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Jurassic World Exhibition

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Go back in time to when dinosaurs still ruled the land at the Jurassic World Exhibition. The exhibition will immerse audiences of all ages in scenes inspired by the giant blockbuster, Jurassic World.  The world premiere event will open on 19 March 2016 and runs for a limited time only, before travelling on to the rest of the world.

“Created in close collaboration with renowned paleontologist Jack Horner, the Exhibition is infused with interactive educational elements—drawn from the real-world science of dinosaur DNA that allowed Jurassic World to come to life. Visitors of all ages can now learn all about these incredible prehistoric creatures.”

Whether you’re a T-rex lover, or more  of a Jurassic World geek, there’s something for everyone! Purchase a VIP pass and travel to Isla Nublar as a VIP guest and explore Jurassic World. Come face-to-face with a Pachyrhinosaurus; visit The Hammond Creation Lab; stare in wonder at a towering Brachiosaurus; get a rare up-close look at the most vicious dinosaur of them all, Tyrannosaurus rex; and learn all about top-secret projects currently in development.

When: 19 March – 9 Oct

Where: Melbourne Museum

Visit the website here. 

Want to find out more about what’s happening in Melbourne? Sign up to the We Know Melbourne mailing list here to stay in the loop.

The F-Word

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Celebrating International Women’s Day in true form, The F-word kicked off with a panel of inspiring high-profile feminist: Jane Gilmore – editor of Women’s Agenda, Melba Marginson – Executive Director of the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition, Clementine Ford – a freelance writer, broadcaster and public speaker, well-known for her public opinion pieces on feminism, pop culture and social issues, and actor / writer Tammy Anderson.

Each woman represented a distinctly different take on what their view of feminism was, which resonated with much of audience on an individual level and the Q&A that followed allowed us to gain a little deeper insight into the mind of these proud, passionate women.

The show was a sell-out, Howler – a great location for this panel / performance was packed to the rafters with about 95% ladies – with a few supportive men dotted throughout.

At the conclusion of the panel session, Melbourne Playback Theatre took centre stage for their improvisational piece – performed by an entirely female ensemble of actors and musicians for a powerful out of the box piece designed not just to recap the messages from the night’s discussion – but enhance in an artistic sense.

It was improv, but not as you would traditionally know it. Women from the crowd were encouraged to throw out key themes that they had been inspired by that night, or perhaps words the were reflective of how they were feeling in  the present moment.  Words like ‘strength’ were communicated back to us in the audience via words, music and dance – in an effort to capture the beauty and the depth, of what us everyday women should and could be feeling.

The F-Word is just one of a series of similar style of shows scheduled over the coming months to cover important social milestones like Sorry Day, Mental Health Week and Science Week. Established for over 30 years, Melbourne Playback is a not-for-profit organisation that operates in the corporate, government and community sectors to “use personal stories and the principles of improvisation as ways to awaken new perspectives.”To find out more about their upcoming performances Visit their website here. 

Want to find out more about what’s happening in Melbourne? Sign up to the We Know Melbourne mailing list here to stay in the loop.

Doggy Drive-In

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Don’t want to leave your dog home alone again?  This weekend Village Cinemas Australia and the RSPCA Victoria are partnering together at the Drive-in so you’ll never have to leave your best friend at home again! This weekend eekend, Coburg Cinemas are launching their Doggy Drive-In. Bring along your pooches and watch  an advance screening of Disney’s Zootopia!

The Coburg Doggy Drive-In will give guests more than just a regular day with plenty of activities to keep every family member occupied. There will be competitions for the pups, as well as raffles and door prizes, while the RSPCA will provide educational services including vets, a dog groomer and information on pet adoption. 

Cuddle up to your pooch at the Drive-Ins! 

When: Sunday, March 13

Where: Coburg Drive-In

Visit the website here.

A Bigger Splash

A Bigger Splash – Giveaway

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A Bigger Splash is about to make waves in Melbourne cinemas this March and we have five double passes to give away! (Enter below)

From the same director of the Academy Award® nominated I Am Love, A Bigger Splash is a stylish provocative thriller filmed on location in the gorgeous Mediterranean island of Pantelleria.

The story follows rock legend Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) who is recuperating on the volcanic island of Pantelleria with her partner, Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) when iconoclast record producer and old flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) arrives with his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) and interrupts their holiday, bringing with him an A-bomb blast of nostalgia from which there can be no rescue. A Bigger Splash is a sensuous portrait of desire, jealousy and rock and roll, under the Mediterranean sun.

As an exclusive for We Know Melbourne readers we have 10 double passes (valued at $40) to give away to this sensuous thriller. To enter, tell us where is A Bigger Splash set?

This competition is now closed. 

Terms & Conditions here

 

505 Wine Room

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505 Wine Room officially opened on Tuesday and it’s the perfect destination for an early bite or a late supper. Housed in the historic ‘Bush Inn’ building, the designer space is inviting and modern, with exposed industrial beams and bespoke steel work and juxtaposing colour scheme included indigo and aqua.

Patrons can choose to either sit in the main bar downstairs with casual high tops or cafe style tables, or if you want something more intimate or private there’s also the plush and decadent cocktail lounge upstairs.

The menu is sure to make you drool with  a range of delicious options including Tuna Ceviche, local Snapper with zucchini, fragile, leads and pine nuts, Slow Cooked Lam Shoulder and Violet Crumble Honeycomb with Chocolate Aeros and ice cream. Making it easy to choose which wine to choose with each dish, each menu item is mapped out by what wine suits.

Where: 505 Malvern Road, Toorak

 When: Open  7 days a week from 12pm until late; Happy hour is of course at 5:05pm, for 55 minutes and offers $5 wines of the moment, $5 boutique tap beers and $5 select spirits.

Visit the website here.

Melbourne Comedy Festival

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The Melbourne Comedy Festival is celebrating it’s 30 birthday this year and they’re throwing one giant big bash to celebrate. From its humble beginnings with 56 shows across 33 venues, the Melbourne Comedy Festival has become one of the biggest in the world. This year the festival will put another cracking program along with some special events to recognize this very special milestone.

30th Birthday Bash – Gala

Raise your glasses to 30 years of rip-snorting laughter and belly aches at the 30th Birthday Bash. The line up so far: Tommy Little and Cal Wilson will host Eddie Perfect, Rich Hall, Greg Fleet, The Umbilical Brothers, Wendy Harmer, Luke McGregor, Gerry Connolly, Nina Conti, Rod Quantock, Rachel Berger and Simon Munnery , wth more names to come.

The Big Fat (30th Birthday) Comedy Quiz

Think you’re the queen bee or king of comedy trivia? Take part in the big fat comedy quiz and battle it out for the crown. Play as an individual or play as a team but there can be only one super-fan to outwit them all.

The (Very) Big Laugh Out

Fun for the whole family! Bring the kids along to Fed Square and the City Square Pitch and have some fun with the best and most unpredictable street performers from the world’s stage. There’ll be circus acts, comedy and all sorts of curiosities and frivolities.

Hilarious international acts include Arj Barker, Tom Green, Jen Kirkman, Ross Noble, Al Murray, Sam Simmon, Danny Bhoy, Rich Hall, Stephen K Amos and Tim Vine. In addition to the international acts there’ll also be numerous home grown comedians to keep you laughing including Arj Barker, Tom Green, Jen Kirkman, Ross Noble, Al Murray, Sam Simmon, Danny Bhoy, Rich Hall, Stephen K Amos and Tim Vine. Taking over various venues across Melbourne, go on a comedy trail through the larger venues like ACMI, Trades Hall, Melbourne Town Hall, Forum Theatre through to the smaller, more intimate venues like The Toff in Town, Victoria Hotel, Club Voltaire and The Tuxedo Cat.

Giveaway: Tegan Higginbotham in the City of Love

Tegan Higginbotham (Oddball, The Project and Have You Been Paying Attention?) hits The Melbourne International Comedy Festival for her tenth consecutive year to bring you a joyous and hilarious hour of stand-up about Paris, Cake and the difficulties we face as adults when we decide to chase our dreams. Win a double pass to Tegan’s Super Special Birthday show on the  Friday, 25th of March. Visit our Facebook page to enter!

We must also do a special plug for The Downstairs Lounge at The Swanston Hotel who will be hosting  comedians such as Umit Bali, Yanni, Hayley Brennan and John Leung. See the full list of acts here.

Are you an Accor Plus Member? For ONE NIGHT ONLY, all Accor Plus Members will be invited to experience an evening of food, drink and side-splitting comedy at $99 PER COUPLE! Along with two comedy tickets, the night includes canapés and pre-show drinks, as well as a three course set menu dinner in the Louden Restaurant for you to enjoy after the show. Hosted by Mike Klimczak, featured acts include Claire Hooper (Good News Week, The Great Australian Bake Off), Michael Bowley (Adelaide Fringe Festival Award Winner) and Jacques Barrat (2Day FM). Call 1300 650 315 to book.

When: 23 March – 17 April 2016

Where: Various venues across Melbourne (including the Downstairs Lounge at The Swanston Hotel)

Visit the website here.

 

 

Table of Eight

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Featuring some of Melbourne’s most impressive performers, Lion Heart Dance Company will be making its debut with a contemporary dance work “Table of Eight”. Under the direction of Benjamin Curé (So You Think You Can Dance Australia, The Scarlet Trace) this is an exciting addition to the Melbourne dance scene. Curé is passionate about creating “Art that moves the heart”.
Table of Eight weaves the tale of a tight-knit circle of friends that begins to unravel after the untimely death of a member. It is a narrative designed to start conversations, about grief, connection and modern communication. Curé deeply believes “Art has a profound capacity to make people engage with things on an emotional level.”

When: 10 March – 12 March

Where: Chapel Off Chapel

Visit the website here.

An evening of storytelling at Moth StorySlam

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Last night we sat down to an evening of storytelling at the Moth StorySlam. Taking over the back room of Howler in Brunswick, there was not an empty seat in the house, as the audience prepared to be entertained by those wishing to share their most personal, intimate tales.

If you’ve never been to a Moth StorySlam, we’d highly recommend it. Each month the audience is given a theme where anyone and everyone can prepare a story to tell on stage. Audience members put their name in a bag at the start of the night and one by one, their names are drawn from the bag. The stories need to be true, must be on topic and must be your story to tell. No stand-up routines, essays or how-to’s – and in case you forget the rules their up on the wall where storytellers wait when they are called up to the stage.

This month’s theme was lost and storytellers had 5 minutes to ‘prepare a five-minute story about life sans GPS. Tales of the clueless, the befuddled or the map-less! Off course or led astray, stories from those deep in thought, up a creek or otherwise unable to see the light. Was lost. Now Found.’

Comedian, Kal Wilson was the MC/host of the night and she did a fantastic job connecting the stories with short audience stories and sharing a few personal tales of her own ranging from times of losing her own child through to travel – one of them involving a road trip in LA where her and her friends went on a 5. 5 hour mission to Mexico for 1.5 hours and ate a burrito at Dennys before turning around and heading back. A total Mexican experience!

With ten storytellers in total, the audience was entertained with all sorts of stories. Judging these stories and giving a score out of 10, were three teams, Wilson, Found and Wanderland. Funny stories came from  Giovanni who recalled a drunken NYE turning into a love being refound (or should we say stalked) on the other side of the world through Facebook;  Stephen’s madman tale about relocating from a small Amish community to Canberra and then Mexico City; and Ellie’s story about fighting with a stranger over her phone and kebab (yes, a kebab!).  There were also the more personal stories like James’ adopted cousin in Thailand and the family connections that grew from that, through to Nicola’s intimate story of her first time sleeping together with a girl. But the winner of the night, and by far our favourite was Margaret’s story about her mountaineer family trip to the beach and the series of unfortunate events that happened along the way right up until the end where she was left behind by her parents on the beach (or so she thought).

Margaret

 

To finish off the night, those who’s name was not drawn from the bag were invited up onto the stage to tell the first line of the story that they were going to tell, leaving us wanting to find out more!

Next month’s theme is Jokers – Get your stories ready or if you’re not a storyteller book your tickets early! The night is for sure going to be an entertaining one.

When: 4 April, 2016 (then monthly)

Where: Howler, Brunswick.

Visit the website here. 

 

 

 

Pretty Mama

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Tucked away off the main street, Pretty Mama is a little hard to find, but definitely worth the hunt. Opening just last month, the Carribean grill restaurant breathes life into the ‘New York’ side of the city.

Michael Cotter (Gumbo Kitchen food truck and Po’ Boy Quarter) and Shae Silvestro (Brooks Der Raum) are the brains behind Pretty Mama collaborating with Head Chef, Clinton Gresham (Cobb Lane Bakery, Mamasita) and what an outstanding job they’ve done. If you didn’t already know, we used to be a regular at Gumbo Kitchen – and it was definitely one of our favourite food trucks when they were around – so we knew we were in for a treat when we heard about Pretty Mama. Chatting to Michael after the meal, we could see his passion for New Orleans and southern food which was shown through each of the dishes.

DSC_3939We went with the waiter’s recommendations and ordered a few of each of the smaller dishes plus a main dish, none of which we could fault. The jerk chicken was just the right amount of smokiness and spiciness, the plantain w swimmer crab remoulades (how we’ve missed them in Australia)  was fried to perfection, and those special  lobster pastelitos were like a mouthgasm. We also have to mention the hot sauce they had, we’ve never had anything like it (Changz hot sauce), but we are now seeking it everywhere we go. It must be tried! (nb. the waiter did mention that they are looking to make their own hot sauce soon). Despite being full from our meal, we couldn’t pass the Banana doughnuts w spiced rum cream for dessert – which also was definitely a highlight!  oh those banana doughnuts!

To complement the food, Pretty Mama had a range of delicious Carribean cocktails to match as well, Red  Stripe beer and of course, an entire section dedicated to rum.

Take a little detour next time you’re in that side of the city, it’s definitely worth the time!

DSC_3937
(Lobster Pastelitos)

DSC_3936(Plantain w swimmer crab remoulade)

DSC_3938(Jamaican jerk chicken free range milawa chicken)

bill

Where: Pretty Mama, 220 Spencer Street, MELBOURNE Victoria 3000 (Enter via Watertank Way)

When: Tue-Thu: 12:00pm-11:00pm
Fri-Sat: 12:00pm-1:00am
Sun: 12:00pm-5:00pm

Visit the website here. 

Brunswick Music Festival

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The Sydney Road Street Party is back this weekend, closing off most of Sydney Road (between Union to Victoria Street) for one giant block party!

There’ll be everything from the hottest local music, dance, food and market crafts showcasing the best of the Moreland district! With its strong migrant-culture and explosive artistic population, this community is an inner-city hotspot that perfectly illustrates the bohemian and multicultural heart of Melbourne.

When: Sunday, 6 March

Where: Sydney Road, Brunswick

Visit the website here.