Page 152 Inside Gillian Armstrong’s mind Page 157 Top noise-cancelling headphones Page 160 The new Mercedes-Benz Coupé iQ. Golden Years Why the David Bowie exhibition is the hottest ticket of the month. Page 168 Brian Duffy July 2015 | QANTAS 151 iQ. Who Knew? If you could have dinner with two famous people, living or dead, who would you choose? Orry-Kelly and Bette Davis. After two years researching their lives, they sound like very lively dinner companions and I’ve got a few more questions! As Orry was also known for honesty, we’d have fun. What travel experience is on your bucket list? Iceland and Alaska, even though I hate the cold. But [seeing] a polar bear and an iceberg are on my wish list. How do you switch off? I’m a TV junkie. I turn televisions on when I walk into rooms and watch whatever – mostly news, talk shows, the weather and breakfast programs. When I actually sit down, I’m a very snobby viewer. I watch documentaries on the ABC or SBS or Apple TV, or I binge-view all the latest great cable drama – from The Killing to Game of Thrones, Mad Men and Olive Kitteridge. What’s your guilty pleasure? [TV series] Border Security. I say it’s because of my professional interest in human behaviour – and the amount of time I’ve stood in lines at airports wondering who everyone else is and what their secrets are. What quality do you most admire in men? Blue eyes smiling at me. What quality do you most admire in women? Laughter – with me. If you could turn back time, what would you change? I’d have learned another language when the brain was more agile, say at age six. Starting French at high school was too late for my brain. Also, it seemed a bit late for maths. What’s your greatest strength? What is your greatest achievement? Gillian Honesty. Getting Lyla to walk to heel. The next What’s your greatest weakness? challenge is to contain her new… let’s say, Armstrong I am too honest. It could also be called slightly aggressive behaviour to all those tactless and abrupt – even rude! It’s small yappy dogs that used to attack her. a Sagittarian fault. Who’s your personal hero? What scares you? My bloke [flm editor John Pleffer]. He has She’s been bagging awards since Oncoming traffc. put up with a lot over the past 40 years. 1979’s My Brilliant Career. But here, What virtue do you admire most in people? He’s a great dad as well… and has blue eyes. director-producer Gillian Armstrong Compassion. Where would we find you at a party? says her greatest achievement is not If you could do any other job, what By the food and drink table with a glass, on screen – it’s on the end of a leash. would it be? talking and waving my hands around and I wish I could be a fabulous singer. I do knocking over stuff. love the power of holding a hand mic. If you were an animal what would it be? What’s one thing about you that would A dolphin. All that jumping out of the water surprise people? looks fun. And I love warm blue oceans. I don’t drive. If you were down to your last $20, what What’s your most treasured possession? would you spend it on? Lyla Belle, the labrador-poodle cross known A good movie and a choc top, of course! in the family as Fur Child. What’s your idea of absolute happiness? Gillian Armstrong’s new documentary, Women INTERVIEW BY DI WEBSTER Seeing my daughters and the dog He's Undressed, about Australian costume PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAMIAN BENNETT laughing together. designer Orry-Kelly, is released on July 15. Styling by Amanda Newman. Hair and make-up by Wayne Chick. PhotographedSydney (qtsydney.com.au). on location Gillian at QT Armstrong own her jewellery and shoes wears Balenciaga (eastonpearson.com); pants Pearson Easton top and Chloé(parlourx.com.au), jacket from Parlour X 152 QANTAS | July 2015 iQ. Books & Music BOOK REVIEWS BY PAUL ROBINSON THE PLAYLIST LONG HAUL SHORT HAUL LAYOVER COURTNEY BARNETT Singer-songwriter Her debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, The Harder They Come Granta 131 The Sunlit Night was released to rave TC Boyle Edited by Sigrid Rausing Rebecca Dinerstein reviews in March – even Bloomsbury, $29.99 Granta, $24.99 Bloomsbury, $27.99 Ellen DeGeneres called the Melbourne-based TC BOYLE’S latest novel NOTHING gives you more bang JILTED by her boyfriend and alt-rock muso one of her blasts off at warp speed. When for your buck than Granta, the with her parents’ marriage favourite new artists. Here, a tour group is held up by armed UK publisher that turns “the on the rocks, Frances escapes Courtney Barnett shares robbers in the Costa Rican jungle, attention of the world’s best Manhattan to accept a painting her own favourites – Vietnam vet Sten Stensen saves writers onto one aspect of the apprenticeship at an isolated including The Lemonheads’ the day, catches the attention way we live now”. Combining artist colony in Lofoten, an “Paid to Smile”, which she of the media and becomes fiction, reportage, memoir and archipelago in the Norwegian calls “the perfect pop song”. a minor celebrity. But back home poetry with photo essays, every Sea. There she meets Yasha, who in California, his racist/survivalist edition offers abundant thought has buried his Russian father in son is on the brink of going postal. provocation – in bite-size chunks this “peaceful place at the top of Dick Diver Using turbocharged prose, Boyle – for all tastes. The Spring 2015 the world”. In her debut novel – by “Waste the Alphabet” paints a frightening picture of issue, The Map Is Not the Territory, turns melancholy and humorous America’s radical right-wing focuses on the chasm between but always acutely observed – Teeth & Tongue psyche in all its gun-totin’ our view of the world and how Dinerstein explores the nature “Cupcake” off-the-grid glory. His alienated it really is. Standouts are the of family dysfunction, grief and characters, fuelled by paranoia, frontline journalism of Charles loss as two lonely people collide Darren Hanlon parrot anti-government Glass (Armenian genocide in under the midnight sun. The “The Chattanooga propaganda in an atmosphere Syria) and Janine di Giovanni (Iraq inescapable conclusion is that Shoot Shoot” where seeing someone else’s conflict), and the short stories of setting our personal GPS relies viewpoint is akin to treason. Kevin Canty (The Florida Motel) less on geography and more Boys Next Door This is a timely, unsettling and and Ottessa Moshfegh (Nothing on the people we care for. This “Shivers” provocative read. Ever Happens Here). is a writer to watch. You Am I “Heavy Heart” Peaches (feat Iggy Pop) “Kick It” LIE ON THE BEACH A Fortunate Age tech boom of the late ’90s, Joanna Rakoff crashing to a halt with 9/11’s The Lemonheads Bloomsbury, $29.99 reality check. This is a reworking “Paid to Smile” of Mary McCarthy’s The Group FRESHLY graduated from private – officially a homage – but the Tweedy liberal arts college Oberlin, a Gen satire and harsh judgement of “Low Key” X clique is ready to make its mark the 1963 novel is mostly absent. on New York. The money-making Gently funny, Rakoff’s writing George Harrison imperative is slowly supplanting is perceptive – especially with “My Sweet Lord” “being interesting” and bohemian pop-culture references – and disarray in Brooklyn is being she obviously cares about her The Kossoy Sisters traded for middle-class comforts. characters. Lightweight yet “I’ll Fly Away” The action occurs during the strangely worthy. 154 QANTAS | July 2015 iQ. Technology REVIEWS BY JENNETH ORANTIA Do not disturb GOOD noise-cancelling headphones don’t come cheaply but they’re priceless if you want much-needed shut-eye on the plane. With microphones in the ear cups, these high-tech marvels detect external noise – from chatter in an offce to the hum of aeroplane engines – and cancel it out, making your surroundings as quiet as a Trappist monk with laryngitis… in deep space. Noise-cancelling technology needs battery power to operate and while most headphones continue working passively if you run out of juice, there are some that don’t. For long-distance travellers, this may mean you’ll need to recharge the headphones during the fight. Sennheiser Momentum Beats Studio Wireless Sony MDR-1R Noise Bose QuietComfort 25 2.0 Wireless $479.95 Cancelling MK2 $399 $799.95 au.beatsbydre.com Headphones bose.com.au en-au.sennheiser.com For some, the popular Beats $569.95 Bose has long set the standard OK, they’re exxy but these By Dre name alone will be sony.com.au for great noise-reduction and German-engineered headphones enough to sway them into the Ignore the standard-issue black cancelling headphones and offer an unbeatable combination Beats Studio Wireless camp. trappings; these MDR-1R MK2 these don’t stray from this of style and audiophile-grade These headphones combine headphones from Sony are fine tradition. Clamping these performance. The soft leather Bluetooth wireless playback a cut above the rest thanks to headphones – which come ear pads let you wear them with active noise cancellation the outstanding noise cancellation in black or white – over your comfortably for many hours at in a fashion-forward package in and well-articulated sound that ears produces an uncanny a time and the battery has 20 multiple colours.