Dorkbot is the lovechild of science and art - the spawn of a mad scientist and a performance artist, or what happens when you electrify and artwork like Dr. Frankenstein. It gets a group of people together who like doing things with sparks and wires and plugs and arts and things and makes a night of it, with an overlord (Pia van Gelder) and a bunch of fantastic contributors - artists, musicians, engineers, programmers, you and me, etc. (Warren Armstrong, Tega Brain, Samuel Bruce, Amanda Cole, Melissa Hunt, Lukasz Karluk + Gentleforce and Gavin Smith).

Further, it's at one of our fave places, Serial Space, which consistently puts on challenging, exciting, alternative, informative and really interesting events in a good little space that doesn't have TVs playing sports matches, loud thumping music or a hefty door charge.

Dorkbot will blow your little mind out of your pretty little head, possibly with some kind of electrical smoke ensuing, so I'd suggest you put in in your diary for Wednesday night, from 6-8pm, at Serial Space.

Posted by amelia in Art, Events

Tags: amanda cole, Art, Dorkbot, Electricity, gavin smith, gentleforce, lukasz karluk, melissa hunt, Pia van Gelder, samuel bruce, science, serial space, tega brain, warren armstrong

The one thing we forgot to mention in our ridiculously lengthy Laneway review was the wonderful oasis that the thousands had set up in one of the only shaded inside-time areas offered by the festival site. In a teensy and local version of their new Melbourne shop, the market held art, clothes, food (Black Star Bakery ahoy!) and bric-a-brac - and a stall for our favourites Even Books, who had sold so much stuff by 2pm that when I showed up all that was left was the last tote. Sold.

This latest gatecrash is a short autobiographical homage (read: shameless self-promotion) to Even Books' very own new little Etsy store where, on top of selling other things, they pick books for you because they know what they're doing. After the jump.

Posted by steph in Gatecrashers, Words

Tags: books, etsy, even books, even books gatecrash, Laneway Festival, the thousands, twothousand

When it was announced that this year’s Laneway Festival would be moving to the School of Contemporay Art, a resplendently historic archipelago of sandstone buildings that was once the Callan Park Lunatic Asylum for the Mentally and Criminally Insane, the general consensus was one of Get Thee To A Ticket Outlet. The move was a wise one following the controversy of Laneway 2009, and the announcement came equipped with a lineup not to be scoffed at. The only discernible tension came from the timetable, with each stage's set times paralleling one another and many, many clashes, which would make for a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of day. Hence:

Happy Festival Day, Sydney! The weather’s looking good and you’re excited except for, Oh no! Your ticket has gone missing and you arrive two hours late because you're an idiot. Still, you get there and the site is beautiful - masses of sandstone packed in with light gravel, the hot sun beating down and a decent-sized, happy looking crowd. You have two options...

Posted by steph in Festivals, Reviews

Tags: Balmain, Daniel Johnston, Dappled Cities, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Florence and The Machine, frightened rabbit, hockey, Kid Sam, Laneway Festival, Mumford & Sons, Old Man River, Sarah Blasko, SCA, The Black Lips, the very best, The XX, Wild Beasts

Photos by Natalie Connolly.

Posted by amelia in Uncategorized

Tags: Bridezilla, Daniel Johnston, Danimals, echo and the bunnymen, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Florence and The Machine, frightened rabbit, hockey, Jonathan Boulet, Kid Sam, Laneway Festival, Mumford and Sons, n.a.s.a., philadephia grand jury, radioclit, rozelle, Sarah Blasko, SCA, the Middle East, the very best, The XX, Wild Beasts, Your Face

I'm not going to bore you by telling you the lineup for Playground Weekender this year because if you have an Internet and a set of eyes you probably can easily click the link and see the bands on the pretty website. Or on a poster. Or a truck. Or in a magazine. So either you want to go or you don't, really, and if you don't want to go then you've probably not even started to read this, and if you DO want to go then look, the good news is we have a double pass to give to you and I will only make you jump through, like, one hoop, and it's big enough to fit through and I'll hold it close to the ground.

The festival is on the 18th-21st of February, and the tickets are for the whole festival + camping. Just send us an email (to info [at] throwshapes [dot] com [dot] au) and tell us your favourite artist on the lineup, and what you would do with them if you and they were stuck on an island like Wiseman's Ferry together for a night. Just you and them. And the judgmental gaze of the open sky. If it rhymes, we'll like it more.

Posted by amelia in Festivals, giveaway

Tags: giveaway, Playground Weekender, rhyming rules, wiseman's ferry

Night is descending. You lounge between the headstones, the long grasses tickling your ears, letting the soft rain slowly, softly fall on to your forehead and drip off your earlobes. It's tranquil. Suddenly, the terrifying sounds of the reanimated corpses hell-bent on destroying the living rise up around you. A soil-dirtied hand shoots up through the ground and the brain-eating moans of zombies echo as the panic sets in and you continue chillaxing and lounging back, because you're at the last night of Cinema in the Cemetery, where you are going to be able to watch Night of the Living Dead in St John's Cemetery, Ashfield. For free, with snacks and drinks available!

This clearly quite paganistic and unholy event has been kindly organised for us by the Christ Church Inner West Anglican Community, so be good kids, although I'd love to see someone get a few people to dress up as zombies and terrorise the whole gig.

It goes down from about 8pm tonight, as the last film of the cemetery cinema season. It's romantic and terrifying and hilarious at the same time. Also, snacks.

Posted by amelia in Events, Film

Tags: ashfield, cinema in the cemetery, in a cemetery, night of the living dead, zombies

When I started photography work a few years ago with my reasonably sub-par semi-pro gear and enthusiasm I remember being really intimidated by Dan Boud, who seemed to shoot all the things I like, and extremely well, and was also dashing and had a cool blog and stuff. Then one day he said hi to me and I realised he was a really nice guy on top of it all and now it's even worse because I'm still pretty intimidated by him but we're also Facebook friends.

His lady, Cybele Malinowski, also scared the shit out of little me and together they form some kind of super-duo of incredible photography skills, with their shots gracing the covers of many of Sydney's well known publications, from street press to Time Out Sydney.

A selection of these mag covers are going on show for everyone to admire at Covers, a joint exhibition by Boud and Malinowski, with prints for sale and all profits going to the Oasis foundation, so they're also charitable which makes them even more terrifyingly cool. As if being talented wasn't enough, really.

It's at MART gallery, in Surry Hills, from six tonight. The exhibition goes until February 20.

Posted by amelia in Art, Causes

Tags: covers, cybele malinowsky, Dan Boud, mart gallery, music magazines, street press