The To-Do List: What to do, watch, buy, read, eat, and listen to this weekend.

Welcome to the weekend!

Here’s a little round-up of things we’ve loved (or intend to love) this week. Music, books, movies — it’s all here.

Watch: A Bigger Splash

I would watch, enchanted, as Tilda Swinton cut her toenails, but she is truly fascinating in this new film. As rock legend Marianne Lane (Swinton) recuperates on the stunning Mediterranean island of Pantelleria with her longtime partner Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts), her life is disrupted with the arrival of record producer and former lover Harry (Ralph Fiennes) arrives with his gorgeous daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson). Jealousy, nostalgia, and passion ensue. It’s a total visual feast.

Watch the trailer here to see what I mean…

Hear: C.W. Stoneking at the zoo

In what has to be the world’s best setting for a gig, Taronga Zoo has been hosting a concert series all summer. Friday 11 March is set to be a killer show, with the raspy, bluesy C.W. Stoneking and support by the excellent Marlon Williams.
Incredibly, it’s not sold out yet — so get on it.

Buy: The Fifth

The latest collection from local label The Fifth is perfectly laidback for this unseasonably hot autumn. Full of soft denim, cool sheer separates (and this killer dress), and comfy, floaty dresses, these pieces will see you through to such time as a pair of tights is needed. If the weather ever cools down. Buy it at BNKR.

Watch: The Characters

The great thing about Netflix is that it’s not beholden to networks, and it doesn’t have to pander to advertisers. It never has to play it safe. That’s how a show like The Characters gets made. Take eight young, up-and-coming comedians and give them 30 minutes to play with. Each writes and stars in their own self-contained sketch show. The result? Netflix is calling it “outlaw comedy”.

See for yourself…

Listen: Andrew Bird Are You Serious.

Illinois musician Andrew Bird’s latest album Are You Serious features his trademark bluesy, folky guitar, nimble lyrcism and an excellent collab with Fiona Apple. Make it your soundtrack. It’s out April 1.

Get a taste here.

Drinking: Banana and date smoothie

This is like a rich, decadent dessert in a glass. And it’s not even bad for you! The dates give it a caramel-y flavour.

Blend pitted dates, frozen bananas, almond milk, vanilla essence and ice-cubes. Consume with relish. Get the recipe at Food52.

Eat: A donut ice-cream.

EAT IT!

This beauty originated in the glorious city of Prague. It’s a cone-shaped donut, the inside of which is coated with chocolate, filled with strawberries, and topped with ice-cream.

Christian Avant, of as-yet unopened Bondi bar/resto Milky Lane, has become just the fourth person in our fair nation to own an oven that can produce the cone-shaped donut.

He told Pedestrian he’s called his version a “Conut”.

If he’s the fourth, then there are three other places in Australia making these delicacies. Find them, friends!

Do: Get in Formation.

Two chicks are behind the sweatiest, coolest dance class I’ve ever taken. Amrita Hepi and Vanessa Marian make up Hollaback. They’re professional dancers who can teach you to move like Rihanna, Beyonce, or the dancers in Justin Bieber’s Sorry video. Well, they’ll make you feel like you can, anyway.

This is basically me now…

I took a class at Sydney’s Plan B with Amrita learning Beyonce’s incredible Formation choreography. She was so warm, so much fun, so thoughtful, and she made the room a very safe space. Can’t dance? No shame. Shake what your mama gave ya anyway.

The girls also run classes in Melbourne, so keep your eyes peeled.

Watch: The classics on SBS.

For the month of March, SBS2 is screening classic back-to-back ’80s flicks.

Think Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Golden Child, Weird Science, and Red Dawn.

Read: Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett

When Mary Davidson, the eldest daughter of a whaling family from Eden, NSW, decides to document the difficult whaling season of 1908, she unwittingly tells the chronicles her own first love story. The book is an incredible insight into a place and time in Australia’s history that few know about — as well as a beautiful study of the dutiful Mary, her family, and pod of extremely cheeky killer whales.