My WordPress is playing up so, whilst I know you’re all clamouring for the next missive, no proper new posts around here until all is ship-shape and Bristol fashion.
In the meantime, I’m now on Facebook! Ha!
My Leftfield review for Resident Advisor // 12 April 2011
Sydney can feel a long way from the UK—and even further from ’90s electronica—at the best of times. So it was a minor miracle of metaphysics to feel both in London and rewound to circa 15 years ago when Leftfield stormed the Enmore Theatre in March.
The penultimate night of their Future Music tour, Neil Barnes, Sebastian Beresford (replacing Paul Daley on drums) and Adam Wren delivered a consummately polished performance with self-assured magnitude and big, dirty storytelling that can probably only come from twenty-or-so years of experience. Succinctly pulling it all together with seasoned finesse, Barnes’ direction was not so much “comeback tour” as confirmation that the dance music aficionado never really left.
There were peaks and troughs, tribal, trippy visuals, the whole crew of (mostly teddy-bear like) dub and reggae vocalists, including Cheshire Cat and Earl 16, and a massive, bang-up-for-it audience. The Enmore’s heart-thumpingly loud soundsystem delivered the picks of Leftfield’s oeuvre to the sweating crowd with precision and pounding bass as the PA punched way above its weight with delicious effect.
The cherry-on-top moment had to be utterly at-ease vocalist Jess Mills’ rendition of “Original,” dreamily transporting the entranced crowd before Djum Djum lobbed a chaotic hand grenade into the audience in the form of a wild, ribald “Afro Left.” A stomping encore saw a pounding “Phat Planet” hit Newtown—weirdly appropriate on St Patrick’s Day as the buoyed punters emerged onto loud, Guinness-splashed streets.
Read it online at RA here.
My Caffe Sicilia review, Agenda Sydney // 11 April 2011
Surry Hills and The Godfather aren’t the most synonymous bedmates, but in the short time that Caffé Sicilia has been open, this Crown Street spot certainly seems to have attracted quite a – well – faithful mob. Hunched over pastries or coffees, Italian conversations in full flow, old and young alike are flocking to this new chameleon bar/restaurant/café at all hours of the day.
Come Sunday breakfast, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a table unless you have inside links – maybe a consigliere, but more likely the ristoratore – as locals put shared plates under the watchful gaze of an army of handsome Sicilian waiters. Channeling old-world Sicily – from yards of Italian marble along the counter bar to the checkered floor and low overhead lighting – this is a place to watch and be watched, admire passing talent, drink espressos and indulge in some gossiping.
Like any good Sicilian family table, the food is all about rustic, humble ingredients elevated to toothsome Sydney-worthiness. There’s plenty of eggplant, ricotta, calamari and tomatoes, washed down by a range of both Italian and closer-to-home wines.
Start a long lunch with antipasti – say fresh buffalo ricotta on a bed of caponata melanzane, or baked pumpkin with mortadella and mostarda – before moving on to a pasta course or secondi. A veal involtini is stuffed with breadcrumbs and garlic and is ideal to share; a salad of rocket, goats’ cheese and orange is a welcome foil to the olive oil-edged richness.
By the time you’ve finished the last crumb of sweet cassata, you’ll feel like part of la famiglia.
Where: 628 Crown St, Surry Hills
Phone: (02) 9699 8787
Hours: 7am-midnight, Mon-Sun
Details: caffesicilia.com.au
Or read my review over at Agenda.
Termites and ants boost crops, Australian Geographic // 7 April 2011
ANTS AND TERMITES HAVE long had a bad rap for stealing picnic food and chomping through house frames, but it turns out that their services are invaluable to Australian farmers.
New research from CSIRO and the University of Sydney has shown that, by performing an earthworm-like role in soil enrichment, the insects can boost crop yields in the dry areas of Australia’s wheat belt by more than one-third.
“The sheer size of the effect is what is most surprising to me,” says lead author Dr Theo Evans, from CSIRO Ecosystem Science in Canberra. “I didn’t think it’d have such a huge impact – a 36 per cent yield increase compared to my expected five per cent.”
The results suggest that ants and termites not only increase grain yields but can cut fertiliser bills and decrease the need for pesticides. “It’s likely to mean decreased pesticide use, especially pesticide that is applied to the ground,” Theo told Australian Geographic.
Read the rest of my article online here.
daisydumas.com 