The Alternative Gig Guide

Remember when every renovation show had that one moment where someone painted a single wall a bold, slightly questionable colour and called it a feature wall? That whole era is quietly fading out. Walk through any recently completed home or commercial fitout now and the feature wall has been replaced by something with actual texture. Decorative wall panelling, doing the same job paint used to do, just far more convincingly. So what’s actually driving designers away from paint and toward panels?

If you’ve ever been in a car accident in NSW, someone probably told you “don’t worry, CTP covers it.” That green slip on your rego renewal feels like a safety net. And to be fair, it is one. But here’s the thing nobody explains until you’re actually filing a claim: CTP insurance has limits, exclusions, and gaps that catch a lot of people off guard at the worst possible time. Lawyers who handle these cases day in and day out see this exact confusion play out constantly.

Kids grow. It sounds obvious, almost silly to state, but it’s the single fact that makes paediatric seating a completely different puzzle to adult seating. A system that fits perfectly at a review appointment in March might be pinching by the school holidays in December. For families new to this world, and even for therapists early in paediatric practice, understanding how growth, posture, and function interact can save a lot of frustration, and a lot of unnecessary funding requests.

Everyone loves to argue about whether robot vacuums are worth it, usually based on a gut feeling rather than actual numbers. So let’s skip the vibes and do the maths properly, using a typical Australian household as the test case. Three bedrooms, one dog, timber floors through the living areas, carpet in the bedrooms. Pretty standard setup for a huge chunk of the country.

So you’re standing in the driveway, squinting up at your roof, and something feels off. Maybe the tiles look chalky and grey instead of that rich terracotta they used to be. Maybe there’s a patch near the chimney that’s gone a weird shade of green. Either way, you’ve probably landed here because you typed “roof restoration cost Sydney” into Google at some ungodly hour, and honestly, that’s a smart move before you call anyone. Let’s cut straight to it.

Every accounting platform sends invoices. Very few are judged on whether those invoices get paid, which is the only outcome that matters to the person sending them. This comparison sets aside general accounting capability and looks at one thing: what each platform does to shorten the gap between issuing an invoice and having the money arrive.

Melbourne Fringe Festival kicks off next week Christopher Bryant’s Melbourne Fringe show, New Balance is an empowering theatre piece sharing stories that move beyond trauma to imagine a brightly queer future. We got to chat with Christopher more about his show, post-fringe plans and some spoilers from the show: Your upcoming show is called “New Balance” and discusses the queer community, what’s your favourite part about the queer community?The solidarity we often have with each other.

Melbourne Fringe Festival kicks off next week and one of the first shows on the roster is Em Barrett’s Ode To A Grape. We were lucky enough to have a quick chat with Em to hear a bit more about her, the show and some sneaky spoilers: How would you describe Ode To A Grape in 3 words? Inspiring, absurd, and hilarious. What are your plans post Melbourne Fringe? Sleep sleep sleep! Then onto the next festival. I’m hoping MICF! If Ode To A Grape had a soundtrack, what hit songs would it be associated with?

For somebody who has built a career by refusing to follow the conventional route, Cam Cole knows a thing or two about chasing dreams. On ‘Chasing Dreams’, however, the blues-rock powerhouse isn’t interested in ambition for ambition’s sake. Instead, he turns his attention towards a harder lesson: knowing which battles are actually yours to fight. The track emerged from a period when Cole found himself consumed by the problems around him.

Some records search for answers. Unanswered is more interested in what happens while you’re waiting for them. Across four interconnected compositions, Francesco Virgilio’s mokroïé turns uncertainty into somewhere listeners are invited to inhabit. Questions of mortality, adolescence, grief and existence move through progressive electronics, organic instrumentation and psychedelic textures without being forced towards convenient conclusions.