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Singer Ozzy Osbourne performing in September 2022.

Ozzy Osbourne, the godfather of heavy metal, dies at 76

The gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of pioneering band Black Sabbath died just weeks after his farewell show.

Ryan O’Neal and Marisa Berenson in Barry Lyndon.

Why Gen Z has embraced a Kubrick classic

Stately historical epic Barry Lyndon baffled audiences in 1975, but a new generation is beguiled by the ultimate anti-Netflix movie.

Yesterday

Nicole Car as Rusalka in the Opera Conference production of Dvorak’s fairytale opera.

Fill your diary with August’s best arts and entertainment events

From Paul Kelly finally playing an arena tour, to ‘The Book Of Mormon’ ringing our national doorbell once more, there’s plenty to see this month.

This Month

Rare Shanghai Symphony tour keeps soft diplomacy flowing

Founded in 1879, Shanghai SO is Asia’s oldest orchestra, surviving even Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution when Western classical music was banned.

Which PM’s Great Wall visit did Albanese replicate? Take our weekly quiz

Have you been paying attention this week? Test your knowledge across politics, business and world news.

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Raynor Winn and her husband Moth Winn at a screening of The Salt Path in May. Doubts have been raised about aspects of her memoir.

Salt Path shows why people love a good story (even if it isn’t true)

There is greater tolerance for lies as long as a story has “truthiness”, to use comedian Stephen Colbert’s phrase, by being plausible and emotionally resonant.

Eric Bana delivers a brooding performance as Kyle Turner in Untamed.

Netflix’s Untamed is an edgy crime thriller

Eric Bana and Sam Neill shine in a story that contrasts the grandeur of Yosemite National Park with humanity’s baser instincts.

Former first lady Michelle Obama speaking during the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rise of the ‘transvestigators’ who think Michelle Obama is a man

The online right is lost inside an “emasculation fetish”, where the children aren’t children, wives aren’t wives and, above all, men aren’t men.

Rachel Accurso in “Ms Rachel”, a children’s program that appears on YouTube and has also been streaming on Netflix since the beginning of the year.

Streaming wars: It’s now a battle between YouTube and Netflix

The two dominant platforms are veering onto each other’s turf as they compete for the same audience.

From Benjamin Millepied’s production of ‘Gems’.

Brisbane scores coup with trilogy from a contemporary master of dance

French-born, LA-based Benjamin Millepied and his ballet company are heading to Australia for a rare performance at the Brisbane Festival.

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the latest blockbuster in the Marvel universe.

How Marvel’s heroes lost their superpowers

The studio has long been the engine that powered global cinema ticket sales. But a crowded and confusing universe has left the comic book characters running out of puff.

Adam Scott, left, and Britt Lower in Severance.

Severance dominates Emmy nods as Apple challenges HBO and Netflix

The Netflix drama earned a swag of nominations but nothing came close to dystopian workplace series “Severance” from Apple, which achieved acclaim and audience buzz.

This 1971 Karuizawa ‘Noh’ single malt Japanese whisky, one of 82 bottles, was estimated at $80,000 to $100,000 at Lawsons but didn’t find a buyer.

Not enough distress: Japanese whisky sale tanks

The SMSF seller of rare whiskies could have put off buyers, but interest in Escher and Turner proves almost infinite.

La Belle Rafaëla, 1927, by Tamara de Lempicka, was the top lot at Sotheby’s in London, selling for £7.5 million.

$15m nude is proof that women are the future of the art world

Pretty much the only good news in a disappointing London sale season was the results for female artists.

Tony Albert and David Charles Collins’  Warakuna Superheroes #1_2017 features Indigenous boy Kieran Lawson as a proud First Nations caped crusador.

Australian artists set the world’s top photo festival abuzz

It’s the first time photographers from Down Under are showing at Les Rencontres d’Arles in the south of France, widely considered the most important show of its kind.

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The Magic Rat and His Slick Machine

Glowing quoll shortlisted for science photography prize

A never-before-captured “biofluorescing” Eastern Quoll is among the 12 finalists of this year’s Beaker Street Science Photography Prize.

AGNSW director Maud Page: “I want to create dwelling spaces where families can come and hang out. I want people from across Sydney to think of us as their second home.”

Meet the woman with NSW’s biggest (and hardest) arts job

Maud Page is the first female to run the Art Gallery Of NSW, but its immediate survival as the costs of a new building bite is what she is dwelling on.

Who’s to blame for pricey coffee? Find out in our weekly quiz

Have you been paying attention this week? Test your knowledge across politics, business and world news.

When I interviewed Noel Gallagher in January 2012 at the Sydney Big Day Out, he had only one gripe

Why the Oasis reunion is hitting ’90s kids so hard

They were the last band that wanted to be the biggest in the world – and they’re back at a time when we might need that belief more than ever.

An Apple 1, part of the first batch of the company’s computers, is being auctioned by Sotheby’s New York.

Why the ultra-rich are investing in weird collectables

Forget buying a Picasso. The 1 per cent want nostalgic artefacts such as early computers and dinosaur bones – and auctioneers are struggling to keep up.

In Pictures: Paris Fashion Week

Jaw-dropping styles and celebrity theatrics mark the semi-annual French event.

David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman.

Superman reboot fails to fly high enough

Writer-director James Gunn is good for eye-popping and colourful action scenes and effects, but there’s nothing innovative here.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Greta Thunberg now leads anti-Israel protests wearing a keffiyeh and shouting “crush Zionism”.

Hate has no place? If only that were true

The best way to start to overcome antisemitism is to encourage young people to have a bit more empathy and lot less hatred for those they disagree with.

Brian Cox as Logan Roy in “Succession”.

Why Succession’s Brian Cox would never play Donald Trump

“You look for characters who have some redeeming qualities,” says the actor who played Logan Roy. Presumably this includes economist Adam Smith, who he is portraying in a new stage play.

Winston Smith (Michael Walley) and Julia (Chloe Bayliss) fight for their truth in Shake and Stir Theatre’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984.

How Trump 2.0 and social media gave Orwell’s 1984 new life

A stage adaption of George Orwell’s dystopian novel has been packing them in, as its themes – newspeak, thought police and constant surveillance – hit home.

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