WITH the school holidays looming, the Voice has an arty Red Cross parcel to keep kids entertained and parents sane during the two-week break. The mega-popular Dog Man books by Dav Pilkey have been turned into a musical (it seems everything is being turned into a musical these days with Mrs Doubtfire recently opening in…

THERE will be a tribute to David Bowie and a hint of heavy metal when four world-class classical guitarists from WA take to the stage in North Perth tomorrow night (Sunday September 17). The Silver Sands Quartet are open-minded and innovative, playing modern compositions that have a rock, minimalist or ambient flavour, as well as…

THERE’S still time to catch some great exhibitions at the WA Art Gallery before the new summer program, including a masterclass in existential dread by Özgür Kar. The Turkish installation artist has scared the living daylights out of sandgropers with his first show in Australia – Good Night – an almost eight-metre long animated skeleton…

THE desolate town halls of the Wheatbelt have a nostalgic, bittersweet pull for photographer Brad Rimmer. His parents met and fell in love in one when his dad was playing saxophone in a band, and Rimmer has vivid memories of the town hall at Wyalkatchem, where he grew up. “If I ever hear Suzie Quarto’s…

A MUST-READ for all new parents, Love, Dad explores what it means to be a father in the 21st century. The father of two young boys, Laurie Steed reflects on how his own experiences have defined the kind of man he is and the kind of parent he would like to become.  His stories –…

GREEN lasers crisscrossing the wetlands at Lake Sutherland is one of the atmospheric highlights of this year’s After Dark festival. For the past four years the annual festival has shone a light on the Pickle District, a light industrial zone in West Perth that has become a burgeoning arts hub. The festival is a night-time…

THAT Past Lives is thought-provoking is probably best summed up by the hours it took me to come to terms with its ending.  Being a romantic at heart I always want the happy ending, so it was a jolt when Past Lives took another direction. It took some deep thinking before deciding director Celine Song…

SITTING alone in a huge cinema to see A Good Person, I was worried it was a dud as there was no-one else at the 4pm session.  But writer, producer and director Zac Braff has bought together Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman in a beautiful, emotional film about addiction, forgiveness and redemption. You can’t go…

ON March 6, 2010 Renee Pettitt-Schipp wrote a searing account of the previous day’s activities on Christmas Island, where she was working as a teacher. “Yesterday we went to the memorial service for the people involved in the boat tragedy in December,” she wrote. Fifty asylum seekers had lost their lives when the boat known…

IF you’re driving around York, you might see a bloke quietly sitting in the middle of a field with a 1970s reel-to-reel tape recorder. It’s not Mick Molloy filming an Australian version of Mission Impossible, but local musician Simon Charles, who likes to include the sounds of nature in his music. An in-demand composer and…