As far as I can remember, the last I was at the Roundhouse at UNSW was when I was a student there at a roller disco organized by the Kylie Minogue fan club.
Tonight Tony and I went to see Baxter Dury, as in son of Ian, and he was… part caged animal, part kid in a candy store, definitely a tad unhinged and what an incredible showman!!!
Lots of squats and lunges, his core strength must be amazing!
When I found out you could buy paper roses made out of romance novels on Etsy, I was very pleased with myself indeed.
Oh wait, that probably needs a bit of context.
The Good Weekend cover story today is about a fella called Luke Bateman who used to play NRL for the Canberra Raiders but now lives in a caravan in central QLD and works as a logger with his step father and in his spare time, in the absence of a decent book club in the area, started reviewing fantasy novels from the cabin of his work ute on BookTok.
Our writer, Tim Elliott, went to visit Luke in the middle of nowhere and it turns out this “straight-woman’s unicorn – a book nerd in the body of a hunky lumberjack” unpacking “character arcs and the technicalities of world-building and magic systems” was just what the (mostly) ladies scrolling through fantasy BookTok posts were looking for. Who knew? In a short space of time Bateman’s first post alone clocked up 2 million views and tens of thousands of likes and now he has his own fantasy book deal.
So, that was the context and now I had to work out how to shoot said Leprechaun loving lumberjack.
I decided I needed flowers made out of fantasy books and, they didn’t make the cover, but I really was beside myself when I discovered they were actually a thing! And, we had time to get them delivered from Wisconsin to Paul Harris who was busy sourcing bales of hay for the shoot. Bateman brought the books and Tori Tye made sure his face wasn’t shiny and he didn’t have a hair out of place on that fine looking head of his. A splendid team effort everyone. 👏🍄🧚🐉🧙🦄
@paulharris@torityeofficial@timelliottsmh@goodweekendmag@sydneymorningherald@theageaustralia
Hello Melbourne friends!
Tony and I are on our way down to your beautiful city with the @wellspotted T’s & Totes for the fabulous @themakersandshakers market on this weekend.
Please come and say hi and support Australian makers.
Even before the whole Venice Biennale selection, deselection and reselection controversy in 2025, Khaled Sabsabi had been through a lot.
As a child he was exposed to piles of bodies and sniper fire in the war ravaged streets of Tripoli before being smuggled out of the country with his brother to join his parents in Australia, only to be bashed and bullied by kids at his Western Sydney school - “A group of Anglo boys, he says, took him away from school one time and stubbed their cigarettes out on him.”
Understandably he was very wary about opening up to Good Weekend about his life and his art, ahead of his trip, finally, to Venice, but he was in very safe and sound hands with our writer, (arts aficionado, and old editor), Katrina Strickland.
Photographer, Nic Walker “was drawn to his eyes… they are so deep and intense” His powerful portraits show a strong and resolved man who has lived a life and seen some things few of us can only imagine.
“The double exposure—I used this technique as it mirrors how people are affected by social injustice often navigate multiple realities at once, I thought it also reflects some of his own personal imagery. In this image it was him who put his hand on his heart without my direction.” Beautiful job Nic.
@katrinastrick@nicwalker101@goodweekendmag@sydneymorningherald@theageaustralia
It’s been a loooooooong time since Tony and I watched a movie under the stars in Centennial Park but here we are, and it’s quite divine. @moonlightcinema
Natasha Lester has one of those names you feel like you know but can’t quite place, or as Katrina Strickland puts it in Good Weekend today, she’s “one of the most successful Australian authors many of us have only vaguely heard of” having written over a dozen “historical fiction” novels.
Turns out she’s also absolutely lovely. Photographer Peter Brew-Bevan described her as “a dream to photograph, natural, intuitive, and instantly in step with the direction we were taking.”
That direction was all about channeling the vibe of her latest novel which is set in LA’s famed Chateau Marmont in the 50s and 60s. I decided we simply had to have a peacock chair for the shoot, which my wonderful stylist, Emma Cotterill, sourced, along with a selection of divine frocks and slacks and, oh that fabulous fluffy feather Camilla coat!
@goodweekendmag@sydneymorningherald@theageaustralia@brewbevanphoto@emma_cotterill@stephlai@katrinastrick
