People - 25 January 2010

Jerome Borazio

‘St’ Jerome Borazio takes venue on a tour through the back alleys of his mind. Photo: Corey Sleap Jerome wants me to meet him in his element… a St Kilda Football Club ‘Young Guns’ luncheon. The dress code is ‘business attire’, which set me on edge a little — a Collingwood supporter without a suit

Backchat - 20 January 2010

Tiësto & Sneaky Sound System – I Will Be Here

I’m guessing everyone here has heard of Sensation? It’s a giant international rave party franchise; enormous one-off events characterised by their all-white dress code. Click through the Sensation site and — whether it be Vienna, Amsterdam or Riga — you’re confronted by image libraries of countless thousands of luvved-up recent grads of Supermodel High wearing

Backchat - 20 January 2010

The Pussycat Dolls (featuring Snoop Dogg) – Buttons

If you’re an all-girl group and you’ve got Snoop Dogg sniffing around, it can mean only one thing: trouble. I hate to pigeonhole the Dogg, but if his press is to be believed, he’s not one to buzz you to commend you on your middle-8, he’s only after one thing… or in the case of

Hotel - 15 January 2010

Right in the Middle

Middle Park Hotel: 102 Canterbury Rd, Middle Park, VIC (03) 9690 1958 or www.middleparkhotel.com.au Six Degrees is known for turning recycled materials into something unique, but when those ‘raw’ materials constitute English Oak and Queensland Maplewood panelling from the MCC’s Long Room, unique is just the start. Middle Park Hotel was established in 1889, as

Local - 15 January 2010

CAFE VUE AT HEIDE

Café Vue At Heide: 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen VIC (03) 9852 2346 or www.heide.com.au/heide_cafe At the opening of Café Vue at the Heide Modern Museum of Art in Melbourne, Minister of for the Arts, Lynne Kosky, pronounced chef/owner Shannon Bennett an “artist in the true sense of the word”. Kosky may well have been referring

Backchat - 5 January 2010

Rich Bastards Anonymous

Did you know that Tag Heuer is pronounced Tag Hoy-er, and not Tag Heurghhh? You did? Well, you’re doing better than me. Did you know that Longines (pronounced: Lawn-jean and not Long’ns) has released its Quadruple Retrograde with more needles than a Spitfire cockpit? I bet you did. Welcome to the rarified world of Rich

Backchat - 20 December 2009

Shakira – She Wolf

It’s nice to be occasionally reminded that the music world’s past present and future is neatly ‘yin and yang’ed by the Anglo bop of the Beatles and the Afro-American cruisey groove of Smokey Robinson. Occasionally a pop anomaly appears from another culture entirely, bypassing the conveyor belts of the MTV machine… and hundreds of millions

Local - 15 December 2009

Perth City Gate Overhauled

Citigate Perth: 707 Wellington St, Perth WA (08) 9327 7000 or www.mirvachotels.com/citigate-perth Citigate Perth is a four star 278-room hotel managed by Mirvac hotels. The hotel had previously been the Orchard/Grand Chancellor Hotel and its dated interior was in dire need of an upgrade. Woodhead was commissioned to provide design services for the $9m refurbishment,

Local - 15 December 2009

My Fair Verona

Pendolino: The Strand Arcade, 412 – 414 George Street, Sydney NSW (02) 9231 6117 or  www.pendolino.com.au Juliet draped over her balcony waxing lyrical to a bleeding-hearted Romeo is probably the only scene of Verona most could conjure up. And it seems Italian restaurateur Nino Zoccali is tapping into that sentimentality with his latest venture, Pendolino:

Function Space - 12 December 2009

Bankstown’s Ballroom Blitz

Bankstown Sports Club 8 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown, NSW (02) 9722 9888 or www.bankstownsports.com Paynter Dixon Managing Director Greg Howard has been working with Bankstown Sports Club for over two decades, adjusting the club’s master plan through various stages of its successful expansion into neighbouring properties. The latest string in the Bankstown bow is the Grand