Mythical and ritualistic are Melbourne design duo P.A.M, as is their A/W 09 collection, Magic Messages. The psychodelic fabric love child of Misha Hollenbach and Shauna T (Perks and Mini), MM brings bold, other worldly designs to the wardrobes of lively inner-city nightwalkers – and is also completely at home in the walk-ins of MGMT fans across the globe. The collection evokes the notion of a pop-and-party aesthetic, a world in which time has no meaning and every night is endless. Who would have thought you could get all of the above from just one range of clothes?

by Kat Hartmann

The first rule of The Whitest Boy Alive Club is: no overdubs. All of the music is recorded live in one take, with all members in the one room. This Berlin-based collective of various DJs and producers instil the essence of groove from their electronic music background into traditional pop song structures. The instantaneous approach to recording gives the tracks a fluid feel, with all members obviously plugged into the same wavelength. It almost seems a bit too clinical at times, and surprisingly un-spontaneous, but that is the German way I guess. Likely to be heard at bars with impossibly attractive staff. 

by Andy Ryan

With humour as dry as a three-day-old scone, Easy Virtue, a film adaptation of a 1924 play by British tongue-sparring master, Noel Coward, is an enjoyable 95 minutes of Brit wit.

Easy Virtue marks the much-anticipated return of Australian director Stephan Elliott (Priscilla Queen of the Dessert) to the big screen. The film’s storyline plays out in a 1920’s grey English countryside where the once grand, but now fading, Whitaker family welcome back their young colt of a son, John (Ben Barnes) who has brought home with him a cougar American wife, Larita (Jessica Biel).

Much to the shock of his catty mother (Kirstin Scott Thomas) and two curious sisters, Marion (Katherine Parkinson) and Hilda (Kimberley Nixon), Larita is rebellious, strong-willed, and refuses to bend to any stuffy British customs.  The only member of the family who has found a rather peculiar interest in Larita’s spicy ways is John’s war-scarred father (Colin Firth).  A battle of wit ensues, leaving the women sharpening their tongues and the men hiding for cover.

Biel surprisingly holds her own with great actors like Thomas and Firth.  Barnes is easy on the eyes, while Parkinson and Nixon are a delightful addition to the mix of already crazy characters.  Elliot’s choice for the film’s soundtrack is unusual but adds a nice tang to the entire story.  Either rented on DVD or watched on the big screen, this film will leave you wishing for a glass of bubbly and some naughty banter.

by Cat Juan

While we're certain that the Forbes & Burton bubble and squeak (served with grilled bacon, a fried egg and tasty house-made brown sauce) is one of the world’s best hangover cures, their dinner menu is well worth a look in too. With new chef Nathan Peters at the helm, the focus is on local sustainable ingredients, as part of a mod-Oz menu with international touches. Think an earthy terrine of wild mushroom; pancetta-wrapped duck breast with apple and pistachio; or tender lamb with cumin and a pomegranate salad.

by KB

It’s not exactly the guardian angel we've always dreamed of, but we’d be happy with one of these faces watching over us. Artist Stuart Semple released more than 2,000 of these smiling clouds into the skies of London last week, saying “I just wanted to make a piece of work that could cheer people up a bit.” Made from a mixture of helium, soap and pink vegetable dye, these happy chaps stayed afloat for just 30 minutes before dissolving into the air.

by KB

Sometimes when we're lonely, we make friends out of paper. We’ve got Hello Kitty, Spiderman and Superman (the Christopher Reeve version, of course). There’s no glue, no sticky tape, just cut and fold. Best of all there’s no skill required – some rather clever people have done all the hard work for you, designing everyone from Staypuft to Barak Obama. Mario and Luigi are there too, with mushrooms and carnivorous plants so you can build your own paper platform game. Perfect for power outages.

by KB

In Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern 29, the enclosed 14 tales may come in a slightly more traditional form than, say, those of MQC 17. Still, the premise of the short stories found within is anything but conventional. In Brain Baise’s Nice When Someone Is Excited to Hear from You, a slightly schizophrenic protagonist leads readers on an adventure of self-destruction of the grandest proportions. Blaze Ginsberg’s My Crush on Hillary Duff documents the chronologically defined details of the writer’s celebrity infatuation. Roddy Doyles’s The Painting tells of a love of a Polish immigrant for a seemingly intangible Dubliner – love he expresses through art, painted under the veil of darkness, secretly, in her hallway.

by Kat Hartmann

The penultimate night of the season saw the Mistletone Summer Tones mini-festival take over the Oxford Arts Factory. Kicking off proceedings was the dinky electro-pop of Mark Barrage, who flitted about boyishly making musical mischief with his various gadgets.

Lawrence Arabia, the guise of singer-songwriter James Milne, were in four-piece form, with sweet harmonies, infectious melodies and earnest charm aplenty. They have that inoffensive and affable tousled-hair, jeans and sneakers ‘sensitive indie guy’ look about them, but are much more focused on the flirty and shagging side of things than all that fey wistful longing stuff. Irresistible.  

The spiffy-looking lad and lass of High Places and their many machines created a breezy and bounding noise mainly propelled by electronic drum pads and steel-drum-sounding flourishes, giving it a bit of a ‘busker at Circular Quay’ vibe.

Beaches were truly exciting with five fringes a-flying and guitar strings ablaze, sending out incessant riffs and thick sludgy chords to accompany the brazen vocals. 

Dan Deacon inverts any notion of gig normality by placing himself and his strobe light skull-topped console in the centre of the dance floor, where he is soon enveloped by the audience. As well as conjuring electro-excitement for our party pleasure, he leads the crowd through an interactive evening of hijinks, including forming a dancing tunnel through the venue and out onto Oxford Street. Swashbuckling good fun.

by Andy Ryan

Forget the Courty, The Duke is where it’s at for beer gardens in the inner west. Yeah, you heard us, The Duke: capital ‘t’, capital ‘d’. Oh, and did we mention it’s also home to the inner-west chapter of the Bandidos*? You can’t get much outlaw-ishly inclined than that. The self-proclaimed best beer garden in Enmore hasn’t changed in, well, years. Then again, you can’t really improve on an outdoor area that looks like it was designed by a yokel with a penchant for things of stone and weathered wood. Especially when said fictional designer is constantly inviting all his weirdest mates (aka the locals) around to marvel at his handiwork over a pint. Ah, The Duke.

*As of yet unconfirmed, but they sure do sink a heck of a lot of pints here.

by Kat Hartmann

The Mardi Gras parade hits Sydney’s streets this weekend. If you’re feeling particularly pride-filled, get your jog on and join the 5km fun run. Not so actively inclined? Tolerance-preaching film, The Combination – which, ironically, is said to have incited violence and was subsequently withdrawn from in several Greater Union cinema complexes during the weekend - is still showing at The Palace Verona, Paddington. Monster Children’s double feature, Predator and Home Alone features the work of web darlings, Todd Selby and The Cobrasnake. Lovers of all things contemporary Japanese fashion should take a trip to The Powerhouse Museum. Clothing from the collection of Japanese cultural connoisseur and director of the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Gene Sherman, is on show. It features Issey Miyake, Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto and accessories by Akira Isogawa. Love food? At Taste of Sydney, in Centennial Park, Sydney’s finest culinary masters show off their signature dishes. Visitors to this event also have the opportunity to take home gourmet secrets and meet one of the participating chefs. Sydney Harbour Week brings the (sometimes shark-filled) world of the deep to your shore. Experience eco boating, try yachting, tour a shipwreck… The possibilities are (almost) endless.
 

by Samantha Hartmann

Music is at the top of our list of favourite things happening in London in the coming weeks.  Rogues (who according to our sources are "totally rad") launch their single 'Not So Pretty' at The Macbeth on March 12. People who like the music that New Young Pony Club like can dance they way they dance at the Westbury 2nd Birthday Party, Friday March 6, where NYPC will be DJing. And now that it's officially spring (though the weather might not agree), it's time to get out of the house. Head down to the Broadway Market at London Fields, Hackney, for a bit of shopping and people watching, then hit the Cat & Mutton for a pint or three. Brand new exhibition space Raven Row has launched with its inaugural show, Ray Johnson. Please Add to & Return. The (now deceased) New York artist's super-inventive collages are on show until May 10.

by KB

Melbourne has been an inferno this summer, with days so hot one wonders about the tight jeans. The solution? Wait for the sun to go down then lap up those balmy summer nights. After dark, Sidney Myer Music Bowl celebrates its 50th anniversary with plenty of free concerts – some of which you need only listen to from outside the fence anyway. Take a bottle of wine and sit in the surrounding parkland. Half the time you’ll get a better seat than the suckers who paid, and you’re not cramped into an amphitheatre with thousands of other people. Melbourne institution, the Moonlight Cinema , is still worth a look. There’s a decent range of new/cult classics on offer and with the Botanical Gardens as a backdrop to the massive blow-up screen, it’s a pretty unique way to watch a film. Tai Chi sessions at Federation Square may be a little early, but the after effect makes the early rise worth the effort. Some of Melbourne’s bars also allow you to stay outdoors well into the night - Section 8 is a particularly good option.. And finally, we don’t really care what anyone says, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, March 7 to March 23, is not just for old people.

by Andrew Worotniuk