Following on from my previous experiences with Darkfield’s Flight and Séance, I was looking forward to Coma. It has now arrived along with the other two shows as a binaural, immersive theatrial experience in shipping containers – at the Perth Fringe Festival. Imagine the moment of waking up is actually the moment when your dream begins. In light of this new and strange reality, how can we save you from the unspeakable horrors which lurk in the dark recesses of… Read more
Having enjoyed the book by Jane Harper some time back in mid-2020 (remember then?) I looked forward to the release of The Dry – and wasn’t disappointed. A successful-if-emotionally-detatched Federal police officer, Aaron Falk (Eric Bana), is renown for his investigation of financial crimes. He returns to his rural home town of Kiewarra, Victoria, due to the cryptic request by the father of an old friend. It’s a small farming community in Victoria that Falk returns to, where it hasn’t… Read more
Escapism drove most of my reading this year, and yet I still found myself re-reading World War Z. Which then led to feeling tense and worried about everybody and everything in the world. Escapism is difficult when there’s lots to escape. Back in 2019 (a million years ago?) I wrote that I left some books off my list of sixty-strong memorable reads, and that I would be continuing to read into my holidays. Next to me is a copy of Station… Read more
In the 1600s Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope to the night sky to watch the stars. I’m certain he didn’t feel the shock of an inquisitive wet nose shoved into the back of his bare knee at the same time. C.Y O’Connor beach is a small cove just south of the city of Fremantle, a port town on the coast of Western Australia. It fills up daily with walkers and their dogs. Dogs like the big lollopy-slobbera-dors, that will shake sand,… Read more
Yes, planets seemingly colliding in a Bethlehemic-chaotic-when-will-this-year-finally-end… but first: Gravy Day. Here’s a special rendition of Paul Kelly’s seminal classic How To Make Gravy, today on the 21st of December – a date fans of the song have dubbed ‘Gravy Day.’ Kelly composed the song in 1996 after he was invited to record a track for an annual charity Christmas album organised by respected musician Lindsay Field. In search of an original take on the classic Christmas song, Kelly focused on a… Read more
This is a great show/s and a great cause – so tune in later today and help out! Donate at http://crowdfunder.co.uk/ninelessons. The groundbreaking variety night that celebrates the curious and the creative returns for its eleventh instalment with a very special 2020 pandemic edition. Science, comedy, music, art, poetry, experiments and more come together in a joyous collision of chaos. Hosted for all 24 hours by Robin Ince Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People is Robin Ince’s ground-breaking creation, the… Read more
This is not my first Flight and it will not be my last. FLIGHT is an unsettling journey in complete darkness inside a 40ft shipping container. In the unlikely event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, alternative scenarios will be provided. There are many worlds in which this plane lands safely. Following its predecessor FLIGHT employs DARKFIELD’s signature combination of pitch darkness and binaural audio, but expect a very different experience to SÉANCE. We are not responsible for your final destination. If… Read more
After visiting the incredible new Western Australian museum, Boola Bardip, this week, I’ve become attentive to news about the sensitive preservation of history. One particularly strong trend in terms of historial preservation that has got worldwide attention for quite some time now is the ongoing efforts to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. This gained even more traction with the start of Brexit. I first learned about them via this Intelligence Squared talk from 2012, featuring Stephen Fry: “The Hellenic republic today is… Read more
It’s not news to know that Peter Evans, former ‘My Kitchen Rules’ star and author of cookbooks has problematic beliefs. That is, beliefs that should be ignored in favour of informed decisions based on information provided by actual health officials, not reality TV stars. But after a series of mishaps this year – on top of all the smirking that has occured in the past about his ‘activated almonds’ and the understandable shock over claims that some of his recipes were… Read more
Look, if you’re not already binge-watching Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun on Netflix, you better get moving on it. Awesome show, and I’m not the only fan out there I’m glad to note! This series started off for me as a quasi-Flight of the Conchords, but honestly? It’s becoming more Monty Python-risqué style as it progresses. And it’s just wonderful to see more Australian talent given free rein to be wild and creative on a big network like this,… Read more
