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Thus, let us drink beer! – Australian special, part 2

If you have ever been to Sydney, chances are that you passed through The Rocks, a neighborhood of quaint laneways against the backdrop of Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge.

It is fabled that The Rocks harbour the city’s first and oldest pubs, so the Endeavour Brew Bar and its Tap Rooms finds itself in suitable company.

Housed in a Queen Anne Revival style of architecture building from the 1800s, which was refurbished by accolade-decorated architects Welsh + Major, and adjoining the Brew Bar and the Endeavour Tap Rooms, the art deco referenced establishments adhere to the credo to only use all-Australian, seasonally harvested ingredients sourced directly from local hop and barley farmers with no adage of preservatives.

What makes liquid emissions of the of Endeavour Brewery’s four key lines and four rotating taps unique is the well-balanced mélange between North America’s hop culture and European malt flavours and somehow managing to sandwich a distinct Australian flavour.

Favourites of the range include the Reserve Amber Ale, a brew that is developing its sweet malty- and bitterness in the bottle as well as the English styled Growers Golden Ale with its subtle malty hop bitterness.

While I usually am not a big Red beer aficionado, Endeavour’s Red Ale got something going for it as the hop aromatics offer a bit of “je ne sais quoi” compared to the other brews crowding the market.

My better half likes the Mid 3.5 Pale Ale, which proves to be a drinkable companion for the warmer days in Sydney with an ABV that won’t tip you over if you decide to have one early on, not unlike their Lager, which is a reliable European style, flavoursome one.

However, my favourite of the many excellent Endeavour brews is by far the deliciously, rich Stacked IPA, which was created in their Brew Bar micro-brewery and named after the unique way that they stack their tanks.

A wonderful big IPA with punchy aromas of tropical and citrus fruits.  Packed to the gills with three different hops, it creates a clean, bitter finish that leaves you humble narrator thirsting for more.

The Tap Rooms’ brews are substantiated with an exquisite restaurant menu, offering sustenance in form of smoked produce to match the flavours of their beers and putting an Australian flavour on the art that is American barbeque.

The Harbour Bridge and the Rocks are must-see sights if you ever find yourself in Sydney and while you are there, you’d deprive yourself from an exquisite, welcoming and palatable experience if you decided to not hit Endeavour’s Tap Rooms to sample the range.

Having just returned from Melbourne’s Good Beer Week and been able to sample more of their range, Two Birds Brewing established its place on the forefront of my Australian favourites:

Founded by Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen, Two Birds Brewing constitutes Australia’s first female owned brewing company – a company that houses all arms of the operations under one roof, including their in-house packaging line.

Located in Spotswood, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, Two Birds produce sophisticated yet approachable beers whose labels are not only eye-catching and colourful yet what they decorate is  delicious to the max:

The mid-strength Two Birds’ Trail Blazer is a nice Australian lager was created in collaboration with the local Western Bulldogs AFL Women's team for the 2018 season – an ode to the strength of women that is not only a great beverage for a day out on the oval but also further afield.

My favourite Two Birds brew is the Two Birds Taco:

Yes, a full-strength fruit beer and a liquid thing of beauty.

What a beer! I had my first sip on a hot day and the subtle zesty flavours derived from the Citra and Amerillo hops lend it its distinct crispiness.

Two Birds’ Sunset red ale with its tropical and citrus aromas back by a spine of more than a mere hint of coffee and rich malt flavours, it makes a near ideal beer to accompany food.

Two Birds’ Golden Ale is the staple of the line: Less exotic than the rest of the range, this one is the most approachable one.

Another Two Birds’ favourite is the fruity Pilsner made from Kiwi hops: Think fruity aromas a la grapes, herbs, gooseberry and white peach.

Does sound weird?

Well, it is a delight.

Given my weak spot for the Two Birds line, I jumped on their take of trying a barrel aged Belgian Ales: A rich, divine big one, to say the very, very least.

Summa summarum, I have yet to sample an emission from Two Birds Brewing that comes close to not being a winner and I look forward to what the brewery has in store for future releases.

Let’s zero in on the Sydney inner-West suburb of Marrickville and a brewer that lives and breathes its inclusive ethos  “We brew for you” by nurturing relationships and sourcing ingredients from local businesses, shall we?

Batch Brewing Co. is the empire of two Americanos, i.e. Andrew Fineran and Chris Sidwa. An empire that was built on the remains of a former panel-beater shop and one that has morphed into a buzzing, working hangout, adjacent to the actual brewery, with a “drink local” concept for locals to taste the latest batch, laze on couches, sustain themselves with fare from the changing line-up of food trucks and take home 1.89-litre growlers or 640-millilitre bombers filled with their beer of choice. 

And choice there is: The staples of the line include American pale ale and an IPA, which are complemented by a range that changes every two weeks with new, innovative, limited release batches popping up on a regular basis, inspired by the seasons and whatever tickles their fancy.

The core range most prominently epitomized by their Lager Just Beer, Pale Ale of American nature as well as a West Coast PA, is complemented by Pash the Magic Dragon is a surprisingly palatable sour, and Elisie, a nitrogen-carbonated milk stout (with lactose, not real milk). 

Batch Brewing Co. equips their brews with date stamping, letting not only connoisseurs know when exactly when a brew was made and when to consume it to get the most out of it, underpinned by the notion that it should be consumed as close to its source as possible with a firm focus on Sydney and maintaining a link between the sources of the ingredients.

Displaying the weather report for Barellan, where their malt is from, behind their bar is merely the visible tip of the iceberg.

Visiting the bar means that you can peek into the brewery, strike up a chat with a knowledgeable staff member and immerse yourself in the cultural biotope they have created, putting a visit to Batch Brewing Co. on your must-visit list when it comes to Australian beer explorations.

For more, read Thus, let us drink beer! – Australian special, part 1.

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Photos of Endeavor Brewery and Batch Brewing Co. by @k.a.vv

Two Birds Brewing image from brewery website

American Essentials Film Festival

May 8-20, 2018

Sydney, Australia

American Essentials is not your typical new world film festival with the saccharine blockbusters crowding the market.  The focus is firmly on curating a program that sheds light on the independent productions of the last year, covering quite a bit of territory  as diverse as thriller, melodrama, adventure, comedy, coming of age, horror, political, social justice, classics, music, cult, noir, romance and biographical flics.

Needless to say that the festival serves as a great source to detect newcomers who showcase their first emissions that might normally not find their way onto your radar.

The new works were all Australian premieres with some having been shown merely a few days earlier at film festivals in Toronto, Sundance, Rotterdam and SXSW festivals.

The opening night showed The Boy Downstairs, a this millennial romantic-comedy against the backdrop of hipster Brooklyn from debut director Sophie Brooks and starring Zosia Mamet known from the TV show Girls.

Other highlights included John Travolta portraying the notorious New York mob boss John Gotti, his rise to power and how he earned himself the name “Teflon Don”.

As the name suggests, the festival focuses on the essence of current relevant movies and it should become a fixture on every cineasts calendar.

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Photos by @k.a.vv

Aleksandr Zhitomirsky

Photomontage as a Weapon of World War II and the Cold War

Yale University Press

As one might have noticed, I am an aficionado of German artist John Heartfield’s photomontages and the impact it has had on popular and underground cultures, e.g. Sakevi from G.I.S.M.

Aleksandr Zhitomirsky is the soviet equivalent to John Heartfield, whose propaganda and photomontages tackled German troops during World War II.

After World War II and confined behind the iron curtain, Zhitomirsky enjoyed a career as a writer for Pravda and other publications, which he used as a vantage point to not only criticize and vilify mainly the politics and politicians from the new world, from Truman through to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s but also educate his audiences about what was out of reach for them to experience first-hand.

This tome is an encompassing, abundantly opulently illustrated account of political artist Zhitomirsky’s thought-provoking and at times hilarious emissions, which were inspired by his friend John Heartfield, and whose epinomous and classic work of image manipulation has to this date largely remained in the shadows as it was even sidelined in the USSR.

Apart from the focus on Zhitomirsky, Photomontage as a Weapon of World War II and the Cold War is an homage to the power of visual propaganda combined with political messaging and an essential source for those interested in investigating the circumstances and limitations in which he had to operate.

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective

Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art

Jeff Koons is perceived to be a controversial artist – an iconic one that proves to be hard to by-pass.

This retrospective zeros in on the thirty-five year spanning career that is firmly based on the reconceptualisation and reimagination of mundane everyday objects and images that have become omnipresent in the world of pop.

What makes Jeff Koons’ work stand out is that it is not merely l’art pour l’art but that his oeuvre is essentially subversive and questions the status quo that we have accept to be reality.

Full-colour photographs and illustrations are depicted en detail along with photos and sketches documenting the genesis of some of his more prominent works, showing how they have evolved from exhibition to exhibition.

What makes this tome a resource for both connoisseurs, the uninitiated as well as the critical voices who have been questioning Koons’ work is not only the well-written, insightful essay that Scott Rothkopf contributed about his eclectic career, but also the other elaborations from scholars from different disciplines, be it from the literary or the worlds of academia and of course art, that examine Koons’ artistic process and tackle it from different angles.

A beautiful, insightful retrospective on a unique, contemporary relevant artist, whose approach to art pays homage to a variety of courses, including Dadaism, pop art and surrealism.

Good Design Australia showcase

Overseas Passengers Terminal

Sydney, Australia

May 25, 2018

Design.

Good Design, huh?

What constitutes “good design”?

When there is nothing left to add or nothing left to take away?

The jealousy of other designers?

Simplicity and clarity?

Does content precede design?

Good Design Australia is an organization dedicated to design as a way of life, not only as a key driver for productivity, economic growth and innovation but pervading all facets of our existence. It promotes the value, impact and the whole complex of creative ability, technical knowledge, manual skill and the underpinning foundation of economics and aesthetics.

A key tenet of Good Design Australia is also put on sustainability and the credo to help foster a more balanced world.

2018 marks the 60th anniversary of Good Design Australia and what started in the late 1950s with sporadic Design Centres and Good Design Labels in the mid-1960s to visually indicate and honour good design and manufacturing, resonated with the wider public proportionally to consumer perception of design and trickled down to the mainstream to become an essential part of Australia’s DNA.

Fast forward to the late 1980s: The Australian Design Award is established and Standards Australia, Australia's peak Standards body, is put at the helm of the operation two years later, which leads to the awards being positioned as an important benchmark for continual improvement and international best practice for design with winning products being put on display in Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum for one year with the exponates added to the Museum's permanent collection of Australian design.

Criteria for the award include good design, innovation and the significance of a product not only to Australia's material culture but show potential to be recognized in the global marketplace.

In late 2010, Standards Australia initiates a transition that results in the baton of the Australian Design Awards being handed to Good Design Australia in a bid to position the program in a new, ever-changing environment. 

As a consequence, Good Design Australia expands to include a wider range of disciplines under its umbrella, and incorporates ‘Design-led Innovation' into its aspirations and gives birth to the inception of the inaugural Australian International Design Festival, which brings us to the present day:

The Good Design Awards 2018, comprised of ten main Design Disciplines, and a three-day Good Design Showcase Exhibition at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, launched in tandem of Vivid Sydney.

Both the general public and the design luminaries were granted access to a showcase of examples embodying good design.

Apart from being taken on a journey through sixty years of Good Design, it was interesting to see the exhibition and pick the brains of the subject matter experts as they elaborated on why certain seemingly plan and unimpressive objects push the boundaries of new and innovative thinking, how new systems and technology contributed to its genesis and how both the processes as well as the final emission contribute to sustainability.

An evening that was an ode to the fact that design is not merely what it looks like, but if you dig deeper, the discovery that it is really about how it works.

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Photos by @K.A.VV