All you need is your phone, a bed sheet, paper and pens.
All you need is your phone, a bed sheet, paper and pens.
Turns out there are many things you can do at home that you never even considered, before you had to do EVERY single thing at home. Trivia with the crew, do it from home. Indulge in an exceptional fine dining experience, do that at home too. Work, exercise, shop, get healthy, hide from your family? All those things can be done at home too. It’s a whole new world.
The latest thing you can do from home is absolutely one of the most fun and it’s brought to you by the clever team at the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts (HOTA).
It’s called Mountain Goat Mountain and it was created for families to enjoy during isolation by Australian company, Threshold.
The exciting theatre experience takes you and the kids, should you have them, on an interactive journey, through a series of activities to help set up and step into your own magical, imaginative world. So good.
Guided by a narrative soundscape, you’ll embark on the 45-minute experience using only a charged audio device (computer, phone or tablet), a bed sheet, a piece of blank paper and pencils, pens or textas.
You’ll crawl through tunnels, cross lava pits and swim through underwater caves, all without leaving home! Safe and thrilling, what more could you want.
The epic experience was created by artists, Zoë Barry, Liz Francis, Nikita Hederics, Tahli Corin and Sarah Lockwood for Threshold and developed with the support of a national collaboration by art organisations, including HOTA, Arts Centre Melbourne, Adelaide Festival Centre’s DreamBIG Children’s Festival and AWESOME International Children’s Festival.
Mountain Goat Mountain was made for families with young children (5+) who enjoy adventure and are missing going to their favourite playtime places but if that’s you too, there’s no reason you can’t jump in and have a go.
The entire experience takes around 45 minutes and it’s just $12.95 for a 30-day access family pass with all funds going to Threshold and the artists who created the work.
You can access this good time right now from here and enjoy a little bit of magic from home again.
Perfect.
Words by Kirra Smith. Images supplied.
So we can’t go to the pub, probably not for awhile. We miss cold beers and shooting the breeze with our friends, we miss parmis and people watching and the general feeling of being somewhere fun. There’s another thing we miss that’s generally related to the pub too, and that thing is trivia.
A bit of friendly competition, hilarious trivia team names, the aforementioned cold beers and parmis. Trivia is a very good time. Luckily the very clever people at the Gold Coasts’ Time Out Entertainment, who are responsible for in-person trivia at several venues across the Coast, have come up with a solution.
And that solution is, online trivia. Which is amazing and something we are absolutely going to do to fill in some time from now on.
As it has everyone, the current state affairs affected Time Out Entertainment in that they are obviously no longer able to go to the pub and offer trivia to the people. Also like many people, they were able to come up with an alternative to that problem and here we are.
Entertainment for everyone.
Combining some fancy tech equipment we will never understand and A LOT of time spent working out the details, Time Out Entertainment were able to come up with a way for people to get involved free of charge.
The first round saw 500 teams playing and that has built to now over 700 teams.
It’s run three nights a week, Wednesday and Thursday at 7pm AEST and Friday at 9pm AEST and there has even been a Kids Trivia event which had over 500 kids playing.
It’s pretty much the perfect way to stay connected to friends and family, for adults and children alike, keep that Aussie competitive spirit alive and garner some bragging rights for when we’re allowed to spend time together again.
At the moment, there’s chats in the works about online music bingo which is also super fun.
Not only that, soon there’ll be prizes to win so you can not only play for free, you can win stuff too! It just gets better and better.
If you’re keen to join in, jump over here and get started. You’re guaranteed to have a very good time.
Words by Kirra Smith
There is absolutely no doubt that good things come out of hard times and it’s absolutely incredible to see Gold Coast businesses rallying around one another, and the public in general at a time when we most need each other.
The latest business to come out in support of those who have lost a significant amount of potential income is Home of the Arts (HOTA), our premier art and cultural precinct who have obviously also been adversely affected by the state of the world.
Despite that though, the team at HOTA have announced a new artists support fund that will see them offering up to $1,000 cash for projects that take no more than one week to develop and deliver.
Criena Gehrke (CEO at HOTA) said that artists are the lifeblood of HOTA and without them, there is no Home of the Arts and they need to know they are supported now more than ever. True.
It’s called the Rage Against the V(irus) Fund and it’s designed to turn downtime into a spark for innovation, using digital technology.
For Gold Coast based artists, it’s the perfect opportunity to follow through on an idea they’ve had swirling around for awhile, develop something a bit left of centre or experiment with something completely new. Creativity with no bounds, what a brilliant idea.
If you’re thinking of applying, the projects must have an online outcome, which could include a podcast, audio file, Facebook live event, video content, streaming, Instagram or other digital platforms.
The opportunity is open to artists, collectives and organisations, or artists who have a strong connection to the Gold Coast, with successful applicants to be notified within seven days of applying.
What are you waiting for friends, get out there and make something while you have some time up your sleeves.
Expressions of interest for the HOTA Artist Fund – Rage Against The V(irus) are open from Friday 20 March to Friday 15 May, with all projects to be completed by Friday 29 May, 2020.
Good one HOTA.
Words by Kirra Smith
So there’s a few ways this stay-at-home business can go. One is that we all eat too much and lay on the floor thinking about all the things we should be doing instead.
The other is that we stay inside but also make inside our new world, bar crawls are now rooms-of-your-house crawls, Friday drinks are FaceTime drinks and exercise will also likely be an inside job.
Which is why we’re all here today. To discuss Gold Coast exercise-based businesses who have taken things online so that we may all stay fit while we have to stay inside.
VIP Lockdown Machine Squad
Run by local legends Machine Life, the online squad is $25 p/w with live daily workouts that can be accessed anytime on your phone or computer, using just your body weight, tips and tricks from the trainers (Jesse and Alyse) and an online community to support you through this time. Trainers help with technique, nutritional guidelines, motivation and accountability so that there’s no slacking off plus you get healthy recipes, live chats, team challenges and tailored workouts for all fitness levels. Join here.
Pilates by Lisa
One Gold Coast gal who has been doing the online thing for quite some time is Lisa, of Pilates by Lisa. Who is offering online pilates classes for all levels of fitness that you can (and should) absolutely get involved in from the comfort of your home with a FREE 10 day trial! Find them here.
Ritual Yoga and Pilates
The ladies at Palmy’s Ritual Yoga & Pilates are in the process of creating an online hub for yoga and pilates classes. They also offer pilates barre classes so you can get that booty all peachy for when we’re allowed outside again. Stay up to date with their progress here.
Currumbin Academy of Performing Arts
Here’s one for the kiddies – CAPA have taken their dances classes online so that’s one way for the little ones to burn some energy. Not to mention they’ll have fun and possibly learn a new skill while they’re at it. Check it out here.
Emily Skye Fitness
No doubt you’ve heard of Emily Skye, she’s been online for a long time now but she offers quite the array of workouts to keep you fit and fabulous. She’s a personal trainer so there’s lots of strength-based workouts, weights and body-weight based exercise. Plenty of variety. Find out more here.
Fluidform Pilates
Full body strength and conditioning is the name of the game at Fluidform Pilates with classes created to have a meaningful and positive impact. Of course, there are all manner of pilates classes on offer and creator Kirsten King is a former Gold Coaster. Get involved here.
We’ll keep updating as we find out about more business moving online but in the meantime, keep moving and take care of yourselves.
Words and photos by Kirra Smith
