Blog — Page 228 of 277

Meatstock Festival 2017

Olympic Park

Sydney

May 6-7, 2017

Vegans and vegetarians avert your eyes:

Meatstock 2017’s two-day meat filled extravaganza at the Sydney Showgrounds featured bands, barbecues, beards, butchers, bourbon, barbers, beer and much more.

Unique to the festival were the Cutthroat Barber Wars, which took place against a back drop of live bands and competitions such as the ‘Barbeque, Butcher and Barber Wars’, as well as demonstrations and workshops. There was plenty to see, do, taste buy and eat. The event selling out far in advance is evident to the growing allure of OG BBQ.

With the recently published Hot Sauces feature on Scene Point Blank, our main interest was on the fiery condiments, which had quite a few exhibitors:

Culley’s - 

named after owner and founder Chris Cullen, revolves around his weak spot for all things hot and fiery which eventually catapulted him after his stint as a chef to the head of his own hot sauces empire, sourcing his chilies from New Zealand.

Culley’s mantra is “flavour not fire”, which his product range reflects, having been inspired by both his passion for quality and by his travels to over 25 countries, incorporating exotic flavour combinations.

One of Culley’s standout products is the Carolina Reaper Venom, which was produced exclusively for Culley’s by Smokin’ Ed Currie – Founder, President, Mad Scientist & Chef of Puckerbutt Pepper Company:

A cold pressed extraction giving you the hots.

Another Culley’s emission that tickled our fancy was Culley’s Smoked Salt, using Organic salt from mines in Redmond USA containing no less than 50 trace mineral elements and add roasted Garlic, Shallots, a hint of Chili and deliciously toasted Mustard and Coriander Seeds, it is the ideal adage.

Established in Bronte, Australia, Handsome Devils Co. is dedicated to making products that represent the things they love in life.

Handsome Devils Co. was founded by five childhood friends who grew up together in Canberra, Australia and developed a love for fine hot sauce while traveling the Americas.  Arriving home in Australia, they were just never satisfied by the products available in the stores.  Handsome Devils Co. then decided to cook up their own.

According to the main protagonists, Handsome Devils Co. hot sauce is all about the flavours, the highest quality ingredients, and a nice hot kick that wont burn your face off.  No added sugars, preservatives, colours. “No nasties, no compromises.” Is their mantra. 

Handsome Devils Co.’s Verde is mild, tangy, herby and verdant. Blending crisp green tomatoes with a bunch of herbs and spices to create a little green devil of a sauce. Ingredients include green tomatoes, vinegar, water, onion, lime juice, coriander, garlic, tamarind, allspice, salt and chlorophyll.

After having collaborated with You Am I for a band specific hot sauce, further collaborations with Young Henry brewery, who are known for their band and music related collaborations, are in the works.

Crowley’s Hot Sauces flagship Habanero based Hot Sauce delivers a heat that satisfies and it’s the spot.

Designed to deliver the flavour of the Habanero it is likened to a heat experience that takes you to the edge of the mountain, holds you over the edge, and pulls you back at the last minute. Mexican and Asian, Rices and Noodles love this one.

Reformed ex-vegetarian Sydney's Chrissy Flanagan 

labels herself proudly as the “sausage queen”. Sass – check! Pinup style model qualities – tick! Outgoing, winning personality – yup!  References to pop cultures and band names galore – check!

Under the name of Chrissy’s Cuts, she proffered a range of artisan sausages.

Her speciality is that her snags are devoid of any nasties: The sausages are made from only free range, prime cuts of meat.

Another outstanding exhibitor with long lines waiting to sample its goods was Rangers BBQ, of which we had a chat with Pit Boss Janson Cheong. His passion for Texas BBQ was ignited during a holiday to Texas in 2012 our passion for Texas BBQ - something he and his partner Christina, who have over 25 years experience in the hospitality industry, fell in love with but couldn't find in Sydney. Established in 2013, Rangers Texas BBQ Catering became Sydney's first mobile trailer pit caterer with a focus on great meat cooked low and slow using a traditional woodfire BBQ. Their smoker is custom made by hand, by world-renowned pit builder Ritch Robin and his team at Gator Pit (as featured on the Discovery Channel), then imported from Houston Texas. Add real wood, some freshly sourced meat and you got a first-class BBQ going with Rangers BBQ serving Texas Style Beef Brisket (grain fed and smoked with a traditional Texas Style rub for up to 12 hours), Pulled Pork, Chicken wings (Rangers BBQ style - marinated in their secret BBQ sauce before smoking), "Jumbo" Beef Short Ribs, Pork Ribs (smoked with rub and basted with Rangers BBQ sauce to make them moist), Pulled Pork Burger (with homemade coleslaw, Rangers BBQ sauce served on a fresh bun), Beef Brisket Burger (smoked Texas style beef brisket slices, homemade coleslaw & Rangers BBQ sauce served on a fresh bun).

Sustenance in liquid form was provided by Erina’s Six String Brewery, an example of the passion that drives the craft beer industry in Australia. This brewery, set up by longtime friends Chris Benson and Adam Klasterka on the New South Wales Central Coast, is a lesson in following your dream no matter what gets in your way as they navigated their way through three years of struggle spanning four different sites, battles with planning permission, bureaucracy, council by-laws and even public opposition from figures in the community. Before they were able to roll up their brewery doors in early 2013 to the public for the first time.  Taking a trip through the Six String range is a natural progression for the palate via the Coastie Lager, Golden Ale, Pale Ale and the flagship (very) Dark Red IPA. This core range is supplemented by a vastly more adventurous set of limited releases ranging from ESB to marzen, saison to chai porter and the strong Anniversary Ale.

Your humble narrator liked their Lager, which uses Summer hops designed to give aroma of melon and lemon myrtle while a touch of dry hopping with the same variety gives a slightly sweet finish that complements a breadiness from the malt. At 5 percent ABV and a mere 12 IBUs of bitterness, it's pretty easy to imagine what this beer is like and the sweet spot it can hit as you pull up to the bar having spent the day in the sun at Meatstock 2017 - an inclusive, carefully curated festival that shows that has established itself firmly on the foodie trail.

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Photos by @ka.vv

American Essentials

Sydney, AU

09 May – 24 May 2017

Founded in 2016 as a way to fill select Aussie cinemas with the kind of US titles that don't usually make it to down under, the touring American Essentials festival returns for its second run with a lineup of noteworthy inclusions — 31 films and 20 Aussie premieres.

American Essentials’ mission statement is that there is more to going to the movies than just seeing the flicks that fill megaplexes, as Australia's thriving film festival scene demonstrates. 

Running the gamut in terms of showcasing genres of all variations, American Essentials covers all bases, with a focus on emerging talent while paying homage and respect to the trademark storytelling and its tradition that has become idiosyncrativ for US cinema.

Fresh from earning a nod for best original screenplay at this year's Academy Awards — and garnering lead actress Annette Bening a Golden Globe nomination, too — 20th Century Women got the festival started, marking writer/director Mike Mills' first movie since 2010's Beginners. Bening stars as a mother coping with the fact her son is growing up, and calling in pals played by Gerwig and Elle Fanning to help. As promised, Gerwig also features in Todd Solondz's Wiener-Dog, which comes to the fest after having its Australian premiere at last year's Sydney Underground Film Festival.

Also on the bill, and impeccably timed given that the third season of Twin Peaks starts airing during May, is the doco David Lynch: The Art Life, while docudrama Becoming Bond keeps the factual fun going by delving into the Aussie that once played oo7. 

American Pastoral is Ewan McGregor's first stint as a director; California Dreams explores the real folks trying to make it in LA, La La Land-style; G-Funk dives into the style of hip hop started by Warren G, Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg; and 2016 Cannes hit The Transformation follows a 14-year-old who thinks he's a vampire.

As well as highlighting new flicks, with Are We Not Cats' magical realism and Detour's crime thrills also on offer, American Essentials shines a spotlight on classic titles in its Masters & Masterpieces retrospective. That's where audiences can watch Lynch's inimitable debut Eraserhead for its 4oth anniversary, as well as his 2001 Mulholland Drive — plus the Carrie Fisher-written Postcards on the Edge; Andy Warhol's Bad, which is the last film the artist produced before his death; and a Charles Bukowski double of doco You Never Had It: An Evening with Bukowski alongside the semi-autobiographical, Mickey Rourke-starring 1987 favourite Barfly.

American Essentials showcases new narrative features, feature documentaries, and short works; retrospectives on crafts-people from behind and in front of the camera; guests from key US-based international film festivals; independent filmmaker guests; talks and master classes; and special event screenings and manages to not only provide audiences with a snapshot of current creative directions in the U.S., but also explores their great traditions and impact on international cinema movements.

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Photos by KAVV

Entombed AD

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

May 10, 2017

One would need more than one flipchart to scratch the surface of how influential Entombed have been throughout the nearly three decades of their existence.

Emerged under the moniker Nihilist in the mid-80ies and coining what eventually  became trademark Scandinavian death metal,  their unique Clandestine album became  an instant and timeless classic that has never lost an iota of relevance.

However, by the early 1990s their sound branched out and opened up to included garage rock and other influences.

This new mélange of hard rock, heavy metal and death metal would eventually be described as “death’n’roll”.

What followed were the kingpins of heavy music taking pages out of Entombed’s book and sourcing more than mere subtle influences to enrich their musical emissions.

2014 saw a name change and a continuation of their path with the adage “AD”.

In a live environment, Entombed AD is everything you would hope for and more: Charismatic, engaging Swedes unleashing the fury like the well-oiled machine they are, delivering a variety of old, tested and tried classics along with new emissions of their varied discography and artfully switching between bludgeoning and brutal yet groovy onslaughts, blast beats and virtuoso, thrashing riffing, effortlessly walking the chasm between death metal, punkish and rocking elements and pretty much all of the other ingredients that make heavy music worthwhile.

The legacy of Entombed looms large despite internal strife, yet the 2017 Entombed AD incarnation sounds as ferocious and savage as you would hope them to be

It was good to see them in the third dimension proving that they have lost none of their relevance.

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Photos by KAVV

Snakehips

Metro Theatre

Sydney, AU

May 8, 2017

The London-based electronic chill duo Snakehips with their hypnotic, trap-inflected songs that are reminiscent of Odesza, Kelala and Cashmere Cat are the incarnation of the post-party cool-down with a jazzy flow and their funky sound mixed with hip hop beats clearly indicated that the night is not over yet.

For not being an actual band in the traditional sense, the stage presence and crowd interaction is not dissimilar to a rock show, with the visuals projected as a backdrop enhancing the setting with its animations and blue and white lights flickering to the extent that might be conducive to elicit epileptic attacks.

Their set was based on a solid foundation of a blend of tested and tried pop and R&B tracks running the gamut from smooth to funky and back.

The audience was completely captured by the thudding basslines, the smooth, down-tempo reworking of rap, swirling synths and had a good time dancing along.

A fun, dance worthy, highly energetic show the concept of which follows the distinct Snakehips narrative and attracted a sizeable crowd on a school night.

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Photos by KAVV

Botanica

Royal Botanic Gardens

Sydney, AU

May 06 – 28, 2017

Botanica 2017, focused on the nexus between the disciplines of art and science, is Australia’s premier annual botanical art exhibition promoting and protecting Australia’s rich diversity of plant life, features works by some of its leading botanical and natural science artists.

In this bicentenary year of the Garden, Botanica explores the theme of Farm Cove, the original farm of the first settlement that was established on the current site of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Botanica explores the complex and remarkable relationship the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney has with its plants. The annual showcase, now in its 17th year, features work by some of the best Australian and international established and emerging botanic and natural history artists and is considered one of the foremost exhibitions of its kind.

2017's Botanica theme draws its inspiration from the multiple ways we need, love and should appreciate plants - medicines, oxygen, poisons, fragrances, in celebrations and more.

Curator Judy Dunstan says the 2017 exhibition comprised more than 200 original paintings representing the work of artists from across Australia and beyond: “Works were selected on the basis that they are scientifically correct in both form and colour, and artistically pleasing and balanced to the eye,” said Ms Dunstan.

“It is the perfect opportunity to acquire works by talented emerging artists as well as those by artists with well-established national and international reputations,” added Ms Dunstan.  

Botanica is a beautiful exhibition and encourages the sale of all its artworks. Proceeds go to the artists and to help Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens continue to support horticulture, conservation, scientific research and education programs within the Botanic Gardens.

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Photos by KAVV

Opening times and more details can be found under:

https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/whatson/Botanica-in-Sickness-and-in-Health