been shot on site which include: Winners & Losers; Satisfaction; As the Bell Rings; Millionaire Hot Seat; Australia’s Got Talent; Slide Show; Talkin’ bout your Generation and

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The Footy Show.

Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business, Louise Asher MP said of the Studio’s anniversary, “The Studio is a state-of-the-art facility that helps bolster Melbourne’s position as the screen and arts capital of Australia and equips Victorian screen professionals with globally competitive skills. Winning a film client like The Moon and the Sun reinforces the Studio’s position as one of only three major studio complexes in Australia with the capacity and facilities to cater for large-scale international projects.”

Stimulating the local economy, Docklands Studios Melbourne caters for both domestic and international film and television. Productions shot at the Studio over the last ten years have made a direct project investment of well over half a billion dollars into the Victorian economy.

International productions have spent $351 million within the state, while domestic productions have spent $278 million.

In 2012 the State Government invested $10 million to further enhance the Studio’s facilities.

Upgrades included improvements to Stage 5 to better service audience-

based television, and partitioning the workshop building to house multiple clients simultaneously.

CEO of Docklands Studios Melbourne, Rod Allan said of the Studio’s role in the screen production ecosystem, “The Studio is available for domestic and international clients and is now a permanent feature of the Victorian film and television landscape. Our goal is to provide the optimum environment where film-makers can do their best work.

“We have a long-term vision to develop a sixth sound stage with water filming capabilities and a commercial hub that will house businesses from the film, television and other creative industries.”

International actors who have filmed at Docklands Studios Melbourne include Nicholas Cage, Eva Mendes, Richard E Grant, Katie Holmes, Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Keener and Bill Nighy. Local artists include Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Susie Porter, Gina Riley, Jane Turner, Rachel Griffiths, Colin Friels, Miranda Otto, Sharni Vinson, Garry McDonald, Jack Thompson and Rebel Wilson.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: After 490 performances, seven cities and two return seasons, the spiegeltent spectacular from New York City, EMPIRE by Spiegelworld, has just concluded its Australian tour.

The seventeen-month tour was a resounding success, with over

200,000 people experiencing the Spiegelworld production in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Newcastle.

EMPIRE is now travelling to Tokyo for its Japanese premiere in July.

Spiegelworld impresario, Ross Mollison, said from New York, “I am absolutely thrilled that the

BONDI BEACH, AUSTRALIA: V8 Supercars driver, Rick Kelly, has won the Oakley F1 Celebrity Challenge on a mini replica of the Monaco Grand Prix race track located at the iconic Bondi foreshore. The Nissan Altima driver raced famous faces, including Bondi Rescue lifeguards, Ryan ‘Whippet’ Clarke and Trent ‘Maxi’ Maxwell; Christian Antidormi (Spartacus); Reuben Styles and Adam Hyde (Peking Duk); Jake Stone (Bluejuice); Tai Hara (Home and Away) and Fely Irvine (The Voice) using signature Fernando Alonso remote control Ferrari cars.

Celebrating an exciting eyewear collaboration between Oakley and the championed Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, the event saw Kelly tackle a course that has always excited him.

“For me, racing the track was incredibly exciting. I’ve never had the chance to visit Monaco, so to race the mini Grand Prix track and launch the new Oakley Scuderia Ferrari eyewear range down at Bondi was a huge thrill,” Kelly said.

Guests lined up to challenge the Oakley athlete on the ultimate mini race track, which measured 10m long by 6m wide, going head to head with Kelly in an attempt to run the best time of the day.

Despite some strong competition from Reuben Styles, Kelly navigated the tight turns and tough obstacles and was crowned the winner.

The Oakley Scuderia Ferrari Collection is available now at

response to EMPIRE by audiences in my home country has been as enthusiastic as we get for our resident shows in Las Vegas and productions in New York.

“This tour has simply exceeded all expectations, which is why we are delighted to announce that we are bringing forward planning for the next Spiegelworld show to tour Australia in 2015. We just can’t wait to impress, entertain and seduce Australian audiences all over again and look forward to revealing more details very soon.”

Spiegelworld is also currently presenting Absinthe on the forecourt of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, where it is has just celebrated its 1500th performance.

Spiegelworld’s latest venture brings them back to Las Vegas with the creation of Vegas Nocturne, the anchor live entertainment inside Rose. Rabbit. Lie. only at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Details of the 2015 Australian tour by Spiegelworld will be announced later this year. www.facebook.com/EmpireOz

http://www.oakley.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Be prepared for dark, edgy, twisted and downright hilarious cabaret at the fifth annual Melbourne Cabaret Festival from Thursday 19 June until Sunday 6 July 2014.

Thirty hand-picked shows offer a selection of something special – from sublime vocals to new original songs, ‘80s singalongs to deeply personal and revealing shows. The festival has it all and celebrates Melbourne as the nation’s incubator of cabaret talent.

The Opening Gala (Thursday, June 19) will be hosted by the fabulous Spanky and feature a diverse range of festival acts.

The Closing Gala (Sunday, July 6) will present a star-studded sampling of acts as a fund raiser for the not-for-profit Melbourne Cabaret Festival.

The Festival hub venues are Chapel off Chapel, Kew Court House and Village Melbourne.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: The addition of the Heli-Express service at Mercedes-Benz Airport Express in Melbourne, has introduced a new level of luxury and convenience.

Mercedes-Benz Melbourne and Air Melbourne have partnered together to launch the exclusive new service, which allows you to travel on a luxury helicopter between Melbourne Airport and Melbourne CBD in approximately four minutes.

“Mercedes-Benz Airport Express already offers our customers the ability to have their vehicle serviced whilst they travel and to take the hassle out of traffic and parking with our valet service to the terminal,” said Horst Von Sanden, CEO Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific and Managing Director, Mercedes-Benz Cars. “Our facility at Mercedes-Benz Airport Express has proven itself with WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

Geraldine Quinn will star at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival.

G

eraldine Quinn

The Butterfly Club will host the Festival’s Best of the Fest and five hand-picked shows.

Other participating venues are

fortyfivedownstairs and Dracula’s.

For bookings and the full program Tickets from $15.00. www.melbournecabaret.com

strong demand from customers and we have added the HeliExpress service to add another dimension of convenience especially for time poor customers. It cements the facility as unrivalled by any other manufacturer in our market.”

Air Melbourne operates luxurious twin-engine Agusta helicopters that seat up to seven passengers.

Heli-Express flights operate from sunrise to sunset and the service includes the unique Mercedes-Benz valet transfer between the helipad and airport terminals. A one way Heli-Express flight is only $274.00 per person including GST.

Air Melbourne also operates Heli-Express flights from Moorabbin Airport and in the future aims to offer flights from Lilydale Airport.

To arrange a reservation contact Mercedes-Benz Airport Express on (03) 8346 6100 or Air Melbourne on (03) 9629 5099 or via email to contact@airmelbourne.com.au

BUSSELTON, AUSTRALIA: A global race for charity with 50,100 registered participants from 164 nations kicked off with simultaneous starts on 34 long distance routes in 32 countries on six continents.

Fun runners, celebrities and some of the world’s best ultra-marathon runners all set off in the Wings for Life World Run at exactly the same time in front of a moving finish line under extremely different conditions ranging from searing afternoon heat in India to frosty pre-dawn chill in Canada.

Under the banner slogan ‘Running for those who can’t’, world class athletes and ordinary joggers hit the roads together in the firstever such global race, a spectacle made up of 34 separate races with the single aim of raising funds for spinal cord research through the Wings for Life charity. All the runners taking part, between the ages of 18 and 91, attempted to run or walk as far as possible. The remarkable feature of the first global sporting event of its kind was that a moving finish line was chasing the runners from behind in the form of a ‘Catcher Car’”, instead of the runners dashing towards a fixed finish line.

The global winners were male champion Lemawork Ketema (Ethiopia) running in Donautal, Austria and female champion Elise Selvikvag Molvik (Norway) running in Stavanger, Norway.

The Australian winner was Wings For Life ambassador David Kennedy (Mandurah, Western Australia, with a distance of 43.89km, finishing in the top thirty in the world. The last female standing in Australia was Laoise Thuama (Busselton, Western Australia), caught by the Catcher Car at 36.3km, finishing seventeenth female in the world.

Kennedy is a professional ultramarathon runner, having previously won silver at the Commonwealth Championships in the 24hr race, and this global event has taken it to a new level for the athlete.

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“Being the Australian winner of the Wings for Life World run is an incredible feeling. Having a car chasing you is certainly a different concept and it was my competitive nature that motivated me,“ said David Kennedy Laoise Thuama said there was a great sense of unity in the event.

“The coolest thing about this event was knowing that thousands of people around the world were doing it at the same time for such a worthy cause - that was an incredible motivation and made it so much fun!”

The race ended when the last male and the last female runners in the world were caught by one of the Catcher Cars.

Norway.

Busselton.

In Australia, Courtney Atkinson, Dave Kennedy, ‘Chief’ Brabon and Emilie Brabon Hames were among the favourites to take out the top places. Well-known fun runners include Olympic canoer Jess Fox, Olympic snowboarder Alex Pulin, Iron men Matt Poole and Red Bull Racing Australia V8 driver Jamie Whincup, as well as Ryan Clark and Daniel McLaughlin from TV’s Bondi Rescue.

A global happening that is being followed through social media, live streaming on the internet and with selected television coverage, the Wings for Life World Run is also one of the most complex sporting events ever staged - in part because no one knew where

Argentina. the finish line was to be.

Coordinating the race held simultaneously in 13 different time zones was also an enormous logistical challenge for the 110 timekeepers and organisers.

The timekeeping and satellite news gathering operations, with some 200 cameras feeding live images of the racing action, were based at the Red Bull Ring Formula One circuit in Spielberg, Austria.

While runners in the races in Europe and Africa were racing during daytime hours, others in locations such as India were running into the sunset and the athletes in Australia and New Zealand were running at night.

Runners on the West Coast of the United States, in Canada and South America started in the middle of the night and running for hours before dawn.

With all proceeds from the race going to charity, the Wings for Life World Run raised funds for spinal cord research. Wings for Life CEO Anita Gerhardter announced just before the start of the race in St Poelten, Austria, that the Wings for Life World Run will become an annual fixture with the date for the next race set for May 3, 2015. www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com

India.

Austria.

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DUBAI, UAE: Having received his formal training in fashion from London College of Fashion, Franklin Eugene masters his creations to express passion, strength, vision, craftsmanship and style. He has designed numerous private and public collections and his masculine collections are a tribute to refined masculinity.

The 2015 Franklin Eugene Men’s Wear Line, entitled Franklin Eugene Resort, features a collection of ten different silhouettes ranging from dressy casual, corporate and formal. The colour palette transitions from sky blue, to navy blue, to off white, and finally, jet black. The ten silhouettes transition from shorts with a “Hollywood waist” (The Timmy T) to a Tuxedo (The Sylvest) and in between the two, there is something to suit every man’s taste.

Each design is made with exceptional fabrics of high quality: super 100s wool, silk, and cotton.

The Franklin Eugene Resort Collection is available in bespoke couture and ready to wear and customers purchasing bespoke couture have the option of upgrading their fabric selection. www.franklineugene.com

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Set to open in Australian cinemas, June 26, is the story of French haute couture fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent, Directed by Jalil Lespert and starring Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne and Charlotte Le Bon, the movie tells an epic odyssey of creation, love, fashion and personal struggles. It gives us a privileged insight into the mind and life of one of the greatest artists, designers and visionaries of our time.

The story begins in 1953 as the 18-year-old designer wins a major fashion prize that puts him on the course to take over the Christian Dior legacy at the incredible age of 21, culminating in the acclaimed 1976 Ballets Russes Collection.

This fascinating movie had me riveted from the

beginning to the end. The depth of insight into the personality of this acclaimed designer and his battle with personal demons was incredible and had me sympathetic to his struggles.

Receiving the full support of Pierre BergÊ and the Foundation of Yves Saint Laurent, the movie touches on Yves friendship and rivalry with fellow designer Karl Lagerfeld and also allowed the filmmakers to utilise original YSL fashion and designs and to film inside Laurent’s opulent homes from Paris to Marrakech.

Fashionistas are sure to love the YSL catwalk shows and the genuine archive pieces, but the movie is more about the man and his battles with self-doubt and self-destruction.

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: The acclaimed new production of Boublil & Schönberg’s legendary musical Les Misérables, with glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, will premiere at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 2014.

The new production of Les Misérables has been praised by critics, fans and new audiences, breaking

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box office records internationally and inspiring filmmakers to make the outstandingly successful movie which went on to win three Oscars, three Golden Globes and four BAFTAs. This much loved blockbuster musical will commence previews in June and opening night will be held on July 3, 2014. Tickets are on sale now - 1300 795 012 or www.ticketek.com.au/lesmis

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prodijee Editor Darren House darren@prodijee.com +61 (0) 408 536 148 Fashion & Lifestyle Editor Carol Sheridan carol@prodijee.com +61 (0) 411 245 383 Food & Beverage Editor John Anthony Sub-editor Kortney Rae Art Director Carolyn Stevens Contributing Writers Lily Serna Matthew Wren Sarah French Amy Sommer Rik Barnett Kia Sanford Holly Scaunich Leah Carlisle Nicole Condos Chief Photographer Matthew Wren Contributing Photographers Andrew Browne Mike Chang Advertising advertising@prodijee.com Published by: prodijee PO Box 4158 Ringwood, 3134, Victoria Australia info@prodijee.com www.prodijee.com

BE GREEN EMBRACE THE SCREEN!

No trees were harmed during the production of this magazine.

Material published in prodijee is copyright and may not be reproduced by any means of duplication without the written permission of the publisher.

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going postal EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Very interesting story on Kelly Bettes.

I love that girls aren’t always put into traditional roles. Admittedly she started out as a ballet dancer, but her parents were still happy for her to go into drag racing. I guess it is all to do with the parents’ mind set and that Kelly’s parents were already into the drag racing scene.

I wish more parents could be like this though and not think that their children must be in traditional male and female roles.

I always wanted to be an electrician, but my parents laughed at that idea and now I am a secretary, which I really hate. When I have children I plan on giving them opportunities of all sorts and let them choose exactly what they really want to do.

Josie Dawsen Sunnybank Hills, Queensland, AUSTRALIA

Ed – Kelly’s story is great, isn’t it Josie.

TAKING A DIVE

The Sony awards were great – in particular I like the woman jumping

into the water – wonderful timing by the photographer and fantastic subject matter.

Jamie Widford Sutton, UNITED KINGDOM

Ed – I thought that image was absolutely brilliant too!

ECONOMIC WOES

I can’t believe that you are promoting Holden after what they are doing to the Australian economy!

Colin Mac Flemington, Victoria, AUSTRALIA

Ed – You can’t blame Holden, Colin. The simple truth is producing cars in Australia has become uneconomically viable.

LILY FANS UNITE!

Hooray for Lily! I am an architect and in my profession there is a need to be competent in both creativity and analytical thinking. People who say you can only be good at one or the other don’t know what they are talking about.

It is really good to see that Lily is still in the public eye in prodijee, but, can we please have her

InDaHouse back on television in Letters and Numbers? I totally loved that show!

Fiona Shelton Mount Martha, Victoria, AUSTRALIA Ed – Lily made a wonderful point. There are many talented people in the world who are very competent in both areas. e have had overwhelming response to Lily’s column in prodijee but unfortunately we can’t publish all the letters.

Every one of them stated that Letters and Numbers should be back on television featuring Lily.

CINCO SINKS JOURNO

Can you please tell me how the Cinco de Mayo party went? Can you give us more notice and recipes for next year’s celebrations. It sounds like a great excuse for a party! Also – did the writer end up hiding in a corner under a sombrero after drinking heaps of tequila?

Karim Shaveez Penrith, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA Fashion Ed – I was a guest at this celebration and it was a blast! As for the writer – we are still waiting for her to surface so maybe she is STILL hiding under that sombrero somewhere

RIK’S FUNNY BUDGY

I laughed heaps at Rik’s column – loved that the word ‘budgy’ wasn’t a marketing exercise; it was a simple spelling error!

Rogan Balough Glenroy, Victoria, AUSTRALIA

Fashion Ed – Great product too!

CERBERUS RETURN?

Loved what John had to say about Cerberus Beach House. I have been there many times and loved it but I have heard that they have just got a new chef. How about another review with the new chef so that I can find out if I should go back?

Charmaine Teeley St Kilda, Victoria, AUSTRALIA

Ed – I will look into that one for you Charmaine. We had a fantastic night with magnificent wine, beer and delicious food. I hope the new chef does justice to this wonderful little restaurant.

GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? Send prodijee an email at goingpostal@prodijee.com

Darren HOUSE

AS I SIT at my desk staring at a blank Word document and wondering what to write this month, in comes the sad news that Australian rock legend, Doc Neeson, has succumbed to brain cancer. Doc was 67 years old but until the end continued to do what he did best – thoroughly entertaining audiences.

With his band, The Angels, Doc played some of the biggest venues in the country and toured with many of the biggest names in music. While they didn’t reach the dizzy heights of international stardom, The Angels are said to have influenced Guns N’ Roses, Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

Doc was clearly at home on the big stage but he never lost his passion for intimate pub venues. I remember the last time I saw Doc on stage – it was a chance meeting as I strolled through Sydney’s Martin Plaza in 2012 and noticed an enthusiastic crowd assembled around a band playing on the back of a small tray truck. The performance was part of an effort to save the ‘The Sando’, a Sydney live music institution that a bank was trying to foreclose on.

Doc’s passing is another blow to The Angels’ many fans, who still mourn the 2013 death of bassist, Chris Bailey, also from cancer. And it’s another blow to the Australian music community more broadly, following the recent passing of Bill Putt and Darrell Cotton.

Others are battling their own health issues and shall remain nameless here, lest I put the hex on them. But to all the great Aussie music heroes we say, “Long live Rock n’ roll, and all those who embrace it.”

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what’s hot THE BEST-SELLING unisex fragrance from Tom Ford’s Private Collection – Neroli Portofino – can now be experienced in an All Over Body Spray and a Deodorant.

The refreshing formula is an invigorating way to wear the scent that was inspired by the cool breezes, sparkling clear waters and lush foliage of the Italian Riviera. True to Mediterranean tradition, the Body Spray energizes and uplifts the senses. Its sensuous blend of citrus, floral and amber notes is crafted from exquisite ingredients: Tunisian Neroli, Italian Bergamot, Sicilian Lemon, Winter Yellow Mandarin, Lavender, Orange Flower, Rosemary and Amber.

The Neroli Portofino All Over Body Spray and Deodorant join Neroli Portofino Eau de Parfum, Body Moisturizer, Body Oil, Shower Gel, and Bath Bar. All Over Body Spray – AU $100.00. Deodorant – AU $70.00.

Available now at David Jones, Harrolds Luxury Department stores and www.davidjones.com.au

GET IN QUICK for the limited edition collection of beautifully buttery Tinted Lip Balms from Natio.

These luscious lip balms deliver just a hint of low sheen and high moisture colour, perfect for a natural look. All shades are buildable to a deeper tint without the weight or opacity of lipstick and are petroleum and paraben free.

Formulated with nourishing plant extracts, Natio Tinted Lip Balms also protect against the elements and keep lips comfortably soft, soothed and supple. Shea Butter helps maintain the lips’ hydrolipidic film, Aloe Vera moisturises and Jojoba helps to replenish and restore softness.

Available in six sumptuous shades designed to sync naturally WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

with all skin tones.

• Angel: sheer blossom

• Fun: sheer rose • Giggle: sheer coral • Charm: sheer mauve • Spirit: sheer hazel • Smile: sheer berry

The Natio lip balms are Australian made and not tested on animals.

Available at Myer, David Jones and selected pharmacies or visit www.natio.com.au

EYES ARE THE windows to our soul, but the delicate skin around our eyes can reveal a lot about us, showing tell-tale signs of our age, health and wellbeing. Considering our eyes bear the full brunt of ageing and life stress – in the form of fine lines, dark circles and puffiness, you need an eye cream that actually works to help refresh and leave you feeling rejuvenated.

Whether you’ve been partying all weekend long or up all night with a crying baby, Boots Laboratories have eye creams specifically created to help with the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness.

Serum7LIFT Deep-Wrinkle Eye Cream – 15ml – AU $28.00 will tighten and brighten the skin around your eyes while reducing the appearance of deep lines, wrinkles and dark circles.

Radiance Boosting Eye Balm – 15ml – AU$22.00 – sooths and brightens the delicate eye area and helps to combat puffiness and dark circles.

FOR THOSE OF us who aren’t into floral fragrances, Saison has just introduced the European Apothecary Sea Salt Candle.

Following from the cult Sea Salt Soap, the newest addition into the collection is the perfect way to keep living and working spaces fresh and relaxing.

This biodegradable, non-toxic candle is made with pure 100 per cent US grown GMO-free soy wax. Its scent is a fresh sea salty fragrance that will relax and calm the mind for up to 80 hours.

RRP – AU $49.95 www.shopsaison.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

HAVE YOU EVER spent hours copying some of those magnificent hairstyles you see on celebrities and on runways, only to discover, despite your best efforts, that your hair just flops or in no way resembles what you set out to create? One of the reasons this happens is that you may not be using the right products.

The exacting standards of stylists behind the biggest international fashion shows and professional photo shoots require products that can be relied on for high performance and the ability to create inspirational fashion looks.

You can also demand the absolute best for your hair at home. Schwarzkopf Professional’s new OSiS+ Session Label fuses precise performance with premium catwalk styling quality, giving stylists – and now you – exactly what is needed to create stunning catwalk styles.

Already a firm favourite with hair and fashion lovers globally, OSiS+ cements itself even more firmly in the fashion arena with Session products. The only styling products used backstage at Betsy Johnson’s 2014 NYFW show, Session is also featured behind the scenes at Rag & Bone’s 2014 NYFW showing and was recently used backstage at Jamie Ashkar, NLP and ae’lkemi’s 2014 MBFWA shows.

Tyler Johnston, Schwarzkopf Professional global ambassador and celebrity hairstylist to the likes of the Beckhams, has worked on photo shoots for international glossy magazines, and he knows exactly what session stylists need.

“The products need to perform immediately but remain invisible.

And most importantly of all, they must be non-overburdening and easy to remould. The hair is restyled several times during WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

one show or photo shoot, and we simply have to rely on our products.”

OSiS+ Session Label was formulated precisely with these needs in mind. The range presents two new-generation hairsprays with an instantdry formula allowing to be sprayed very evenly on the hair, including instant-dry results and memory effect. They give the style dependable hold, are easy to brush out while keeping the hair in place. Weightless shine-enhancing and mattifying products like the Silk Shine Cream and Moulding Paste offer a solution for any session styling, behind the scenes or at home.

Consisting of a Strong Hold and Flexible Hold Hairspray, Salt Spray, Silk Shine Cream, and Moulding Paste, the Session label

enables infinite styling variations and delivers catwalk ready looks – for whichever runway you are strutting your stuff on.

The gorgeous hair on show at ae’lkemi was created by Schwarzkopf Professional’s Michael O’Dowd, of Perth.

Michael is one of the owners/ directors of the coveted O’DowdChristie Salon in Perth.

He works alongside his wife Clare O’Dowd, who is also a director with the two working closely together on all session/ editorial work - as well as running the salon.

During his 17 years in hairdressing he has worked with some of the top hairdressers within the industry throughout Europe and Australia and provides seminars for some of the world’s top product companies as

well as working on several highend international hair shows.

During the ae’lkemi show at MBFWA, Michael said that the Schwarzkopf Professional OSiS Session range was “a dream to work with”.

“The Silk Shine Cream was fantastic for prepping the models hair, giving a lush and smooth result at the end without greasiness.

“I used the Strong-Hold hairspray on the models hair for the show as it gives extreme hold without weighing the hair down. It was a great product for holding the hair in place for outfit changes and photos.

“I’ll definitely recommend the OSiS Session range to my clients as the products translate so well from catwalk to street to achieve a sophisticated look.”

TO GET THE LOOK, FOLLOW MICHAEL’S HOW-TO GUIDE: Prep hair with Schwarzkopf Professional OSiS Session label Silk Shine Cream and Schwarzkopf Professional OSiS Grip Volume Mousse.

Be sure to triple-mousse the hair for extra hold then blowdry product into hair.

Brush the product out and then back comb the hair, aiming for volume and texture.

Part hair down the middle then secure into a ponytail at the base of the neck, making sure that it’s not too neat.

Loop the hair through one more time to create a casual bun with hair elastic exposed.

Finish with Schwarzkopf Professional OSiS Session Strong Hold Hairspray.

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THE SKYE HARTE brand is still a baby – having only launched in November 2013, but this Australian resort and lifestyle brand, that has a bohemian twist, is set to make great waves in the design industry.

Made exclusively in Australia, the brand captures the spirit and freedom of a typical summer’s day. The colours, prints and styles reflect the character of the strong dynamic women who wear them and are a strong reflection of the personal style of the designer and creative director, Angie Nettle. Angie wanted to create a brand that ensures attainable luxury with a focus on quality fabrics, delicate prints and a carefree yet sophisticated aesthetic - Skye Harte has strong appeal.

The debut collection includes readyto-wear jewellery and accessories, and mixes a contemporary edge with a nod to bygone eras that reflect the spirit of the brand. The collection is influenced by the style and flair from the 60s and 70s but with a current relevance. www.skyeharte.com

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HAVE YOU EVER felt that sick feeling in your stomach when your dog disappears?

After running madly around your back yard to make sure he/she is not there, you start running up and down the street, calling, knocking on neighbours’ doors asking if they have seen the escapee. The fear is gripping and all the ‘what if’s’ start jumping into your head – Cars? Trains? Trams?

Dognapped?

I have felt that feeling many times as my dog, meek, docile and in all honesty ‘dopey’ Max, the golden retriever (pictured), is a bit of an escape artist. So far, I have been lucky, and found him before he gets too far, but there was one time he was seriously injured. Thankfully, surgeries, a lot of TLC, rest and money have managed to bring Max back to his old self, but the fear of him getting out again still grips me.

The people at Petrek know the feeling; they know that for many of us, losing our pet is as bad as losing a family member.

They have developed an innovative GPS Pet tracker – PetrekLT905G GPS Pet Collar. It operates using a pre-paid Telstra SIM card that is carried in the pet collar and communicates with your mobile phone.

It is the first GPS Pet Tracker collar to offer a phone app made especially for smartphones (i-Phones and Androids) that allows you to get live location updates of your pet and satellite views of where your pet is located. You can set a virtual perimeter around your property and then get alerts on your phone if your pet leaves that area. Low battery alerts come through on your phone and the battery life is one of the longest on the market! With this app you are able to use your smartphone to do various tricks.

• Live Location: Get live location updates by the press of a button shown on Google Maps with an accuracy of 2.5metres so you know exactly where your pet is or the last location of your pet.

• Satellite view: With the touch of a button you can

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zoom into full satellite imagery so you know which house, tree or fence your pet might be closest to.

• Street view technology: Still not sure where your pet is or its last location? Drag the little Google street view person to the location of your pet and get an instant idea of the house or garden they are in!

• Geo-Fencing: Through the phone, set a perimeter around an area, so that when your pet leaves the area, you instantly get a siren alert on your phone.

• Low Battery alert: You will get a text to alert you to charge it up.

• Battery life: If the tracker does not detect movement it goes into sleep mode, which lasts up to 1600 hours in pure sleep mode. Depending on how active your dog is, the unit can last from a day to five days.

Available for cats and dogs, this tracking system is a must if you live in fear of your four-legged fur baby disappearing. www.microchips.com.au

SPECIAL OFFER!

The lovely people at Petrek have offered all readers of prodijee a $10 discount when they use the discount code Prodijee during checkout.

WHEN WINTER HITS, you can kiss soft, supple lips goodbye. The harsh elements can ravish lips, leaving them dry, flaky, split and chapped, not to mention cold sores, which are not only unsightly and embarrassing, but can be extremely painful.

With Caroline’s Lip Balm, you can breeze through winter without any cracks, flaky skin, split or bleeding lips.

Full of nourishing ingredients to soothe and heal, including wheat germ oil, borage seed oil, golden seal root extract, calendula flower extract, slippery elm extract, St John’s worth extract, simple tincture of benzoin, pau d’arco, vitamin E (natural) and Jojoba, the lip balm also treats eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis which often flares up around the mouth and lips and helps cold sores disappear fast.

Caroline’s Lip Balm is suitable for all ages, including babies and has also been used with great success by people undergoing chemotherapy, to counteract the side effects of dry and peeling mouth and lips that are left raw and

TOSHIBA’S NEWEST ADDITIONS to its consumer range of devices offer customers a greater choice in the way they access their content. The new range, consisting of five innovative devices, includes a powerful twoin-one desktop replacement, a premium two-in-one Ultrabook and a productive two-in-one detachable.

“Toshiba’s latest range has been tailor-made for touch and environment adaptability – from the very core of the operating system through to the style, weight and design of the devices,” said Anthony Geronimo, consumer product marketing manager, Toshiba ISD. “These new releases offer consumers the simplicity of one Toshiba smart device, with the benefit of two.”

Leading the new range is the Satellite P50W. The P50W flips the premium home desktop replacement experience on its head, literally. Using its innovative 360 degree hinge, the P50W

painful due to the treatment. RRP – AU$11.50 www.carolineskincare.com.au

transforms from a no-compromise premium touch PC into a top-flight tablet for instant access to favourite apps.

Encased in a slim aluminium chassis, this ultra-portable is thinner than an Ultrabook and features a large wideview 15.6 inch Full High Definition IPS touchpanel display, making it ideal for both entertainment and content creation.

Powered by the latest Intel Core i5 processor and a huge 1TB storage capacity for hundreds of videos, games, photos and more, the P50W delivers an exceptionally fast computing experience with up to nine hours battery life, stunning visuals and the latest Intel Wireless-AC, which brings faster Wi-Fi speeds of up to 867 Mbps.

The P50W comes

equipped with harman/kardon stereo speakers with DTS Studio Sound providing a crystalclear, captivating surround sound experience and a host of expandability options, connectivity and ports. RRP: from AU$1599 www.mytoshiba.com.au

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Arrive Fashionably Safe Driver Dynamics is Australia’s #1 Advanced Driving and Defensive Driver Training organisation, with courses to suit all levels of experience from just $149.

So whether you are heading to the catwalk, the red carpet or just across town, staying safe on the roads is something that never goes out of style.

www.driverdynamics.com 1300 652 693

LIKE THE TEETH, hair and body, the complexion can benefit from regular brushing. Cleansing skin with a gentle electrical face brush will help exfoliate dead skin cells more quickly than fingers, a flannel or manual brush can, effectively whisking away dull surface skin as well as oil and debris plugging the pores.

Besides giving an immediate sensation of smoothness, clean and fresh skin is also best primed to receive serum, moisturiser and follow-on treatment products.

Unencumbered by residual sebum, make-up and dry skin cells, active formulations can better penetrate skin to perform at capacity.

Natio has just launched a limited edition 1-2-3 skincare set to suit all skin types.

The three-step skincare sets come in three different formulas, which all include a bonus Electrical Deep Cleansing Face Brush (+ batteries and two brush heads):

Gentle Foaming Facial Cleanser, Rosewater & Chamomile Gentle Skin Toner, Daily Protection Face Moisturiser SPF 15.

• Ageless – which includes Gentle Cleansing Milk, Ageless Rehydrating Toner, Ageless Daily Moisturiser • Renew – which includes Renew Gentle Toning Facial Cleanser,

Renew Day Dream SPF 15, Renew Roll-On Eye Serum.

The Natio Aromatherapy, Ageless and Renew skincare products are made in Australia and are not tested on animals.

Available at Myer, David Jones and selected Pharmacies or www.natio.com.au

• Aromatherapy – which includes

ESTÉE LAUDER HAS just introduced Double Wear All-Day Glow BB Moisture Makeup SPF 30 and Double Wear Brush-On-Glow BB Highlighter to their collection.

The Double Wear All-Day Glow BB Moisture Makeup SPF 30 is an exceptional new makeup that delivers all the benefits of a BB, but now in a moisture-fresh, lightweight texture that instantly brightens and perfects skin’s natural undertones and colour, while providing immediate and all-day radiance, hydration and comfortable wear.

In just one stroke, Double Wear Brush-On-Glow BB Highlighter delivers both instant and lasting radiance and moisture in a highlighter that brightens and conceals diffusing light and minimizing the look of imperfections. This longwearing,

light-reflecting concealer instantly delivers a flawless, radiant finish that lasts for up to eight hours.

Available in a range of seven complexionenhancing shades to suit every skin tone, this colour-true moisturizing makeup is Ophthalmologist and Dermatologist tested, fragrance, as well as oilfree and appropriate for all skin types.

Double Wear All Day Glow BB Moisture Makeup SPF 30 - RRP – AU $50.00 Double Wear BrushOn0Glow BB Highlighter – RRP – AU $38.00 www.esteelauder.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

roadtest GATINEAU NUTRIACTIVE MEDIATION BARRIER CREAM - NOURISHING GLYCOMASQUE THE WARMTH IS gradually fading from the sun and our skin is just about to suffer the full effects of the harsh cold environmental conditions.

We move from comfortable heated indoor environments out into brisk, chilly and often harsh conditions which can play havoc with our skin, often causing irritation.

The Nutriactive Range, from Gatineau, includes two products I have been using, Mediation Barrier Cream and Nourishing Glycomasque, which are both products that I can highly recommend.

The Mediation cream is a rich protective cream that offers the skin a blanket of protection to combat these environmental extremes. It protects the lipid levels in the skin, strengthening the skins barrier defence combating uncomfortable tightness restoring youthful suppleness and glow.

It must be noted that this cream is not a moisturiser, it provides a layer of protection that fights the effects of thermal shock, and you should continue with your regular skin care routine to ensure your skin remains protected and in peak condition.

A little of this cream goes a very

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by Carol SHERIDAN

long way and leaves your skin feeling dewy and fresh for up to 12 hours. It is an absolute must if you are outdoors in extremely harsh conditions such as snow skiing, but it is also fantastic for protecting your skin against artificial heating that will often dry and damage our skin.

The nourishing Glycomasque

“It is an absolute must if you are outdoors in extremely harsh conditions but it is also fantastic for protecting your skin against artifical heating”

offers dry, dull or devitalised skin an instant pick me up. It is perfect for tired winter skin that is lacking vitality and energy and is gentle enough to be used around the delicate eye contour. This is a very gentle mask but it leaves your skin feeling nourished, fresh and clean without that over-taught feeling that many other masks can give.

Gatineau’s Nutriactive range is an essential for the coming winter, especially if you are someone who enjoys outdoor winter activities, it is your answer to keeping your skin nourished and protected when experiencing the great outdoors.

Nutriactive Mediation Barrier Cream – 50ml RRP AU$80.00 Nutriactive Nourising Glycomasque – 75ml RRP AU$50.00

ISOWHEY PROTEIN POPS WHEY PROTEIN IS considered a complete protein containing all nine essential amino acids and is low in lactose content, researchers are constantly finding new possible therapeutic properties.

It is thought whey protein is great for losing weight, has anti-cancer properties, can decrease cholesterol and lower blood pressure.

IsoWhey say their products have been formulated by healthcare practitioners to give healthconscious people whey protein in the right balance. They are a nutritious and healthy option when nutrition could be improved during various health and age stages.

IsoWhey Protein Pops offer a nutritional snack and are free from artificial colours, flavours, sweeteners and preservatives. They are convenient, high protein and low carb making them an ideal bite size snack. Each pop contains more than 18g of protein, less than 1.9g of carbs and are naturally sweetened with stevia.

by Darren HOUSE

They come in two flavours – Choc Coconut and Cookie Dough. I sampled the Cookie Dough formula and while I wouldn’t buy this product solely for the taste (I suspect the Choc Coconut would be better suited to my palette), the flavour was

pleasant enough, and it is certainly a convenient way to gain a daily dose of whey protein.

As with all forms of protein and other supplement they should be consumed in conjunction with a balanced diet and appropriate exercise program. They are not suitable for children under 15 years of age or pregnant women.

RRP – AUD $4.49 – 60g at selected pharmacies and health food stores. www.isowhey.com.au

“The flavour was pleasant enough and it is a convenient way to gain a dose of whey protein”

NATIO TINTED LIP BALM THESE LUSCIOUS LIP balms deliver just a hint of low sheen and high moisture colour, perfect for a natural look. They also feel great and unlike some other lip balms they don’t leave a residue but still keep your lips feeling soft and supple.

All shades are buildable to a deeper tint and are formulated with nourishing plant extracts, shea butter, joboba and aloe vera. They are also petroleum and paraben free, made in Australia, and my fave, they are not tested on animals.

Priced at AU$4.95 each, I think these are a beautiful product at a

by Kia SANDFORD

bargain price.

Available in six sumptuous shades designed to sync naturally with all skin tones.

Fun: sheer rose Giggle: sheer coral

Charm: sheer mauve Spirit: sheer hazel Smile: sheer berry Angel: sheer blossom Available at Myer, David Jones and selected pharmacies or www.natio.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

WELL, NATURALLY CHOCOLATE BARS AND SLENDIER INSTANT DRINK MIX THE CHRISTMAS OVERINDULGENCE is well and truly over and so is Easter where we all tend to partake in a little too much chocolate. And now, the cooler months are hitting us here in Australia and it is very easy to look for comfort food to help us through those chilly days and nights. There are just way too many celebrations, events and weather situations that help contribute to weight gain, and unless we are continually counting calories/kilojoules and exercising, it’s just too easy to find ourselves putting on excess weight.

Here are some ways to control your weight and curb your sugar intake without depriving yourself of flavour and comfort.

The Well, Naturally Chocolate bars are a sugar-free milk chocolate that is sweetened naturally with stevia. They also contain some of their natural sugars but with 80 per cent less than regular bars, it is chocolate that even the diet conscience can enjoy.

These bars are available in four flavours - Creamy Milk, Fruit and Nut, Peppermint Chip and Jaffa Orange. I tried the Jaffa Orange and Peppermint Chip and I found the chocolate taste not to be consistent amongst all flavours.

The Peppermint Chip had the same smooth creamy consistency as regular milk chocolate, however the Jaffa Orange did not. I found that one to be very bitter, hard, and not creamy and have an almost off aftertaste. I am not a fan of any mint chocolate at all and even I found the Peppermint to be quite nice and it seemed like a natural mint flavour not an artificial additive.

The orange flavouring in the Jaffa was the same; it was the actual milk chocolate that turned me off in this case.

At AU$2.69 per 45g bar, this is a comparable price within the healthy snack market. This product was something nice to try but with WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

by Holly SCAUNICH

the flavours that I have tasted, I couldn’t say that this would be a product I would purchase.

The Well, Naturally Chocolate Melts are sweetened naturally with Stevia and made with 70 per cent cocoa.

When using dark chocolate, it is always going to be a slightly bitter anyway so I wasn’t surprised to find this was the case in these melts and as such I wouldn’t recommend eating them straight from the pack. I found these comparable to any other cooking chocolate on the market, just a healthier option.

I think that the price of AU$6.95

for the 200g bag is quite reasonable, particularly as you should get more than one batch of baking out of a pack.

If you’re in the market for a healthier cooking chocolate then the Well, Naturally brand is definitely a good one to try.

CHOCOLATE BARK – SERVES 2 250g dark chocolate melts 50 g pistachio nuts 50g dried cranberries Edible glitter (optional)

• Place 2/3 of the chocolate into a glass bowl and rest over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the bowl does not touch the water.

• Gently stir the chocolate as it melts. Place a cooking thermometer into the chocolate and melt chocolate to 45 degrees Celsius – remove the bowl from the heat.

• Add the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate to the melted chocolate and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the chocolate’s temperature comes down to 32 degrees C and the chocolate has melted.

• Line a baking tray with baking paper and pour the chocolate mixture onto the paper. Move the tray from side to side to ensure that the chocolate covers the base of the tray evenly.

• Sprinkle the chocolate with the pistachio nuts, cranberries and edible glitter and then place in the fridge to set. This should take 30min max.

CHOCOLATE PUDDING – SERVES 3-4 1 ripe banana 12 dates, pitted 1 cup blanched almonds ¼ cup cocoa powder ½ tsp vanilla extract 6–8 dark chocolate melts per pudding Low fat cream to serve Olive oil spray

• Preheat fan forced oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

• Spray a muffin tin with olive oil spray so the puddings do not stick.

• In a food processor or blender, combine all of the ingredients except for the chocolate melts, cream and olive oil spray. Blitz the ingredients until a thick mixture/paste forms.

• Half fill each muffin hole (4) with the mixture. Gently push extra melts into the pudding mixture. Using the remaining mixture, fill each of the puddings to the top of the hole.

• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

• Serve with a dollop of low fat cream whilst still warm. When you cut open the pudding the chocolate melts will ooze from the centre.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES – SERVES 6 12 dates, pitted 1 cup almonds 1 cup macadamia nuts 1 tsp vanilla extract 45g dark chocolate melts Punnet of raspberries ¼ cup cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting

• Using a food processor, combine all of the ingredients except for the raspberries. Blitz until you have a thick paste.

• Transfer the mixture to a small baking tray lined with baking paper.

Spread the mixture out evenly to ensure that the top of the brownie is nice and smooth and it is evenly spread across the tray.

• Place in the fridge and allow to set for 20–30 minutes.

• Remove from fridge just prior to serving and dust with cocoa powder.

• Serve with three or four berries per brownie.

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Slendier Instant Drink Mix is used to calm hunger cravings and help with portion control/snacking. It comes in three flavours - Pomegranate + Aloe Vera, Acai + Blueberry and Mango + Coconut and each box comes with seven single-serve sachets of powder that you add around 200ml of water to.

I was pleasantly surprised at the texture of the product in the water, it didn’t have any of the gluggy consistency of powdery taste that many other diet powders have. It reminded me a lot of jelly premix when the crystals and water are combined.

The consistency is still thin but does thicken slightly due to the ingredient Konjac root, which is a superfood used for reducing blood sugar, cholesterol, constipation and to help detox. It is what makes the thicker consistency which then allows the stomach to feel full.

These taste great! The flavour is really there and it is almost like you are drinking a cordial rather than a diet drink. While the packet says to use the product in place of a snack or to ease cravings, I found them useful for after the gym, especially as they only contain 10-11 calories - you don’t have to feel that you have damaged your workout in any way.

I wouldn’t recommend to use them as a meal replacement as you aren’t getting all the nutrients you need and they don’t fill you up to that extent, but they are great add ins to help encourage a healthy diet.

At $9.95 for seven sachets, it is on the more expensive side of diet drinks however I think it is a reasonable price if you are only having one a day.

Having tried this product now, I can say that I definitely want to keep using it in my diet.

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“While the product is used as a snack or to ease cravings, I found them useful for after the gym without damaging my workout”

lily’s life Soaking up the velvety silence of life on the farm here’s something slightly embarrassing about being a city girl when you visit the country side. And a city girl I am – with my impractical high heels, blow dried hair and painted nails. When I do get a chance to get out of the city bubble –it often feels as if I’ve missed the point somehow. Priorities are different in the country. But are they better?

And if so, can they be translated to a city context?

I live in the biggest city in Australia. I wear clothes for fashion as much I do for practicality. I duck into the supermarket on the way home to get dinner and I stare at an illuminated screen for the best part of the day. So, when my friend Blake asked if I wanted to go up to his parents’ farm last weekend, it was a no brainer. Blake also invited our friend Kate. The three of us got in Blake’s car and road tripped our way out of the city.

Blake is a couple of years younger than me. I think at first encounter it might be easy to write him off as just a good looking surfer boy. He’s got piercing blue eyes and sun-bleached hair and is indiscriminately enthusiastic about, well, pretty much everything (he’s what’s known as a ‘frother’ in the surfing community). In fact, Blake is more intelligent than most people I know. The kind of intelligence that I suspect might be a burden sometimes.

Kate is warm, intuitive and impossibly patient. Our nickname for her is Salty because she’s the salt of the Earth. She grew up on a farm in the north of England, which probably has something to do with why she’s so grounded.

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by Lily SERNA

We pull up to the farm at dusk.

The velvety silence and the crisp air are what immediately strike you when you first get out of the car. When you walk, you become aware of the sound of your own footsteps. When you breathe in, it smells earthy and unfamiliar. And when you get your phone out to

Snapchat your friends at home, three devastating letters stare back at you where your reception bars once flourished - ‘SOS’.

Blake’s parents and the two family dogs warmly greet us at the gate. They show us into the house where a homemade quiche, apple crumble and a blazing fire place await us.

Toni and Michael made a ‘tree change’ less than a decade ago.

Before they retired, Michael was an engineer and Toni a librarian.

It’s not hard to see where Blake gets his critical thinking from. To say they’re hard working would be an understatement. All of the work on the farm is done by them

“Farm life is a closed loop where wastage is minimised and mindfulness is maximised.

I can see that I need to spend less time blow drying my hair and painting my nails, and more time on useful things like building a worm farm or a small kitchen garden”

– what they don’t know how to do, they research and learn through trial and error. There’s always something to do on the farm, if it’s not building and planting, it’s feeding and harvesting. It’s truly relentless.

The next day after a generous breakfast Kate, Blake and I rolled up our sleeves to help on the farm. We dug up a potato patch, did some weeding, fed the horses and did some baking. In the afternoon Toni and I rode the farm bike down to one of the fields to collect some cow manure.

Back at home, once in a blue moon I go to yoga, like the rest of the 20-something-year-old females in our city. I go to one down the road where most of my friends go. It’s a franchise studio where you pay $20 to exercise in 35 degree room with 30cm between you and the next girl’s downward dog. There in the studio you’re taught about mindfulness. But in the field with Blake’s mum, a few hundred kilometres away from the studio, it dawns on me.

I think I understand what living with mindfulness actually means.

It’s about paying close attention to your actions and your processes today because they will affect your welfare and happiness in the future. “These manure paddies are gold nuggets,” Toni explained to me. They will fertilise the food they eat as well as the diesel producing trees that Toni has planted to fuel the farm bike.

Obviously we’ve all learned about the cycle of life but there on Blake’s parents’ field with a hunk of cow poo my hands (eew, yes, I had gloves on!) this idea is all too tangible.

Farm life is a closed loop where wastage is minimised and mindfulness is maximised.

Through Blake’s parent’s generosity with their hospitality and knowledge I can see that I

need to spend less time blow drying my hair and painting my nails, and more time on useful things like building a worm farm or a small kitchen garden. Toni has sent me home with a bag of herb seeds and kefir grains to start my journey. From now on I’m going to strive to be a hybrid girl - city on the outside and country on the inside.

Lily Serna is a mathematician, public speaker and television presenter.

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From dark and deeply disturbed roles to goofy, quirky and funny ones, US actress Charlene Amoia has the extradordinary ability to play them all.

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CHARLENE AMOIA BEST KNOWN FOR PLAYING WENDY THE WAITRESS ON THE HIT SITCOM, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, CHARLENE AMOIA COMMENCED HER CAREER IN MODELLING BEFORE LANDING A ROLE ON POPULAR US TV SOAP, PORT CHARLES. GUEST APPEARANCES IN JOEY, GIRLFRIENDS, NIP/TUCK AND 90210 FOLLOWED, ALONG WITH RECURRING ROLES IN THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS AND DAYS OF OUR LIVES. CHARLENE HAS ALSO APPEARED IN MANY FEATURE FILMS, INCLUDING SEVEN POUNDS WITH WILL SMITH, AMERICAN PIE REUNION, AND THE LONGER DAY OF HAPPINESS. IN LOS ANGELES, CHARLENE SPOKE ABOUT HER CAREER TO PRODIJEE EDITOR, DARREN HOUSE harlene Amoia’s career is an inspiration for anyone who dared to dream the impossible dream of becoming a Hollywood actress.

In a classic example of life imitating art, the stunningly beautiful actress’ life began like so many any portrayed in the movies – in Smalltown USA – in this case Buffalo, a town of some 260,000 people located in western New York state, on the Canadian border near Niagara Falls.

Life changed dramatically when, aged 15, Charlene moved from the serenity of Buffalo to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas. A chance opportunity led to a career in modelling, which in turn morphed into a stellar acting career in the movie capital of the world, Los Angeles.

But despite the bright lights of Sin City and the glitz and glamour of Tinsel-town, Charlene said Buffalo still holds her heart.

“Buffalo is definitely home and it still feels like home, even though I have been in LA for a long time now. There is something about East Coast people; there’s real warmth and genuineness to the people back home. I go back to Buffalo once a

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year and of course, whenever I bring anyone home to Buffalo I always show them Niagara Falls. The Canadian side is much better than the US side however, so we usually end up having a full day trip.”

Understandably, Charlene said the move to Vegas caused a significant culture shock.

“It was, especially at 15. I had my friends in Buffalo and leaving them in the middle of high school was not something I was stoked about at the time. The people in Vegas

are transients – it is a transient city and although there is a community outside of the strip, of course, it’s not the same. Moving to Vegas did however, expose me to a lot of things, including acting and I am really grateful for that.”

Rather than a deliberate move, Charlene got her chance at modelling purely by chance.

“A woman who worked for my dad was also modelling on the side.

She couldn’t commit to a job so she asked me to take her place. It was to model for Nine West Shoes.

I took the job and then continued to work with the same agency that booked me on that job. I did more modelling for Nine West for many years and got a lot of free shoes out of it. A girl getting free shoes, not a bad bonus to the job!”

Like many actresses, Charlene also spent time waiting tables before finding regular advertising work in Los Angeles.

“I started waiting tables when I was 17 and continued until I finished school. My first job was working at a truck stop - I can tell you for sure that, that experienced toughened me up. “(But) right from my very first audition I knew I wanted to look into acting more, so I finished school early and then packed up my stuff and drove out to Los Angeles without knowing anyone or what I was doing but slowly I started figuring it out. I did end up booking some commercials early on but because I hadn’t been exposed to acting and didn’t know Los Angeles very well it took a little while to figure out how to navigate exactly where I wanted to go.”

While many parents would go

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into cardiac arrest at the thought of such a move, Charlene said it wasn’t an issue.

“I’ve always had an independent streak so I don’t know that my parents gave much thought to it.

I think everyone thought it was something that I’d do for a few months or a year, though.”

Charlene said securing that early commercial work allowed her to find her feet in LA, though it was some time before she started booking TV and movies. Despite that, she remained optimistic that she would break into the entertainment industry.

“I have always been hard worker and have been pretty resilient to rejection, probably because I always felt like an outsider. So when people started telling me ‘no’ it didn’t really faze me very much. I knew I could do it, I knew it was going to take hard work and time, and that’s really it – it’s about putting in the time and the effort and not giving much attention to the ‘no’s’. I have a strong drive and I think that was the force that kept me going.”

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Though initially nervous at auditions, Charlene has become used to the process.

“I haven’t been nervous in an audition for a couple of years now. It took a long time, but it just happened naturally. You do it so many times, then after a while it becomes familiar. The amount of rejections we receive, it’s just part of being an actor. It’s a numbers game and so much of it is out of our

control. I have turned my auditions into basically having a performance that day, so I’m not looking for the validation of the job booking.

Although, sometimes you really do want a particular role and you can’t help but feeling disappointment if it doesn’t work out.”

While determined to do whatever it took to succeed, Charlene saw plenty of other hopefuls fall away and revert to nine-to-five jobs.

“It happens all the time and I think most actors think about it, too. There have been times where I hadn’t booked jobs – long stretches of time and I would think, ‘Oooo-kay, what am I doing?’ I’ve seen lots of people pack up their bags and leave or just decide that they wanted to start a family and work someplace that’s more conducive to having a family.

(But) there is a lot of work happening outside of LA right now. I have a girlfriend who moved to North Carolina and started her family and she’s able to continue acting as well.

Few people succeed in Hollywood on talent alone – a good agent is vital, although finding an effective one is easier than it may seem.

“I did not have good representation for many years and then I stumbled upon a manager who was very unusual but really saw potential in me,” explained Charlene. “I was fortunate; finding someone who really gets you is really important. It took several years though, it’s like dating – you go on a bunch of dates and sometimes you just know that this is not the one,” she laughed. “You never know when you are going to meet ‘the one’ so you just keep on going.

“I also picked up a lot of work on my own by networking and making sure my work was available for people to see. That gave me a sense of doing something proactive when the jobs weren’t coming in as easily.

I also did a lot of classes. The first thing I did was I started taking acting classes, and I still do. If I wasn’t

“I based my character on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ on a girlfriend of mine. She is very goofy and crazy and quirky and I would throw her mannerisms into Wendy.” working I would always be in some sort of acting class because I truly love it. To me, it’s not really work yet - it is still play.”

Charlene’s first TV job came when she landed a part on popular soap opera, Port Charles, though she

didn’t believe that role indicated she had made it in Hollywood.

“It was my first TV job but I was only in a few episodes so I don’t think I ever considered it my big break. But to get that first phone call telling me that I got the job was very exciting,” she remembered.

Since then she has appeared in many productions, and blessed with the ability to play many different characters and has avoided the dreaded type-casting curse.

“I am a person who, like a chameleon, can change appearances very easily. If I change my hair and make-up I can look very different and that has been a real benefit. I love doing both comedy and drama. I don’t feel limited to one or the other.”

A self-confessed people watcher, Charlene incorporates observations into the characters she plays.

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coming out this year, including a film about car racing titled Adrenaline.

With such a hectic work schedule, it’s no surprise to learn Charlene likes to unwind by practising yoga and meditation.

“I found meditation about 10 years ago. I went to a retreat and learned Vipassanna meditation, which is meditation on the breath and body sensations. I did a 10-day retreat, which was a really amazing experience. It was very difficult but wonderful.”

As for her beauty routine, Charlene prefers to focus on exercise and good food.

“I think it is all what you eat. You look and feel better when you are eating well, drinking a lot of water and exercising. Exercise increases circulation which increases blood flow to the face. For me it is all internal. I am not an advocate of any particular skin products or anything like that, it’s all just taking care of the body and when you do that, your skin radiates.

“I based my character on How I Met Your Mother on a girlfriend of mine. She is very goofy and crazy and quirky and I would throw her mannerisms into Wendy.”

The character of Wendy was supposed appear for just one episode but Charlene’s characterisation quickly found its way into audience hearts.

“I auditioned for a couple of the roles for the second episode and then they brought me back for the third episode,” she remembered.

“Although I was only supposed to shoot one (episode) the producers kept bringing my character back.

I think I realised that there was potential for the character to be more than a one off but it never said anything about it in the script.”

The show proved popular with viewers all over the world, something Charlene attributes to “really good story telling”.

“The writers are really great at what they do. And I think it was original in the way they used the flashbacks and time lapses. It was unique but it didn’t become a huge hit right off the bat.

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Though the show has concluded, Charlene said How I met Your Mother won’t be forgotten.

“It will always hold a special place in my heart. When I started, my career grew as the show grew. I was just fortunate to have been part of it.

The people I had the opportunity to work with are lovely. They were all nice and fun and easy, not all shows are like that.”

It comes as no surprise to learn that Charlene also enjoyed filming American Pie Reunion.

“It was a really fun time. It seemed to be a true reunion for a lot of the actors. The main cast had shot the original movies years and years ago and it seemed like they were all happy to be back together. I was really excited to be a part of it. It felt like a party.”

Despite the fun of those productions, Charlene said Vitals is, “probably my favourite so far”.

“My character was very complex and it was a great role for a woman,” she added. “A very strong woman, very multi-dimensional and I feel very lucky that I got to play her.”

Charlene has three more movies

www.imdb.com/name/nm1006439 Comedy Reel: https://vimeo.com/ 95638584 Drama Reel: http://vimeo.com/ 91001232

Charlene’s tips for success

1. Always find a way to do the work. Don’t focus on if anybody’s hiring or not. Get into a class continually so that way you can always be challenging yourself and growing.

2. Have something outside of acting, something that you are passionate about as well because there are going to be times in this business when you are not going to be working. For me, for a long time it was playing guitar and music. And surround yourself with a great group of friends – a support group.

3. Don’t worry about the “no’s”.

Just keep on keeping on and it will catch up to you.

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london calling The Oliviers is a stylish affair as only the Brits can do his past month I have attended some of the best parties and events; it seems that the UK really knows how to have fun!

The most exciting of these however was The Olivier Awards held at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden; due to my work in the theatre it was a natural and thrilling event to attend.

Walking down the red carpet is a calm experience here in London, unlike LA and New York where there are screams and mania; here in the UK it is respectful and consequently delightful. ‘Everyone’ was attending - Dame Judi Dench floated by, along with Martin Freeman (The Hobbit). All who were in attendance were impeccably dressed and extraordinarily stylish, from turquoise blue velvet jackets to gold shoes… and that was just the men! I opted for a classic tuxedo and black bow tie.

Before the ceremony began we all sipped champagne and talked about how good this last season of theatre had been. Sir Richard Eyre was congratulating his company from Ghosts on their numerous nominations. Tom Hiddleston talked with Hayley Atwell and Kristin Davis, and was darting about all over the place with much enthusiasm.

Before long it was time for ‘The Show’ to begin, I took to my seat and was surrounded by the most incredibly talented pool of theatre makers, performers and producers.

The atmosphere was electric!

The beautiful Gemma Arterton and the hysterical Stephen Mangan hosted the ceremony and thankfully they moved it along at a clip, unlike other award ceremonies that seem to drag along forever…

At intervals during the awards there were some incredible performances, from the cast of Les

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by Rik BARNETT

Mis and The Scarborough Boys, Matilda and Wicked, then at one point Bernadette Peters stepped on to the stage and regaled us with a song from Follies. I had seen her perform this exact piece a couple of years ago in New York when she was in this role. The UK audience

Judi Dench. ate it up! Possibly the most exciting performance for me was when ABBA came on to the stage and performed with the cast of Mama Mia in tribute of its fifteenth year birthday; it was a spectacular sight to see and dance along to…

“It was time for ‘The Show’ to begin, I took to my seat and was surrounded by the most incredibly talented pool of theatre makers, performers and producers. The atmosphere was electric!”

Rory Kinnear and Lesley Manville.

a truly epic way to finish the show!

At the party afterwards, where the wine and champagne flowed like there was no tomorrow, I spoke with one of the nominees for Best Supporting Actor, Mark Gatiss, an absolutely charming and humble fellow. He was nominated for his performance in Coriolanus. He told me how it was an honour to have been nominated. We then spoke of his previous work in television on such shows as Nighty Night, The League of Gentlemen, Fear of Fanny and upcoming in Game of Thrones. He was so down-to-earth and approachable, ‘normal’ is the word, and that makes it all the more delightful!

There was a spectacular band playing all the hits and the dance floor was filled. There was photo booth fun happening in one corner and cheers and celebrations in every other!

I left around 1am and had to take the entire next day off simply to rest… Only 364 days left until next year’s bash!

Rik Barnett is a UK & US-based English actor and writer.

Bernadette Peters.

Mark Gatiss.

Kristin Davis.

Myleene Klass and Michael Xavier.

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To be? That is the Question A YOUNG BOY IS TORN BETWEEN HIS UNEXPECTED LOVE OF ACTING AND THE DISINTEGRATION OF HIS FAMILY. round The Block is a film about breaking cycles and building dreams.

Set in a contemporary, tough, innercity precinct, this is a story of revenge and triumph, as a teenage boy is torn between his unexpected love of theatre and the disintegration of his family. With encouragement from his unconventional American drama teacher, he confronts his past and eventually takes control of his future.

With such a stellar cast including Australian acting legend Jack Thompson and Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee Christina Ricci, and compelling storyline, it’s easy to see why critics at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013 – where the movie premiered - labelled Around The Block “Aussie’s film triumph”, “magical” and “a powerful drama.”

The film also won great praise at the 2013 Canberra Film Festival, this year’s Beijing International Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival. It will also be screened at this month’s San Francisco Frameline Film Festival.

A

Mark Coles-Smith plays the role of Liam Wood’s brother, Steve Wood.

Directed by first-time feature film director Sarah Spillane, Around the Block also features a breakout performance from newcomer Hunter Page-Lochard and an outstanding Australian supporting cast, including Damien Walshe-Howling (Underbelly, Mystery Road), Daniel Henshall (Not Suitable for PHOTOS: ALINA GOZIN’A

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Children, Snowtown), Matt Nable (Underbelly, Bikie Wars) and media personality, Ruby Rose.

Hunter Page-Lochard said he was immediately drawn to the story, and while the indigenous actor was cast in an indigenous role, Hunter felt the story was universal.

“Being an indigenous actor, it is hard because these roles are quite stereotyped and even though this could seem like that, it’s not because the story could have been told by an Asian family or a Lebanese family or any type of family. And knowing that Christina Ricci was on board was exciting.

“I see a bit of my character, Liam, in me. My father is Steven Page (choreographer and artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre), so dancing was always a big part of our family lives, so I drew on that, and my uncle Russell, my father’s brother, passed away in 2002 so I kind of had a little bit of a feeling of how it would feel to lose your uncle and how it would be like to have a passion for one thing and someone wanting you to do something else.

“I dwelled as much as I could on previous experiences and that’s the only way I could have gone with this role along with a lot of help from Sarah as well. Sarah, in the rehearsal stages of the film, was fantastic in trying to find this character with me and I think I got to the point where I actually was Liam.”

Hunter welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with another up and coming star, director Sarah Spillane.

“I have a passion in creating films, we kind of got along in the creative sense; we hit it off as friends as well as colleagues. She has great vision, she is young and there is a lot I can relate to.

She is very comforting when you are on set with her. She knows how to work with kids and people in a teaching sense, she was quite a mentor.

Top: Christina Ricci (Dino Chalmers) with Hunter Page-Lochard (Liam Wood). Middle: Christina Ricci with Underbelly star, Damien WalsheHowling (Mr Graham). Above: Writer-director, Sarah Spillane.

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Hunter, who has also starred in The Sapphires, The Djarn Djarns and Bran Nue Dae, said he was immediately at ease with Christina Ricci, just as he had with other potentially intimidating international stars he has worked with.

“Christina Ricci, Kate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush, are big time people, but when you work with them they are as humble and as down to earth as you are.

It’s really comfortable, it’s really moving in a sense and it’s very motivating. They take away the intimidation away with their comfort ability and down to earth natures.

Hunter said he also greatly enjoyed working with Jack Thompson, who plays Mr O’Donnell.

“Jack is a great guy and he is such an advocate for the aboriginal people as well, he seems like an uncle in himself. He has so much knowledge behind him and so much experience that just sitting down and having a conversation with him is like sitting down with an encyclopaedia.

Jack was amazing, I have a lot of respect for that man.”

Around The Block will be released in Australia on DVD, Bluray and Digital platforms on July 16 but audiences will first have the opportunity to see the film on the big screen with a short window of theatrical screenings kicking off on June 16 at the Cremorne Orpheum.

Theatrical screenings of the film will begin on June 16 at Cremorne Orpheum followed by a screening at The Randwick Ritz on the June 23. Melbourne audiences can view Around The Block at Cinema Nova in Carlton on June 24. The film will screen in Canberra on June 25.

Following the local Australian release, US distributor Random Media will release the film in North America on a limited theatrical release, with VOD and DVD in August. www.facebook.com/aroundtheblock WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

The best networking opportunity in the industry • Exposure to more than 20 industry people in one day!

• Multiple models and photographers moving from station to station to a coordinated schedule • Multiple hair and make up looks per model • Designer garments, jewellery and props supplied • Training in posing and industry practice from a professional model • Photography workshop and mentoring by a known fashion photographer

Photo: Daniel Fisher

• Stunning shoot venues – a blend of studio and location, designer and natural • Whether you’re established and have a creative concept in mind or a student starting your portfolio from scratch, Model Success events provide custom portfolio creation from start to finish for models, photographers, hair/MUAs

Portfolio Building Events Register and find out more at www.modelsuccess.com.au

Photo: Adrian Carmody

Photo: Nishimachi Photo: Rey Susanto

food couture Warm memories of cooking up a storm with Nanna ooking for inspiration for this next instalment I didn’t have to look much further than Nan’s Place. Sitting in this quaint little cafe in the back streets of Zetland, Sydney, perusing the menu I was immediately taken back to my younger years growing up in my own grandmother’s place. The ambiance, together with the wholesome menu and friendly and honest service reminded me of the magic and the magnificence of grandmothers and their most prized possession. Their kitchen!

I couldn’t help be overwhelmed by the familiar treats that Nan’s Place shared on their menu. A classic favourite, such as the club sandwich, was filled with perfectly roasted chicken, crispy bacon, lashings of pickled zucchini and finished, with a generous helping of coriander aioli. The flavour combinations had this simple sandwich singing harmoniously and orchestrating one wild party in my mouth.

They then mixed it up with traditional treats that had a twist not even I could fathom until I had tried myself. Deep fried scones with house raspberry jam and warmed mascarpone cheese. As if the classic scone is not enough to blow the taste buds to Timbuktu but DEEP FRIED? I couldn’t contain my excitement and my mind was in a melting mess to say the least, it was definitely the most prized possession on this honest yet creative menu.

The menu generated fond memories of baking Anzac biscuits in my own grandmother’s kitchen and secretly devouring the pikelet mix whilst her back was turned. I remember thinking she had some sort of magic power, as she was able to navigate me around her kitchen to locate pans, utensils, tins and random ingredients without even being in the room. The aromas that

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by Sarah FRENCH

filled the kitchen and the love that went into every baked morsel of tasty goodness will be etched in my mind forever, and were instantly bought back to life during my recent visit to Nan’s Place.

My Nan’s standout dish, and one she would become quite famous for, would have to be her Porcupines, consisting of a few humble meatballs rolled in rice and ever so slowly cooked in that rich tomato sauce all grandmothers are known and loved for. It will forever be a favourite and one of my fondest memories. It is a

childhood memory and experience that I have cherished and attempted to replicate many times.

I’m almost positive the experience of grandmothers and nannas all over the world are synonymous with mine.

Grandmothers are angels sent to us as gifts from God. There is nothing a grandmother can’t cook, fix or make better, and every time you think

“The flavour combinations had this simple sandwich singing harmoniously and orchestrating one wild party in my mouth”

Sarah with grandmother, Doreen French.

of yours a smile is instantaneously stretched over every inch of your face. It is as if they were born in the kitchen with a magic wand, grandmothers are the kings AND queens of the cooking domain and make no mistake, every grandmother you meet, whether it be your nan or nanna or someone else’s nonna, tatta or babooshka, she always has that magic cooking touch and a special warm and loving heart that is unique and experienced in very part of her being.

Their recipes are often replicated but never duplicated and I can only put it down to the special love that is created and continuously generated by grandmothers, and only grandmothers.

So next time you are at your nan’s place take to time to appreciate just how special she is and savour every tasty. Until next time, stay humble, stay wholesome and say hi to nanna for me!

Sarah French is a Sydney-based International chef. www.sarahfrench.com.au

Nanna’s Scones

½ tsp salt 30 g butter ¾ cup milk Approximately ½ cup water. * Combine flour, sugar and salt.

Rub in butter until mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. * Mix in water until it becomes a dough. Pat out on floured board to approximately 3cm high * Cut out with scone cutter and place onto a lightly floured tray * Brush scones with a little milk and bake in hot oven

SCONES WITH LEMONADE

FRUIT SCONES

3 cups SR Flour Pinch of salt 1 cup cream 1 cup lemonade

2 cups SR flour 1 tsp allspice 30g butter, chopped ½ cup chopped dates ½ cup of mixed dried fruit ¼ cup sugar 2/3 cup milk 1 egg

* Mix all ingredients together, pat mixture out on a floured board to about 3cm high * Cut out with scone cutter and place onto a lightly floured tray.

Brush tops of scones with a little milk * Bake in a hot oven for approximately 20 minutes NO FUSS SCONES 2 ½ cups of SR Flour 1 tbs castor sugar

* METHOD – Same as no fuss scones ORANGE SCONES 2 cups SR flour 30g butter, chopped 2 tbs sugar 1/3 cup light sour cream 1/3 cup milk 1/3 cup orange juice * Finely grated zest of one orange to put with cream for serving – or add some zest to scone dough. * Combine flour and sugar and rub butter in until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs * Mix in light sour cream, milk and orange juice and zest (if using) Form the mixture into a dough – DO NOT OVERMIX * Pat out on floured board to approx. 3cm high, cut out with scone cutter and place onto a lightly floured tray * Brush scones with a little milk and bake in hot oven for 12-15 minutes.

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JOHNNY DI FRANCESCO THREW IN A UNI DEGREE TO PURSUE HIS LOVE OF PIZZA. A DECADE ON, HE HAS JUST WON FIRST PLACE AT THE WORLD PIZZA CHAMPIONSHIPS IN ITALY. WORDS: CAROL SHERIDAN t was with pride that the young, aspiring restaurateur stood outside, looking at the premises he had just purchased to open his first pizzeria. An elderly woman, standing nearby asked the young man what he was looking at. Enthusiastically, that man - Johnny di Francesco - replied, he was looking at where his very own pizza restaurant would soon be. She smiled and told him “don’t expect to make any money for ten years.”

Johnny smiled to himself, thinking ‘what would that old woman know?’, but more than 10 years later, Johnny, who never did see the woman again, realised that she knew exactly what she was talking about.

As the woman predicted, he didn’t make any money for the first ten years of his business and often wondered how he would put food on the table for his wife and children.

But Johnny didn’t enter the business for money – he was driven by the true meaning of hospitality. He wanted to create the perfect pizza for his customers.

Fast forward those ten years and Johnny is now the proud owner of a beautiful new eatery in Lygon Street, Brunswick – 400 Gradi – and has been crowned pizza chef of the year after winning the number one spot at the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza (Pizza World Championship) in Parma, Italy.

When you walk in the door of 400 Gradi, you can feel a vibe, an electricity, and from what I could see (at the strange time of day that I was there), this feeling is part of the establishment, part of the soul of this Lygon Street restaurant.

I went to there to talk to Jonny about his award winning pizza, but straight away, I knew there was more to this story than just a prized pizza.

Born in Australia, Johnny made his first pizza when he was 12

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“I grabbed my books, put them in my bag, got in my car and left the university. I never went back” years old, starting part-time work in a pizza shop only because he wanted a pair of really good runners that his family couldn’t afford to buy.

“I think I worked a month and a half (for the runners), and then I just fell into enjoying it,” said Johnny.

“When I finished school, I got into electronics engineering. I remember sitting in one of my lectures and all I could think of was getting to the pizzeria by four o’clock and the preparation that I needed to do to open at five. Less than a month into this course, I never forget, I was sitting in one of the classes, I had my bag next to me and the teacher was talking about transistors and whatnot. My mind was ticking away and I remember I got up and said ‘Excuse me’, the teacher said ‘Yes’, and I replied ‘Can I go to the bathroom please?’ He said, ‘Yes, no problems’. I grabbed my books, put them in my bag, got in my car and left the university. I never went back.”

Johnny was 19 when he walked away from electronics engineering, and despite his mum telling him that he was ‘crazy’, he has never had any regrets. But he admits that it has not been an easy road.

“I am not ashamed to say that I have made thousands of mistakes throughout my business career.

There have probably been more downs than ups. I have always had a lot of drive and passion and I have always believed in what I was doing.”

At 400 Gradi, they make Neapolitana – the style of pizza made in Naples. It is very different to what most WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

Australians have experienced in pizzeria over the years and you can see the difference from the product that many other places call ‘pizza’.

“My dad comes from Campagna, a region in Naples. I have always been interested and wondered why Napoli is so special. I decided to go over and

research and find out why. I ended up finding a school there that taught this style of pizza, it’s a nonprofit organisation. I joined the association and we became one of many pizzerias in the world to be accredited by them.”

But knowing how to cook this pizza and getting the Australian public to understand the product were two very different things.

“When we first opened here, it was really difficult. Eight or nine months into it people weren’t walking in here, they didn’t understand the product. The people who were eating were saying that it (the pizza) was soft, it’s a bit soggy.

The word ‘soggy’ drives me crazy because it’s not that it’s soggy, it’s soft, it’s pliable, it’s foldable,” he said.

Johnny knew he needed to educate the public about the product he was making; he wanted them to understand about the food, the style and freshness of it, so he began running master classes each month.

“The classes have become popular and I have even trained a lot of pizza makers. I have trained the majority of the people who are home cooks and who are really passionate about learning new things. I noticed that after doing the classes, people started to understand. They were sending me emails and coming back and saying, ‘Wow, I went to a pizzeria near my house and I can actually see the difference. I understand why this product is so special’.”

But is Johnny scared of people stealing his secrets? Ask him that question and you will get an answer fired back very quickly. “They are not my secrets, I didn’t invent them.

They have been around since 1700. If I don’t continue to educate then this tradition is going to die and people will forget this style, or any other pizza style. I am here to preserve and keep the tradition alive. I am the first person in Melbourne to produce this style of pizza and now people are following.

To me, that’s a compliment.

Giving back to the industry, it is so

important to me.”

Earlier this year, Johnny competed against 600 other pizza makers from 35 countries in Parma, Italy at the pizza championships.

“This is the second year that I have competed. Last year I placed eighth in the world and this year, I went in and thought if I got into the top five, I would be happy, because I was progressing. When I went up to produce my pizza, it was more, ‘Ok, I am just going to pretend that I am serving a customer now’. I got nervous, I really did. I have got a judging panel of 20, there are five tables of four judges and you don’t know where they are going to present your pizza. There are

judges at the oven, one to record cooking time, one looking at how clean you are and your preparation, and another one looking at your manipulation, how you actually produce your pizza. You have all these eyes looking at you and it is like ‘wow’. So, I just blocked them all out and I honestly just thought that I was making a pizza for my customers.”

“A lot of other competitors use machinery to produce their dough.

I did it the old style, by hand. Also, I didn’t use any refrigeration with my dough, I left it out the whole day and it rose very naturally. And I used the best ingredients I could find too, it’s not too hard to find really good WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

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ingredients in Italy. You can go to the general supermarket and find really high quality ingredients. It is harder in Australia to source the products than it is in Italy.”

There were many categories of competition at the pizza championships, but it was the STG category that Johnny won. It is said to be the most technically difficult category as there are very strict rules and regulations that must be adhered to.

“You can only produce two pizzas. One is marinara, which is tomato, oregano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil and the other one is margarita, which is tomato, buffalo mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil and basil. There are also other specific rules. There is a certain way that you stretch the pizza. There is also a time limit on how long you cook it – no longer than 90 seconds. Then there are all the technical aspects.

They look at your oven preparation because it is wood burning - there is so much behind it and there is no leniency at all, you do one thing wrong – disqualification!” explained Johnny.

Taking the win for Australia, Johnny said, was a shock. “I went in there, not too confidently because you never know what happens on the day. It depends on a lot of things, ambient temperature and how you are feeling as well. You don’t go in too cocky, you just go in with a clear mind and concentrate on the job.”

Now, home and back to work at 400 Gradi, Johnny’s dream of sharing his passion with the public is coming to fruition and the business is expanding with a wine bar and cicchetti set to open next door in August. The two premises will be linked but will be kept a little different, serving a different style of food, but sharing the same kitchen, which is also set for expansion.

Johnny is still working out the fine details, but it is a project that he is very excited about. We are still contemplating (how it will run), but we may do coffee and cornetti, real Italian. We may do the early

morning coffee thing, but not breakfast, there are so many places around here that already do that” he said. “We are going to have some really good high end wines, also some entry level wines. We are going to do 75ml tasting of really high end wines. For someone who wants to try a really high end wine but they don’t want to pay for the bottle. They can have a little splash and have the experience of drinking a $300 or $400 bottle of wine.”

And as if he isn’t already busy enough, Johnny’s dedication to making world-class pizza has also seen him appointed Australasian principal of VPN - an international association based in Naples that is dedicated to protecting and promoting authentic Neapolitan pizza. He is also in discussions

to open a new venture in Crown Melbourne.

Johnny shares his passion of good fresh food by creating magnificent and award winning pizza, but I pushed it a bit further and asked him if he could give us three tips for someone who is interested in following in his footsteps.

1. Just being a good pizza maker cannot help you run a good business, it is beyond that. When I first started in business I thought that I could make a good pizza so I was going to be successful. I learnt the hard way. I had to learn people management, time management, and money management - there were so many different things. I would tell people to do a short course or some type of business

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course just to have that general understanding. The rest you are going to learn on the job.

2. Follow your passion, your heart. If you want to get into business but only to make money then just go and work for somebody else. Money was never my main objective when I got into business, I never thought about the money.

3. Thirdly, whether it is pizza or anything else, always source the best products. My customers, coming to my restaurant, it is like they are coming to my house. If I cook something at home for my family, it’s going to be the best. I do the same with my customers.

If I am going to cook for my customers, it’s got to be the best or there is no point in me doing it.

Oh, and the taste of that award winning pizza? Simply divine!

I can see why, in those early days, the Australian public needed some education into this style of pizza, it is very different to what we were used to. It is not ‘cardboard’, you can’t get it in deep pan style, it is definitely WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

is soft, pliable and foldable. In fact, that is exactly how you are supposed to eat it. Pick it up, fold it in half and then in half again and bite… The simple flavour of three ingredients – tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil… All those flavours just burst in your mouth;

you can taste the freshness of each and every one of them. The tang of that tomato… the velvety smoothness of the cheese… the freshness of the basil…

MORE PLEASE! www.400gradi.com.au

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reality bites

Teaching a ten-year old the fine art of delayed gratification here are several of studies across a couple of generations which conclude that delayed gratification is the best indicator of academic success.

The subjects were children and the methodology of the studies was basically thus; if you can wait, you can get two treats; if not, you will only get one. The children who could hold out got two – and better grades in school. But most kids, like their adult counterparts, took the single prize sooner rather than wait for more later.

The joy of the present, indulging in the moment, we’ll make amends later on. Isn’t that the basic raison de 2008 financial crisis, and several tech and other bubbles before it?

But I digress, as a second glass of wine often inspires me to do.

(Throat clearing), Now, back to our regularly scheduled column.

Delayed gratification – odd to think about it on a Saturday night, isn’t it - especially when there is a lovely Viognier in my glass. Well, delayed gratification comes to mind not because of the waist line I hope to preserve, as I cork the bottle containing this tasty grape; it comes to mind because of where I was before settling in with my beloved lap top and glass of wine.

Maybe the kids in all of these studies (and in my family’s life) could not delay their desires because their parents don’t give them the opportunity to do so.

Maybe we try too hard to please, and in so doing, deny our children the gift of learning to delay their objects and experiences of desire.

I’ve just returned from battling traffic in a trendy part of my town, where I found myself on a Saturday night, not for my own social life, but to pick up my daughter from the

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by Amy SOMMER

tenth birthday celebration of one of her friends. The restaurant where my daughter dined with her 10-year-old friends is pricey, beautiful and funky, a unique combination that attests to its longevity as an ‘in’ spot.

This restaurant is also one of two dining spots where I gather my closest girlfriends each June for a ‘surprise’ birthday luncheon in my own honor. I’m in my forties (I

“Are parents with even a small bit of privilege breeding a generation who equate extravagant celebrations with the mundane?

In trying to make happy memories are we creating spoiled assholes?”

will leave it at that, as I will soon leave this decade) and yet there I was, mere hours ago, picking up a 10-year-old from a birthday celebration for another 10-year-old at the same restaurant. I’m 30-plus years older than tonight’s revelers – why are we celebrating in similar style?

Delay gratification? Why, when there is no need to delay the celebration. So, why not gratify yourself here and now – why wait until your Bat Mitzvah, Quincenterra, Sweet Sixteen or forty something birthday when you can dine on $40 filet mignon at 10?

Are parents with even a small bit of privilege breeding a generation who equate extravagant celebrations with the mundane? In trying to make happy memories are we creating spoiled assholes?

What bar must I reach in order to assure that my daughter enjoys a celebration of her existence if I refuse to take her and her dozen female classmates to a trendy restaurant… after an afternoon of tween spa treatments followed by a movie and sleepover? Did I do enough simply by refusing to allow my 10-year-old to stay up too late watching a movie? Was ensnaring myself in tonight’s traffic enough for this mother to sacrifice? (I’m more of a ‘Sleep Nazi’ than the other girls’ mothers and thus am usually the sleepover-party-pooper.

A tired tween is a level of hell about which Dante would’ve surely written had he known of my daughter.) Or do I have to do more to provide a birthday celebration that my daughter can look forward to and her friends won’t look down upon?

And while I haven’t done the same – at least not at a perpetually trendy restaurant – am I as guilty as the next mother because of the effort I put into my children’s birthday celebrations? Am I teaching my children to delay gratification only until their next extravagant celebration – to which

I will devote time, treasure and far too much of my not inconsequential intellect to plan? Am I serving up a single treat each birthday rather than telling them that the future holds a double barrel party?

I want each of my children to feel special as we celebrate the fact that they were born but how much is enough so that we have happy memories, fond family photos but not so much that my kids become jaded and expect so much so soon?

The more I type, the more I panic.

Must I really cork the lovely bottle of wine?

Yes, yes I must. Cork the panic, the wine and the birthday planning

because if I can’t keep a lid on the extravagance of their celebrations, my children will not be able to delay their gratification or anything else in their young lives – and it will be my fault.

Amy Sommer is a Los Angeles-based writer. www.PissantProd.com WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

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STONEFIELD IS AN AUSTRALIAN ROCK BAND MADE UP OF THE FOUR FINDLAY SISTERS FROM A SMALL TOWN IN RURAL VICTORIA. DARREN HOUSE & CAROL SHERIDAN SAT DOWN WITH THE MUSICIANS, SINGERS AND SONGWRITERS TO TALK ABOUT THEIR MUSIC AND THE REACTION TO THEIR DEBUT, SELFTITLED ALBUM. PHOTOS: MATTHEW WREN & MUSHROOM MUSIC. HAIR: HIROKO OKADA IT’S TAKEN A LONG TIME TO GET TO AN ALBUM. AMY: Between 2006 and 2010 we were just doing the pub circuit, playing at open mic’s trying to get every bit of experience that we could. From being unearthed, a lot happened and we were using that experience to get better at our live show and get our head around the whole thing – touring and what that’s all about, and labels and management. There was a lot to learn because we didn’t have any of that when we were unearthed. I think it’s been about learning and waiting until we were ready, which we did, and I think that was definitely a good move.

OTHER THAN THE ALBUM, THINGS HAVE MOVED QUICKLY FOR YOU. We were thrown so many amazing opportunities from the getgo - it was only on our first or second time playing interstate that we got asked to play at Glastonbury - everything from that point happened very quickly, although we have been playing together as a band since 2006.

DO YOU LIKE PLAYING THE BIG FESTIVALS? AMY: Yes, they are definitely different to playing club shows. They are a very different atmosphere, especially being outdoors and having a massive stage to move around on. Even getting used to the sound on a big festival stage is so different because you are all so far apart. It’s different to when you are playing in a club on a little stage, you are very tight and everything is just so loud. That aspect of it is quite different. Also the audience - not everyone in the audience might necessarily know who we are because at a festival you just wander up to different stages. It’s exciting having that thing of winning people over.

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prize for) winning Triple J Unearthed was to have British India come and play at our school. We saw them play, they had so much energy on the stage and they were moving around and we were like, ‘Oohh, so that’s how it’s done, that’s what we should be doing!’

After that we started moving around and now it comes naturally.

The shyness definitely isn’t there on stage anymore; it’s more when we are talking to people. When I am talking on stage in between songs, I get nervous and stumble over my words quite often, which is embarrassing.

YOU ARE ALL QUITE SHY. HOW DO YOU COPE WITH THAT ON THE MAJOR FESTIVAL STAGES? AMY: We used to be a lot shyer about moving around on stage and WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

that kind of thing but now it comes naturally. I remember when we first started playing, before we won Triple J Unearthed, we just sort of stood there and played. Part of (the

HANNAH: I think it’s easier playing to larger audiences, depending on the situation. A boy won a competition that we were involved in, so we went to his house to play a show for him and like 20 friends, it was really nerve wracking. With a small and intimate crowd, all the attention is on you. I much prefer bigger audiences.

AMY: I would say it’s easier to play in front of bigger audiences but easier to speak in front of smaller.

HOW HAS YOUR MUSIC HAS CHANGED FROM 2006 TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW? AMY: I think we have learnt how to do it a lot quicker. We used to just take our time and do it just whenever, but now it’s more of a practise thing and we realise that it’s like working a muscle, your brain is a muscle and it’s a creative process that you need to keep using to get better and stronger.

HANNAH: We have all also become a lot more confident within ourselves over the years and all the different experiences.

WHAT HAS THE REACTION TO THE ALBUM BEEN LIKE? AMY: It’s been pretty positive. It’s not done quite as well as we may have hoped, but it’s definitely done well for a first album. We are looking at it as a stepping stone and a really big learning experience. We are definitely ready and raring to go for the next one; we are feeling more prepared and everything like that.

SARAH: It’s been interesting, with our tour, because we started the tours quite soon after it was released. It was really interesting seeing how the crowd got a bit bigger and that people were singing along with the words, they knew the album more. It’s been really good.

WHAT WERE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING THE ALBUM’S RELEASE? AMY: We expected to be playing bigger shows by now. It was a natural progression to go from playing the shows that we have, but it’s all part of doing what you do and things can happen differently and slower sometimes.

Hopefully with the next album it will be even better.

HOLLY: We always dream and aim for a really high standard, I guess that’s what everyone does, you hope for the best. You can always do better, but for a first album, it’s pretty good.

YOU ARE ALL YOUNG, HOW DO YOU HANDLE CRITICISM OF YOUR WORK? AMY: Everyone has their opinion.

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HOLLY: I think reviews are stupid because it is only one person’s opinion.

SARAH: I try not to read anything anymore, but of course, when you do read something about your personal work that you have put in so much work on, obviously you aren’t going to disregard it completely but I think it’s important to not take it to heart and to have a thick skin. It’s one person’s opinion and really, it doesn’t matter.

At the start, we would read every single thing because we thought everyone cared about us and everyone wanted to write about us but sometimes you would read a hurtful thing and think ‘ouch’. But even with nice things, you try not to think about it too much either, because again, that’s just one person’s opinion. It’s what matters to you - if you are doing good and are satisfied with what you are doing.

HOLLY: We played at Meredith, which is classified as one of those cool festivals where people want to like something different to what other people like. They said that our set was too polished and too tight, that kind of thing… I’m sorry for us wanting to be good!

SARAH: Once again, it goes back to opinions, we are enjoying what we are doing, we love it, and we are not going to stop or change anything for people who don’t like it.

AMY: In 2010, when we played at Glastonbury and stuff someone read an open letter to us and put it on the internet and I don’t know if it was really good or bad, it was kind of both, but I think it’s just this big kind of conversation starter and that’s what it’s about. Getting people revved up and talking – “all those guys in the front row were just checking you out, not enjoying your music” – and all that kind of shit.

It doesn’t matter if you are girls or boys, rock and roll does have sex appeal to it, no matter what.

It’s about doing it tastefully and not being skanks about it, which, I don’t think we are at all.

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HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE ALBUM? AMY: In a lot of different types of ways because we were trying to utilise our time the best we could.

Our favourite way of writing would probably be just jamming all together from just one idea that starts it off,

like a riff. And then just jamming and trying out different things.

SARAH: Also, we wanted to take a bit of a different approach as far as the groove and I guess the kind of style we were doing. We still wanted it to be rock, but our last two EPs

were very straight rock and we wanted to experiment a bit more by adding a bit of a groove and different styles of rock.

THE ALBUM HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS HAVING A BIT MORE OF A MODERN TAKE ON OLD SCHOOL MUSIC. AMY: We are aware of people saying that rock bands just do the same thing that has been done for years, which is kind of hard not to do when you are playing with guitars, bass and drum, and keeping it raw because it’s been done for so many years. But we are just doing our thing and taking our influences from all different places and not worrying too much if we sound old or new.

From the get-go we have been influenced by other musicians - Led Zeppelin’s first album was pretty much all covers (so) everyone is always influenced by something.

A MAJOR LABEL NEEDS COMMERCIAL SUCCESS, BUT FOR YOU PERSOANLLY, DOES THAT MATTER AS LONG AS YOU KNOW YOU HAVE MADE A GOOD ALBUM? HOLLY: I think it’s about being happy and proud of yourself that is more important, it’s something that is more beneficial.

SARAH: We are lucky as well, with the people around us. Mushroom and our management are really WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

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supportive of us growing naturally and not pushing anything on us, and just letting it take its natural course. We are very lucky in that way.

YOU THOUGHT YOUR EPs WERE MORE OF A COMMODITY, WHEREAS THIS ALBUM IS MORE OF A CHANCE TO BE CREATIVE. AMY: Yeah, I think that’s more having the length of an album. EPs are so short; you only have four or five songs to make a statement and create a journey, but it doesn’t feel long enough to do that. With an album you can delve into different genres - all different sounds and tempos.

HANNAH: And you can write about different things, it’s more space and time to do more and to show that you can do more.

DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF SAY IN WHO YOU WORK WITH OR DOES YOUR MANAGEMENT DECIDE THAT? AMY: We always get the last say but they help us to make decisions because they are more knowledgeable in some areas than we are, but the bottom line comes down to us. From the start we have followed our gut instinct and we know that’s the most important thing and that’s worked well for us a lot.

WHAT DID YOUR PRODUCER, IAN DAVENPORT, BRING TO THE ALBUM? AMY: He was really good, he’s a great person and we got along with him really well, which is so important when you are spending so much time with someone. Ian completely understood what we wanted to do and he had a similar idea of the recording approach and that kind of thing. On top of that, he had a lot of great ideas to add.

He was really cool to work with.

Normally when we are recording, we would prefer to go out touring and stuff, but for the album, it was so much fun. When we finished it, I just wanted to be back in the studio doing it all over again.

HANNAH: He was just super laid back and on the same page with WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

ideas and being open with things, and we managed to capture that moment in time. With Ian, we recorded as much of it live as we possibly could, which we really wanted to do and that’s what our band is about. That felt so much more natural to us than past experiences, where we have recorded everything separately - that was another huge difference. We wanted our album to be raw, to be about the energy and capturing the moment, and it ended up perfectly.

That’s what rock music is about, not being perfect and expressing your emotions. There is more feeling.

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR TOURS OF THE USA AND UK? AMY: We have had a very small taste of both. We did a very small showcase in LA, which is only one small part

of a very huge country, and a couple of showcases in London and just from doing that our instinct is telling us that the UK is more appropriate for us. We want to get everywhere that we can, but we are choosing to focus on the UK first.

People didn’t ‘get’ us as quickly in the USA. A lot of the people we spoke to over there didn’t understand the type of rock and the type of band that we are.

Stonefield is out now through Illusive. www.stonefield.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

just sayin’ Evolving fashion causes more than a few raised eyebrows ecently I was sent an email from a company promoting eyebrow shaping. There were pictures of beautiful eyebrows and not so beautiful eyebrows. Some of the pictures had massive ticks over them and some had massive crosses over them.

Apparently, if you don’t follow the pictures that had the massive ticks over them, then you are committing a beauty faux pas and are completely wrong!

It got me thinking about how eyebrow fashion has changed over the years and what the true function of an eyebrow is.

Our eyebrows have an important function in communication, they strengthen our expression. It is thought by some communities that the fuller the eyebrow, the more evolved and sensitive the person’s reproductive organs are. It is also believed that they are on our face to prevent moisture from sweat or rain flowing into our eyes and also to prevent small particles, such as dandruff, from falling into our eyes.

If we look back throughout time, we find that many stars were known for their eyebrow shape.

Joan Crawford, who was voted in the top 10 greatest female stars in the history of American cinema by the American Film Institute, had many different looks for her eyebrows.

In the 1920s her brows weren’t very shaped at all, they were manipulated into downward-sloping arches that almost made her look sad. By the ‘30s she had her brows lengthened on both the inner and outer corners with quite a dramatic arch. In the ‘40s her eyebrows were huge, they were so big they made her large eyes appear quite small, making her full and unruly eyebrows the main focus of her face. And in

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by Carol SHERIDAN

the ‘50s, the harsh look continued, completely taking away her natural beauty, it has even been said that she looked demented!

Clara Bow, also known as the ‘It’ girl, was the personification of the flaming Roaring Twenties. Clara won a beauty contest that shot her

to fame as an uninhibited flapper in silent movies. She was known worldwide for her very thin and straight eyebrows, which became a real fashion statement at the time.

Marlene Dietrich was also known for her thin eyebrows, but they were more rounded than stars of the past. In copying her, women often applied petroleum jelly, brilliantine or olive oil to give their brows a shiny finish.

So, as you will see, the do’s and don’ts that we are told we must adhere to, are again another fashion statement of our time.

Look at Brooke Shields and Cara Delevigne who have opted for the heavier looking eyebrows. Both

“Eyebrows are a defining feature of our face. We pluck them, tweeze them, tattoo, dye and pencil them, we thread and wax them, but just because a particular look is in fashion does not mean it remain so”

have graced the cover of many magazines; both have gone against trend with their eyebrow fashion and both have been greatly admired and copied in their appearance.

Eyebrows are definitely a defining feature of our face. We pluck them, we tweeze them, we tattoo, dye and pencil them, we thread and

wax them, but just because one particular look is in fashion right now does not mean that is what will be in fashion tomorrow.

Find your own look, be distinctive and creative, and have your eyebrows looking the way you want, the way that makes you feel comfortable.

And, if all else fails, you could opt for the Star Trek look of Mr Spock!

Carol Sheridan is prodijee’s Fashion & Lifetyle Editor, and Co-Publisher. carol@prodijee.com

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sharp shooter

Shifting your photography into top gear ear is important to photographers, with no gear, you can’t make photos. But what’s the right gear for you? I get asked that all the time, and there’s a rather simple answer really.

Spend the minimum you need to get the results you want.

If you want to make photos for Facebook, your phone will do the trick. If you want to make a few prints about A4 in size, then some phones will do this too... or you can look at the ‘ageing gracefully’ market segment, which is the point and shoot camera. Make no mistake, with the way camera technology in phones is heading, the point and shoot camera will be a thing of the past shortly.

The next step up is a high-end point and shoot, like a 4/3 camera or SLR - one of those cameras with the lenses you can swap over. These are two camera areas seeing a bit of growth, and mostly for one reason - control. Nicole Kidman says in Days of Thunder that control is an illusion. And she’s kinda right... control helps you create an illusion.

Do you want your night time photo to look like daytime? Well, you need to control your shutter speed so that it’s measured in minutes, or even hours, rather than fractions of a second. This can’t be done with the point and shoots/ mobiles – but can with the more expensive cameras.

But do you really need to spend a lot of money? No. For most people, a trawl through eBay to find a five-year-old camera body and a few lenses shouldn’t dent the wallet more than $1,000. No, seriously.

Looking at the buy it now prices, a Canon 30D is $230, a 50mm 1.8 lens is $110 (brand new),

G

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by Matt WREN

and a 17-85mm is $179. A cable release is $10. So that’s about $500 for the camera bits.

A Manfrotto tripod will set you back $150 and will be pretty stable for you. A flash can be had for $75. Memory cards are $30 or so, a spare battery for $20, a bag to carry it all round in for $100 (get a

“What to do with the change... oh yeah – invest in your brain. Attend a photography workshop, there are plenty available where you just walk around your local city – search for photo walks.”

comfy one) and you’ve actually got change from that $1,000.

What to do with the change... oh yeah – invest in your brain.

Attend a photography workshop, there are plenty available where you just walk around your local city – search for photo walks. And yes, with the gear listed above, it’s entirely possible to shoot award winning poster prints – indeed, many photographers have gone and done just that.

So don’t get caught up in the latest and greatest camera bodies (which depreciate) and lenses (which depreciate – just not as much as bodies) but hunt around and find gear that is adequate to your needs to begin with.

If it turns out you decide that you’ve found your one true calling in life, and must be a photographer – then you’ll already have amassed the knowledge to go out and get the gear which will best suit your genre of photography. That may be a topof-the-line pro body for weather sealing or lightning fast focus, or perhaps a mid-range prosumer camera, which does video as well.

These are all decisions you can make at a time that’s right for you.

By all means, envy the pro photographers with huge bodies and enough glass to sink a battleship – but realise that they have this gear because they need it, it earns them money (or it should!), and it needs to be reliable and work every day. These requirements will be very different to your own.

Matthew Wren is a Melbourne-based photographer. www.mattwrenphotography.com.au WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

FAST

TALKER Whether in front of a television camera or behind the wheel of a tarmac rally car, automotive journalist Samantha Stevens has ‘star’ written all over her.

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Samantha Stevens

CARS ARE SAMANTHA STEVENS’ LIFE. ONE OF THE FEW FEMALE MOTORING JOURNALISTS IN AUSTRALIA, SAMANTHA HAS WORKED AND FOUGHT HARD TO EARN THE RESPECT OF HER PEERS IN BOTH JOURNALISM AND ON THE TRACK. SHE WON A NATIONAL TITLE, THE 2010 AUSTRALIAN TARMAC CHAMPIONSHIP IN HER FIRST FULL YEAR OF RALLY COMPETITION AND BACKED IT UP WITH A SECOND TITLE IN 2012. THAT SAME YEAR, SAMANTHA BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO WIN A RALLY OUTRIGHT AT A NATIONAL LEVEL (2012). SHE SPOKE ABOUT HER CAREER TO PRODIJEE EDITOR, DARREN HOUSE. SANDOWN RACEWAY PHOTOGRAPHY: MATTHEW WREN HAIR/MAKE-UP: BREE BARNETT YOU HAVE WORKED IN VARIED ROLES - JOURNALIST, FILM, AUDIO, WEB, AND RALLY DRIVER I am still evolving. I started out in the film industry doing all the writing, and fixing other people’s copy. I was trying to not be my mother, but I think all girls - despite their struggles - turn into their mother and my mother is a journalist. I would love to say that my profession is rallying, but it’s not, it’s my passion. I figured I couldn’t afford the cars I wanted to drive so I would drive other people’s and that’s what led me to automotive journalism when I was about 25.

WAS IT DIFFICULT TO BREAK INTO AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALISM? It wasn’t, surprisingly. A lot of people say I am so lucky to do this and yes, there is an element of that but you need to be in the right place at the right time. I went into the (Daily Telegraph) and said I wanted a job. They said no, and I said I would work for nothing.

I started as a ‘runner’ and within four months I was working on Cars Guide because nobody wanted to do the Me and My Car stories – all of the cadets thought it was a bit NAF. I found the most outrageous, awesome cars and made it a real WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

character story. Then I was tossed my first car review and within a year I was working on Wheels magazine’s Car of the Year award. It helped that I could steer.

YOU WERE INTO CARS FROM AN EARLY AGE? Yes, though none of my family are.

Mum hates me doing it. But we would go away to farms where there are horses, tractors and motor bikes

and when I was a teenager we found a car dumped in the bush. We put a screwdriver in the ignition, turned it over and it started. We started driving before we realised the car had no brakes, which was fun. Bushbashing around in a rear-wheeldrive old bomb was so much fun.

HOW DID YOU PROGRESS INTO RALLYING? I just loved going fast. I have always

been a tom boy and blokes – boys particularly, when they hit 14, 15, 16 - love cars. I wasn’t really into boys like my girlfriends were; they started getting silly around them. I thought it was a bit weird, so I would be tinkering in the garage with the boys who were just my mates, usually just a bit older than me. We started doing little motorkhanas and the motor sport picked up from there.

I couldn’t afford to rally so I started co-driving for people who could afford to drive.

WERE YOU HAPPY WITH CO-DRIVING? Co-driving is brilliant.

There are some wonderful challenges, it’s amazing and it’s taken me to some great places. I have codriven for people who are now doing the World Rally Championship and I have co-driven in the WRC, but the drive - pardon the pun - is always there to take up the wheel yourself. The first rally I did as a driver hooked me. It was so different. Once you have had that thrill, even the scares, it’s addictive.

I have also ended up in a lot of trees. I have had some unpleasant experiences and I thought that if I was going to end up in a tree I’m going to take the blame for it, rather than have the driver blame me for their own bad driving, or running out of talent. I still co-drive now, for the odd person I trust.

Half Naked Asian Dude Wearing Pigtails, Yasuaki ‘Yasu’ Yoshikawa.

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It’s got to be with somebody you implicitly trust and someone you can have fun with, though in the really high echelons of the sport there is so much pressure and sometimes it’s not fun. You have to keep the driver focussed and if they get emotional you have to calm them down. At those times you can sometimes cop it if the driver isn’t very good and some of the tirades got a bit much.

I have only had one accident as a driver and I always swore, that if I ever had an accident, the first thing I would do would be to ask if my codriver was okay. I put my husband into (an earth) bank once. These situations, they do test you.

THAT COULD STRAIN YOUR MARRIAGE It’s the only time my husband tells me where to go in the car, so I think he almost relishes it (laughs).

Unfortunately, he owns half the car and he always said that he wanted to drive and I have created a bit of a monster because he is quite quick as well. I know our car is very good.

I have spent two years building it and setting it up to be a quick and responsive car, and the first time he drove it he couldn’t believe it. I was always beating him but now it’s only by hundredths (of a second). The strain on the marriage would come if he ever starts beating me. I am extremely competitive, and so is he.

DO YOU BRUISE MALE EGOS? I find myself blissfully blind to a lot of it. I find that once the helmet is on, you all look the same. Women get the same amount of red mist, we get the same sillies, we get really aggressive. The main difference I find is that I look at places and I see the risk whereas guys, by and large, don’t see a risk. I do still get a lot of, “Gee you’re quick for a chick” - that annoys me. “That’s a quick chick” doesn’t annoy me. I’ve certainly seen more bruised egos on the track than in the rally. Rally is a real community and you help each other out. I’ve been doing it long enough now

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that people respect me as another competitor.

There are the boys who get annoyed and they will have a few ‘bevvies’ at the pub and they say that they can’t believe how quickly I overtook them. We start at 30 second intervals and if you gain 30 seconds on someone, they have to move over and let you by - you are not allowed to dice in rally – but when you get out of the way, you have been whipped.

The boys say, “I am so embarrassed”, but I tell them I have won a couple of championships, it’s okay to be beaten by me. Maybe next time I won’t catch you. On the track sometimes they will try to run you off the road, just because you have overtaken them and they know you are a chick. They can be quite ruthless. Rally is a different dynamic.

IS THERE A RISK IF YOU GLAM UP YOU WON’T BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY? That is one of the main reasons I started tearing down cars and wanted to do rally. It’s not just because I loved it, but to prove that blonde hair and boobs aside, I can steer. I have skills, I can do this and I have a hell of a lot of fun while I am doing it. I can’t deny that I am female and I wouldn’t want to. I want more women to be in sport and while I don’t necessarily want men to look at us like sex objects, I don’t want to lose touch with my femininity, either.

I draw a line at certain things.

There is a chain store offering a lot of sponsorship money but it would mean that I might have to strip down a little bit more. I am not going to do that; I would rather have a naked car and clothes on my body.

Other girls do it and if it gets them somewhere and they can prove that they are good drivers, who cares if they can pose in a bikini, but that’s not the way I am going to do it.

But at the same time, it’s good to recognise that I am female in this sport, without making too big a fuss over it.

OBTAINING SPONSORSHIP IS TOUGH – DO YOU COMPETE RALLYTO-RALLY? It’s definitely rally-to-rally; it’s

credit card racing. A rally will easily cost you $10,000 and Targa Tasmania will cost you $25,000.00 - $30,000.00 without even thinking about it. Then there is the chance that you will write off your $50,000.00 car, which is why I bought my car for $10,000 and slowly did it up using my credit card. I have been very lucky to have some amazing sponsors and ones

that haven’t asked me to pose in singlets. You can’t deny the appeal of a married couple where the chick drives, or where two blonde girls are in a car together. We definitely get attention, which is good for their sponsorship. We have been sponsored by a forklift battery company - Century Yuasa - they were brilliant and another of our major sponsors was an American TV WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

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show. I went to the US and did some driver instruction and they sponsored the car for a year and a half.

MOTOR SPORT IS ONE OF THE FEW IN WHICH WOMEN CAN COMPETE AT THE SAME LEVEL AS MEN. That’s a really good point, I am so glad you brought that up. That’s what makes motor sport brilliant.

Sometimes, before things like Targa Tasmania for example, I have to do a whole lot of push ups because my arms get so tired wrestling these cars around. I don’t have big muscly man-arms, but by the end of the rally I feel like I do, so I have tuned the vehicle to make it easier on my body to this kind of endurance driving.

We have an un-boosted brake pedal

and I swear, at the end of the day, I feel like I have done a one-legged work out. There are certain areas where you have to work a little bit harder, but it really is a great level playing field.

WHAT’S IT LIKE WINNING A CHAMPIONSHIP? Relief is probably the first word.

It’s such a lottery to try to get a car through championships because each event is an endurance race.

You have anything from 14 to 40 special stages, which vary in length from a little 5km stint through to major ones like the Mt Arrowsmith stage in Targa Tasmania, which is 62km long and takes half an hour to complete at full pelt. It’s an amazing test of endurance, not

only on yourself, but also on the cars, and our car is 13 years old.

Trying to keep that car going, with extra power, four-wheel drive, turbo charger - in all kinds of conditions; rain, snow sometimes, extreme heat - and you have to do it at four major events throughout the year, is very trying. When you cross the finish line - and I have won three - I just sort of blink and go, “Thank Christ that’s over!”

THE JAGUAR F-TYPE YOU DRIVE ISN’T A RALLY CAR BUT YOU STILL HAVE A LOT OF FUN IN IT. Jaguar has come to the party when we can’t afford to rally, which is quite often. When you can’t afford to do it, the best role you can have is to drive the Zero Car, which travels the

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out at every start line and tells us to have fun, have a great time. Two blonde girls in a convertible Jaguar, it’s good for their brand and we love it. We will play along with that any day of the week.

course after the cops have closed the road. You go through at full competition pace, with helmets, race suits - the lot. We look at the road, the conditions, and if there is anything at competition speed that is dangerous, particularly if there is black ice, oil or gravel on the road, you note these points down and at the end of the stage and let all the competitors know about it.

Jaguar wants a compulsory burn

HOW DID YOU GET INTO TV JOURNALISM? A few opportunities arose that I couldn’t pass up - from driving a V8 Supercar to presenting Car of the Year to trying to improve driver safety and awareness, which is a big passion of mine. There is a reason I go to a race track to hoon around and don’t do it on the streets. I have lost childhood friends due to them being idiots on the road. If someone says to come on A Current Affair and do a story on licencing systems or driver education, you say ‘yes’, it went from there.

YOU LOOK LIKE A NATURAL ON TV I don’t find it too difficult, which I suppose is a bit natural. I was always a show off as a kid, always grabbing the camcorder and if there were plays or something to do, I would always be in the spotlight. I am not afraid of it. (But) I always

Oscar The Impresario, Jonathan Taylor.

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thought of myself as quite awkward on TV, and live TV still freaks me out. I like having a stop and a rewind button, particularly if you drop a swear word or something, as I am prone to do, unfortunately - the girl who works around blokes and cars, it’s like osmosis.

There is also a fear of getting something wrong with live TV. You want to be the voice of authority and come across as knowing your stuff and it only takes one stuff-up for people to make fun of you, ridicule you or discredit you. And I’m really clumsy. I was on a TV show, a competition and the first task was to do a driving test. I have done a million of them, I am a driver trainer, and I failed it! I fluffed the reverse park. I could make a few excuses, but I fluffed it, I choked. I thought, ‘Oh no, this looks really bad for women all over the place.’

Mind you, I have always been pretty bad at reverse parking. I wish I could have hit rewind on that, but I couldn’t. Thank God you don’t have to reverse park as a rally driver!

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR HORSERIDING I didn’t grow up on a farm; I am

Fanny, Anne Goldmann.

a Sydney suburbs girl but I have always loved horse riding. I like expensive hobbies. Horse riding, skiing, extreme sports and motor racing – it’s nuts. It’s the thrill of doing something that’s a little bit dangerous, but I draw the line at motor bikes. I drop them. I can do a Honda XR50 peewee, that’s probably the biggest bike I will ever go on.

The horse riding keeps me sane.

And I love writing. I have always loved writing and I have always loved thrilling sports and they are the things I have combined to do in my career. As far as I am concerned, I have never worked a day in my life – I love it. I like fiction as well as non-fiction; I lose myself in a book. I was the funny fat kid in school with glasses that would spend a lot of time in the library to escape into books. Writing is probably my first love.

HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE THRILL SEEKING AND THE DANGER WITH REAL LIFE ?

When we have had some really atrocious conditions, I have

thought to myself, ‘You know, I have got my husband in the car with me.’

There is always a joke, that if you are going to have an accident it’s always on the co-drivers side, the driver’s self-preservation kicks in, and it does happen, it really does.

Targa Tasmania in 2012 was our honeymoon and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, if I have an accident - God forbid if I wrote the car off or we went out on Day One with a mechanical (problem), and I hurt my brand new husband - how on earth would I cope with that’. To be honest, I certainly wasn’t coming first in that rally.

I can’t do the breakneck speeds that some of these guys do. I am in absolute awe of how fast some of these guys go. I have only won one, and that was in the most dangerous of conditions I have felt. I’ve got an all-wheel-drive car and I am really good in the wet - I love sliding the

car around and I tend to do really well - but with my brand new husband in the car I have to admit I wondered, ‘What if? What if? What if? And that does make it hard.

Some people say that you shouldn’t rally with someone you love because you have their life in your hands and they have yours.

We have lost friends, it’s a dangerous sport. I’ve lost more friends to other things that have happened in life than rally but you have to balance it. And that’s where rally is done at nine-tenths (effort) – circuit racing is ten-tenths everywhere.

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what’s brewing Make a fashion statement with this hot new blend ALWAYS ALERT, OUR fashion editor returned from the Virgin Australia Fashion Festival with news that Tiffany & Co National Designer Award Finalist, Haryono Setiadi, had designed his own SS14/15 blend of coffee.

Always open to new experience and a self-confessed coffee devotee, Iimmediately immediatly went on the hunt to locate some of this intriguing blend.

Yep – Google’s a marvellous thing and in seconds I find that Griffiths Coffee www.griffithscoffee.com.au is the creator behind the designer’s vision (and taste).

Funnily enough, I had been enjoying one of Griffiths coffees Turkish for years in their Griffiths Turkish style style coffee and have coffee and have now now learntlearnt that they havehave beenbeen around sincesince that they around 1879!

Yes, I do have quite eclectic tastes when it comes to coffee and have never been known to knock back a new experience.

My main coffee consumption is currently devoted to Vietnamese coffee, so a chance to revel in a new different taste was warmly welcomed.

Whist the label is unmistakably Haryono, the aroma was similarly

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by John ANTHONY

The daughter loved it as well but did remark after that she felt she was on a bit of a coffee high (not a big coffee consumer).

The verdict – it’s a winner!

I can highly recommend prodijee coffee aficionados get a hold of some of this special blend and treat their stars on the next runway experience.

“Whist the label is unmistakably Haryono, the aroma was similarly unmistakable as Arabica - earthy, deep and bold richroasted goodness”

If you have a great taste experience you would like share and John Anthony to write about, as our fashion editor did, just email John at johnanthony@projijee.com

unmistakable as Arabica, earthy deep and bold rich-roasted goodness.

My first brew was done in short black style and I am having another as I write this article.

Full of flavour and not a hint of bitterness, this is a really enjoyable coffee. I can taste every gram of those beautiful “Father of all coffee beans”, Arabica beans.

I made the next brew as latte and made one for me and another for my daughter. I LOVED it! It made an ordinary latte into a dream hot drink.

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Paula Abdul.

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THE LOGIES CROWN CASINO, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.

WORDS: NICOLE CONDOS PHOTOS: MATTHEW WREN

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE FASHION FESTIVAL RUNWAY CASTING he TV Week Logie Awards. Australia’s night of nights, where the crème de la crème of Aussie TV celebrate their year of blood, sweatWORDS: and tears,CAROL all in theSHERIDAN name of a mantelpiece trophy. Like many, I grew up watching The Logies that celebrated Aussie TV legends and personalities on our screens. Graham Kennedy, Don Lane, Bert Newton, Daryl Somers and Kylie Minogue are just some of the Aussie TV royals to win the coveted Gold Logie.

I’ve found myself in recent years not really watching TV, apart from sport and the occasional US trash reality TV show. I’ve got enough Charlene Robertson and Neighbours’ postcards from the ‘80s to spare myself another generation of watching TV. For the kids reading at home, Charlene Robertson was Kylie Minogue’s

T

The Batchelor’s Tim and Anna.

character on Neighbours in the ‘80s. While I’m not completely ignorant to the flood of Australian reality TV shows, I certainly know who is who, on and in, the PHOTOS: Aussie red DARREN carpet zoo.HOUSE It’s quite amusing when you chat to personalities you regularly see in the media. They’re in your home, on your phone, on your newsfeeds - you get the feeling you know them, which they get all the time by the “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” question. Stone the flamin’ crows! I nearly called 2010 Gold Logie Award Winner Ray Meagher, by his Home & Away character name, Alf Stewart, when he stopped by for a chat. It was only fair I asked him to give his best ‘Alf’ line, to which he replied, “Ya flamin’ mongrels!”

Now let’s talk Logies fashion. I was super keen to see one of the highlights of my social media feed, Bec

Kylie Minogue.

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The cast of House Husbands.

The cast of Real Housewives of Melbourne.

Judd, in a likely J’Aton Couture creation.

She did not disappoint in a lilac, lace and pleated floor length gown, with custom Paul Bram diamond earrings (as you do) and Rene Caovilla shoes from Miss Louise, recycled from Bec’s outfit from last year’s Logies.

Who better to chat Logies fashion with than Australia’s own designer to the stars, Alex Perry. He proudly walked the red carpet ahead of WWW.PRODIJEE.COM

some high profiled guests, who were wearing his gowns.

“You should keep an eye out for Sonia Kruger, Sally Obermeder, Charlotte Best and Marta Dusseldorp,” announced Alex.

Whilst we were chatting, out of the corner of my eye, I caught Sonia strutting by in a beautiful one shouldered, red lace Perry gown. I asked Alex how starlets survive such a big event.

“Looking amazing will get you

through. Putting up with discomfort will get you through. Your shoes might be hurting you for the next five hours but suck it up and push through,” he advised.

In case you were wondering, Alex was wearing his signature sunglasses on his head.

Reality TV lovebirds, Tim and Anna from The Bachelor, were inseparable. It was quite cute really, and perhaps a wedding is in the air as Anna’s Pallas Couture white gown, adorned with beads and sequins, was bride-esque.

Madeline West wore an emerald, mermaid tail gown, with gorgeous appliqué detailing, with her hair pulled to the side in true old Hollywood style. Of all the personalities, Madeline was the most gracious as I asked her of the challenges of playing Daniele McGuire, the girlfriend of Melbourne underbelly figure, Tony Mokbel.

“The most challenging part is finding empathy with what the character does and the decisions they’ve made. You have to try and find something you appreciate. For me, she is a mother and at the end of the day we are all tigers and we

want to protect our cubs. Maybe she made some bad decisions, but maybe it was for the right reasons,” explained Madeline.

In comparison, her colleague, actor Gyton Grantley who portrayed Carl Williams in the same series, jokingly said his biggest challenge of his role “was probably eating eight donuts a day” to gain weight for the role. It sounds like fun, but after the third one, when they’re covered in icing, it does get hard.

You just want to throw up,” he said.

By this point in the evening, my Statue of Liberty pen was shoved into my handbag and my voice recorder was in overdrive. I look up and there was Paula Abdul. THE Paula Abdul. I’m not one to be star struck, but Paula is pop icon royalty.

With full respect to the awards ceremony I was covering, Paula has won a Grammy Award. I took two steps forward then two steps back and went in for the kill, welcoming her to the evening. She shimmered in her Khalil gown, explaining her love for Australians.

“People are so warm and beautiful here in Australia,” she explained. I’d like to mention that upon my selfie request with Paula, my leg suddenly channeled Elvis Presley and I start shaking. Good work Nicole. It got me a hug from THE Paula Abdul. Nexxxxxxxxt.

The Logies aren’t the Logies without the walking award himself, Bert Newton, so I was quick to ask his fabulous daughter and wife, where he was. Bert was recovering from cataract surgery and the Newton ladies were flying the flag in his absence.

Both in classic black gowns, the Newtons have a special motherdaughter bond that Patti puts down to having similarly with her own mother. “I had a very special bond with my mum and when she passed away, I knew that I was going to be fine because I have the same wonderful bond with Lauren (daughter) and hopefully she has the same with her children,” said Patti.

As I looked down the production

Patti and Lauren Newton.

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line of personalities, a walking cluster of bling, hair va-voom and animated theatre was approaching The Real Housewives of Melbourne.

All five of them stood before me - Chyka, Andrea, Janet, Lydia and Jackie. Hang on, where was the sixth, and my favourite, Gina Liano?

She was catching up to the group, finishing with another reporter.

Hmmmm… Gina separate to the other girls? Typical! Andrea was quick to point out to most reporters that the show finished filming months ago and all had moved on from the heated clashes throughout the series, particularly with Gina.

I was quick to snap up a chat with Mrs Liana, who was the most in demand of the housewives. In person, she was just as she is on the show, straight-talking, not a hair or lash out of place and bedazzled to

the max, wearing a custom made gown by Beluccio.

Gina saluted her sense of style and fiery passion, saying there is a “certain strength” about not only Italian and European women, but women across the board. I also think there’s a certain strength in Gina’s hairspray and her sense of humour.

Real Housewife and deeply spiritual Jackie Gillies let Gina ‘shine, shine, shine’ well, fabulously sparkle to be precise, whilst Jackie opted for a beautiful, black, long sleeve, part see through floor-length gown, with sequin detailing. When I asked her what spiritual vibe she had about the night with so many big energies in the room, Jackie explained “she had the night off” from reading people. “There’s no such thing as coincidences. Do

Sally Obermeder.

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Alex Perry.

everything with the right intention and everything will work out for you,” said Jackie. I like Jackie. She said I was on the ‘wrong side’ of the red carpet.

Last but not least, the two biggest pop music heroes, in my humble opinion, walked the red carpet not too far apart, with minimal media interviews - Kylie Minogue and Tina Arena. Growing up, I saw Kylie as the blonde, Aussie girl-next-door, turned international Aussie pop princess. To me, Tina Arena has the greatest female voice in this country and has often been deprived of the commercial accolades she deserves.

Kylie wore a stunning Roberto Cavalli cream, strapless gown before her outfit change for her ‘controversial’ performance at the awards ceremony.

Tina wore a Johanna Johnson,

Jennifer Hawkins.

Ray Meagher.

Marta Dusseldorp.

oyster coloured, custom Lancelot gown, complete with a bold red lip and a flutter of lashes that Liza Minelli should trademark.

Tina later took to the stage to perform a moving tribute to the television personalities lost in the past year.

As I peered to my right, the production line of stars had come to an end. Walking back down the empty red carpet, I was struck by the contrast of only a few hours before, where I was walking into a whirlwind of style, pouts, selfies, fake tans, bling and pearly whites.

And maybe just a liiiiiiitle bit of botox.

While I thought no one was looking, I did my best Opposites Attract-Paula-Abdul-esque shuffle and got busted by a security guard.

Well, I got busted by three guards actually...

Follow Nicole Condos at www.facebook.com/materialgirlpr

The cast of Puberty Blues.

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prodijee.com THE NEXT BIG THING IS HERE...