(Mini) Monday Spotlight: Aluna

All I can say is wow! I have loved AlunaGeorge for years now. Since I heard You Know You Like It back in 2012 I was hooked on Aluna's vocals.

Now Aluna has shared her debut album Renaissance via Mad Decent. Like Aluna's work with AlunaGeorge with their many collaborations, it's guests galore! Princess Nokia, Jada Kingdom, SG Lewis, Scott Storch, KAYTRANADA, Rema, and more.

The debut solo album features the singles Envious, Body Pump, Warrior with SG Lewis, and Get Paid, featuring Nokia and Kingdom.

In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, Aluna discussed how she decided on the name Renaissance.

“It is really about who inspired me. I wasn't the first. I followed,” she explained. “I watched people breaking boundaries. I really felt like there was a Black renaissance going on, especially in film and at that kind of grassroots level where the writing all the way to the directing was being done by Black women.”

AlunaGeorge are iconic working with Skrillex, local boys Peking Duk, Disclosure and getting DJ Snake to rework their tune You Know You Like It. Now it's time for Aluna to shine.

This is a quality release from last Friday. Get amongst it below. This is a perfect Monday gee up record!

COVID-Cinema 2020 - Baby Teeth

Babyteeth is my first Australian film I have caught at the cinemas since they shut back in March.

The film has an all star cast including Eliza Scanlen, Toby Wallace, Emily Barclay, Eugene Gilfedder, Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn.

Unlike other coming-of-age comedy-dramas this film has a tough topic at the centre of it. A dying young schoolgirl.

Directed by Shannon Murphy the film is based upon her stage play of the same name. Getting its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 4 September 2019. The film came out here in Australia on 23 July 2020. I was lucky enough to catch it this week.

One of my main reasons for checking the film out was the positive reviews from critics as well as Ben Mendelsohn saying it was his favourite film.



Film in and around Sydney (as well as my local shopping centre, Broadway Shops) the film spent some time on our famous Sydney Trains.

Whilst the film was raw and tough to watch at times, the acting was wonderful.

With very few local films set for release with all the uncertainty around us, it's good to go out and support local cinema.

Hopefully today I will catch a Chinese war film to really spice things up.

For now Babyteeth was a solid Australian family drama with Ms Fisher (Essie Davis) playing a very different role. 3 Stars.

Yellowstone Concludes, Season Three

WOW is all I can say. For a show I only discovered this year, Yellowstone really helped fill the void of Claws, Animal Kingdom, The Handmaids Tale and other missing summer series.

Who knew Kevin Costner could rise like a Phoenix following his 90's Bodyguard days!

So this show got a whopping 5 million plus viewers for episode ten of the third season. This is huge. This is Game of Thrones big, well not quite as big as the later seasons.

The show has been lucky to have a pre season three opener renewal. This is good news for those who have watched the closing episode of season three. The massive cliffhangers and entire Dutton family in danger.



Highlight for me was Kelly Reilly as Beth Dutton. From that foul mouth to some of the best scenes this season.

Some of the best moments of the season have been broken down here.

So Stan has literally struck gold in Australia with this drama. Yes it's no HBO mega hit but it's actually rating five times as many viewers as recent hit Perry Mason.

So fingers crossed next June (following the past three years trend) Yellowstone will be back for its fourth season. No doubt it will definitely be back for a fifth and maybe sixth season.

Yellowstone was a mega binge for me, watching all three seasons back to back, being right up to date ahead of the third season.

Until tomorrow when we head back into the COVID Cinema for something local.

Australia, Not so All Over: Wollongong

Following Goulburn x Canberra it's time for part II, Wollongong!

Wow NSW we do have a bit to offer if you leave the rats race city centre. From the Central Coast to Wollongong, forget Bondi and Manly we truly have some stunning coastal areas.

Newcastle is also less busy whilst being picture perfect.

Wollongong was part II of my NSW all over tour. Next stop maybe the Blue Mountains but we will see.

Lee & Me was my breakfast dining option on day one in the Gong. This cafe is cozy, cute and walkable from the beach and the Crown Street, Wollongong Central shopping district.

Greater Union (yes not rebranded to Event Cinemas) is a cute three screen cinema also located centrally in the "downtown" precinct.

Tickets are dirt cheap there (I saw Tenet, an advance screening for $11!) the cinema is clean and old school. Reminds me of my days growing up at Avoca Beach Theatre.

Wollongong is only a little over one hour from the city. The drive over the Sea Cliff Bridge home is simply beautiful. Just follow Lawrence Hargrave Drive back to Sydney. Travel through Coledale, Austinmer and Thirroul.

Beautiful.

Go on if the borders permit go see some of NSW. OMG I sound like Destination NSW.

(Mini) Monday Spotlight: Alex The Astronaut

Alexandra Lynn is Alex the Astronaut, her debut album The Theory of Absolutely Nothing was released on Friday.

The single from the album, I Think You're Great was released in January, where it found itself in the Top 200 on Shazam.

Lynn graduated from Pymble Ladies' College in Sydney before studying maths & physics at Long Island University, New York. Pymble and New York, wow that is a contrast!

Alex's debut EP: To Whom It May Concern which features the single Already Home was released in 2017. In the same year, her second EP, See You Soon featured the single Not Worth Hiding came out. Following the release the song reached No. 23 on Triple J Hottest 100.

The song continued to have a life of its own being described as an unofficial anthem for the "Yes" campaign in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. What a cluster fuck that was. At least the end result was positive, after months of negativity.

So let's start off the week with a promising new voice. Alex The Astronaut is a name you may all be familiar with, however with a debut album now out. It's time to discover more of Alex below.

The (Mini) Monday Spotlight returns next week.

COVID-Cinema 2020 - Tenet

THE FIRST BIG blockbuster since COVID broke the cinemas is here....



Australia is getting sneaky first advance screenings this weekend. I got FOMO and needed to see it ASAP, as in the first day of the advance screenings.

Today is the last day to see the film before it officially opens on Thursday.

Now Tenet has been a hot topic. Is it safe to open a blockbuster in a pandemic? What is Tenet? Why is John David Washington (from HBO's Ballers) so damn good looking?

So many questions, not that many answers.

Aussie superstar Elizabeth Debicki stars as Kat, Sator's estranged wife, a mysterious but beautiful woman. Just cast as Princess Di in the Crown seasons 5 & 6, Debicki is on a role!

This film cost Christopher Nolan's studio between $200-$225 million! In a COVID time will this film make back any of its big budget?

With the film set to get a China release in September along with its hype, the film may do OK.

Now as this is so early I won't give anything aside from the fact it's long. It's engaging from the opening scene, the soundtrack and booming sound system is AMAZING.

It looks spectacular and honestly I think I will try and see Inception again. I know thats a throwback film out at cinemas at present.

It's a weird time for the cinema business. My session in Wollongong was fairly well attended, however other films I have seen have less than 10 in attendance.

Checkout the trailer above, avoid spoilers, get set for a post Twilight Robert Pattinson.

This will easily feature on my (second) end of year cinema list. I may not have got all the plot points but Nolan makes going to the cinema a must for his big idea, big budget films.

4.5 Stars.

#COVID-19 CATCH UP TV - The House of Flowers / La Casa de las Flores

Ready for some bat shit crazy Mexican TV drama, get your Netflix log in ready, it's to look at the three seasons (plus the random funeral special) of The House of Flowers / La Casa de las Flores.


Where does one begin with this Mexican family drama where the family owns a famous flower shop as well as a cabaret named The House of Flowers / La Casa de las Flores.

It begins super Desperate Housewives of Mexico, with a suicide a female narrator who hangs herself at the end of episode one, season one.

The family goes from one drama to the next, with a daughter returning from New York with her African America boyfriend, a bisexual brother whilst the older daughters husband goes from Jose Maria to Maria Jose.

Yep there is a lot going on.

Season one was fun, season two went bat shit crazy and season three tried to tell us the origin story of how this family become so crazy.

It's worth a look, the episodes vary from 25 minutes to just over 30 minutes. If you want to learn Spanish some of the characters also speak slow enough to pick up a few words here and there.

Drag queens, gay adoption, family dramas, affairs, insane sisters who impersonate each other all get a look in over the three seasons of The House of Flowers / La Casa de las Flores.

It's a true Netflix original series with three seasons and in between seasons two and three is a funeral episode, which I ended up just watching at the end of season three.

Is it the best series I have watched over this lockdown/iso times? No but it had fun moments and some seriously camp acting.