Page 152 Tim Minchin gets personal Page 157 Find the smartest smartwatch Page 160 The BMW i3 electric revolution iQ. Bright young things The future stars of ballet express themselves through Dance Dialogues. Page 171 Georges Antoni Georges August 2015 | QANTAS 151 iQ. Who Knew? What’s one thing about you that would surprise people? I’m lifestyle conservative. I like to be up and working early in the morning, I sleep normal hours, I’ve never taken any illicit drugs and I’m married to my frst girlfriend. What’s your idea of absolute happiness? Post-coital afternoon naps. Can I say that? If you could have dinner with two famous people, who would you choose? I know it’s nauseating but I’ve managed to weasel my way into drinking/eating situations with nearly all the people I most admire. I recently had a very pleasant dinner with Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith. How cool is that? What travel experiences remain on your bucket list? I’ve not travelled much so most of them are still on the list. Paros, Kakadu, Tokyo. What’s your most treasured possession? My back-up hard drive. How do you switch off? By drinking gently or exercising hard. What’s your guilty pleasure? Ha! I have a whole bit of stand-up about this question, most of it unprintable. So I’ll just say… wine. What quality do you most admire in people? I admire people who can think clearly, alter opinions and smile generously. If you could turn back time, what would you change in your life? Even the tiniest adjustment of any decision or action would fundamentally alter all that happens after it – so although I would wish to alter absolutely nothing, I would inevitably alter absolutely everything. What is your greatest achievement? I’m proud that I got quite good at the piano What is your greatest strength? without much guidance. Tim Minchin I like people and think I’m quite good at Who is your personal hero? understanding them. I don’t think I have one. Expecting humans What is your greatest weakness? to be heroes ends in disappointment. I’m unable to give short answers. This one, Where would we find you at a party? Tim Minchin is a comedian, actor, for example, could have fnished at the end Talking too much around a table. composer, songwriter, pianist, musical of the last sentence but instead continues What’s your most Australian trait? director and huge rock ’n’ roll megastar on, apparently unconcerned by the absence My inability to respect authority fgures (the last bit is his). Now, this is what of purpose or meaningful content. who expect respect without earning it. you don’t know. What scares you? If you were an animal what would you be? The acceleration of perceived time as we I would be a hairy, ginger man. age, the speed at which my children are If you were down to your last $20, what growing up and the potential death or would you spend it on? injury of people I like. Bread, cheese, very cheap wine. What’s your favourite karaoke song? How would you like to be remembered? “I Will Survive”. As kind. What virtue do you admire most in people? Generosity – of spirit, fnance, time. Tim Minchin wrote the music and lyrics INTERVIEW BY DI WEBSTER If you could do any other job, what would it be? for Matilda the Musical, which is currently PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOB BARKER I’d teach. playing at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre. 152 QANTAS | August 2015 iQ. Books & Music REVIEWS BY PAUL ROBINSON THE PLAYLIST LONG HAUL SHORT HAUL LAYOVER MEG MAC Singer-songwriter Though she won Triple J’s Unearthed competition for unsigned artists only last Zero Zero Zero Motherland R&R year, Meg Mac’s big, soulful Roberto Saviano Jo McMillan Mark Dapin voice has already earned Allen Lane, $32.99 John Murray, $29.99 Viking, $32.99 her comparisons to Adele. The Melbourne indie singer Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah In a Midlands town, 13-year-old He spent “formative” years in gathered a huge following lifted the lid on the machinations Jess helps her mum, Eleanor, sell Aldershot (the “Home of the on her recent US tour, of the Camorra (Neapolitan the socialist Morning Star. But British Army”), was embedded when she opened for Mafia) and his exhaustively Eleanor’s communist ideology with the Australian Defence D’Angelo. Here she shares researched Zero Zero Zero is past its use-by date in 1978 Force Academy in Canberra and the songs she listened to – a nickname for A-grade England. The offer of a teaching has written and/or edited several on the road. “They seemed cocaine – will do the same job behind the Iron Curtain offers military histories. So Dapin is to match the scenery out of to the global trade of the drug. a way out of their precarious no stranger to subject matter the tour-bus window,” she Following links between South existence. But as life in East of a martial nature. He puts his says. And she got to hear American cartels and mercenaries Germany palls, Jess begins to knowledge to good use in this her frst choice in person to European crime families, realise her mother hasn’t backed tale of dirty deeds in the south every night… militias and warlords, the Italian a winner and Eleanor finds Vietnamese town of Vung Tau, investigative journalist tracks trouble in paradise. Mixing where GIs and Diggers take a horror story of murder and a coming-of-age and mother- time out from the war. When D’Angelo corruption. A fervent crusader child relationship story with a crooked American MP shoots “Betray My Heart” against “respectable” western commentary on the Cold War an already dead man in a brothel, financial institutions that launder is a complex and curiously other MPs, local gangsters and Hiatus Kaiyote drug dollars daily, Saviano has compelling device. McMillan’s the Viet Cong get involved in “Breathing Underwater” garnered enough death threats debut about life on the losing a power struggle over who’s to warrant round-the-clock side of history is both pulling the strings. Fast-paced Tame Impala military-police protection for the melancholic broken dream and uncompromisingly visceral, “Let it Happen” past eight years. A terrific read. and humorous adventure. this is a top-notch thriller. Kimbra “Goldmine” Camille “Jolie Bruine” LIE ON THE BEACH China Rich Girlfriend been bought by the producers Kevin Kwan of The Hunger Games), incredibly Jarryd James Allen & Unwin, $29.99 wealthy Nick Young is set to marry “Do You Remember” middle-class ABC (American- Imagine having a lazy $250 born Chinese) Rachel – but she Bon Iver million to drop on a painting or soon discovers she has some rich, “Heavenly Father” your very own 747, accessorised elite relatives herself. This satirical with a karaoke lounge and an soap opera mines a rich stream Ibeyi operating theatre – plus surgeon. of social climbing and status- “River” Welcome to the unimaginable symbol acquisition to the beat opulence of China’s super-rich. of high-society protocol. And Little Dragon In this hilarious sequel to Crazy Kwan’s explanatory footnotes “Twice” Rich Asians (movie rights have are as funny as the story itself. Ben Smith 154 QANTAS | August 2015 iQ. Technology Pebble Steel Samsung approx $260 Gear S getpebble.com $449 With up to a week samsung.com of battery life, the The Gear S looks handsome Pebble like a smartphone Steel is a great shoehorned into choice for the a bangle but it traveller who wants offers some nifty to spend time features. Its 3G relaxing instead data connection of recharging. means you can It’s also the only make phone calls, smartwatch that send texts, receive supports both email and browse iOS and Android. the internet without However, you’ll need being connected to to make a few your smartphone. compromises: The built-in GPS the screen is pairs with navigation a monochrome, apps such as Nokia non-touch display Here for turn-by- and you can turn direction, live only have eight traffic news and apps installed public-transport at one time. information for more than 900 cities. LG Watch Urbane Apple Watch approx $600 From $499 lg.com/us apple.com The most watch- Everything about like smartwatch the Apple Watch is we’ve seen doesn’t beautiful, from the skimp on high-tech Up to stylish metal casing functions. The wi-fi and multiple band feature works well the minute options, through for forwarding to the clever user calls and relaying IT SEEMS new models of the smartwatch are being released more interface and notifications when often than you actually remember to check the time. Championed by seamless iPhone your Android phone Apple and other consumer-tech companies, these devices function integration. It works is in another building as extensions of a smartphone, serving up bite-sized portions of brilliantly as a travel – or halfway across information and ensuring you don’t miss calls and notifcations while companion, too; the globe. The your mobile is in your pocket, bag or another room. While Apple more airlines, hotel Google Now feature has only just joined the fray, smartwatches have been around for chains and holiday- displays flight a few years. The current generation is far more polished and booking services information and feature-rich than early devices but one thing that’s yet to change have introduced issues reminders for is the battery life. If you’re upgrading from a regular wristwatch, apps for the Apple scheduled events the nightly charging is hard to get used to.