25 h. ago Barry Morgan, Australia's most celebrated organ salesman, brings flourish and flair(s) to the Fringe

Straight from the golden era of the late 70s into the 1980s and the showroom floor, the Ozzie organ maestro himself, Barry Morgan hits the Fringe this year with his one man keyboard extravaganza, Barry Morgan's Home Organ Experience, the ultimate in jaunty music and comedy.

Politics

1 week ago Killing Heidi are back, 25 years on: ‘Growing up in rock’n’roll gives you a shitload of grit’

After a ‘quiet little break’ of 20 years, the band is back to celebrate their 2000 debut Reflector – then the fastest-selling Australian album in history• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIn 2022, Ella and Jesse Hooper, siblings and bandmates in Australian rock band Killing Heidi, lost both of their parents in the space of two weeks. Their father, Jeremy, died first after a shock cancer diagnosis and a quick decline; a fortnight later, their mother, Helen, passed away after a long struggle with breast cancer.The grieving siblings took the weekend off, then went straight back out on to the road. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Life around the sea: a celebration of Australian surf culture – in pictures

There are people all around Australia whose hearts beat in unison with the rhythmic swells of the sea; people who have found solace in the ocean. Life Around the Sea is an odyssey around Australia and an exploration of remarkable individuals who have been transformed by the sea. This book will transport you to coastal villages, hinterland hideaways, remote beaches and solitary bays that form the backdrop to these unique lives. Their personal stories, told by surf writer Alex Workman and captured by Russell Ord’s evocative and breathtaking photography, are a testament to the boundless beauty, mystery and inspiration of the oceanGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email Continue reading...

Culture

3 w. ago The Jewish dealer who bought art hated by the Nazis – and created one of the greatest collections ever seen

A new National Gallery of Australia show draws on Heinz Berggruen’s collection to celebrate the spread of modernism around the world, despite the Nazis’ best effortsWhen Heinz Berggruen left Germany for America in 1936, he was not allowed more than 10 marks in his pocket. As a young journalist in Berlin, Berggruen had been forced to publish under the pseudonym “h.b.” in order to hide his Jewish heritage and evade the Nazi party’s antisemitism.In the decades that would follow, he became an art dealer, regularly rubbing shoulders with the most important artists of the 20th century, and amassing one of the most impressive private collections of modern art ever to exist. On the day he left Berlin for Berkeley, however, such a future would have seemed impossible. Continue reading...

Economics

4 w. ago Stalker left radio DJ ‘unsafe and paranoid’ by repeatedly sending her messages

Keaton Adams, 51, of Englefield Green, Surrey, even turned up at the Heart radio studio in Leicester Square in central London.

Politics

4 w. ago The ‘dangerous’ Australian women whose art was dismissed, forgotten – and even set on fire

A new exhibition celebrates 50 globetrotting women who traded parochial Australia for European modernity to create ‘subtly subversive’ artGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailWhen Justine Kong Sing stepped off a steamship into Edwardian London, the Nundle-born daughter of a Chinese merchant could tell straight away she was a long way from Australia: amid the “roar and rush” of the city, no one seemed to notice her.“In the colonies, where foreigners are treated differently, an Oriental suffers keenly the mortification of being stared at, and often assaulted, because of his color!” she wrote in a widely published account. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago The Empress Murders by Toby Schmitz review – jazz age mystery packed with corpses and charisma

The actor’s first novel, set on (and sometimes narrated by) a luxury boat in 1925, swerves from cosy Christie homage into something far more brutalGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailOn stepping aboard the Empress of Australia, the setting for Toby Schmitz’s debut novel, I thought I might be in for a fizzy nautical romp. I rather hoped so. The news, presently, is mostly vile; a parade of cruelty, stupidity and profound, preventable suffering. A jazz age mystery authored by a celebrated Australian actor – you’ll have seen him on mainstages across the country, and recently in the TV adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe – sounded like just the ticket.In the early chapters of The Empress Murders, we have just one corpse to contend with, and many dazzling characters to follow through the staterooms and corridors of the upper and lower decks. Inspector Archie Daniels, the ship’s detective, seems like a glum chap, Chief Steward Rowling is sweatily unwell, and we learn quickly that Mr...

Events