Arts and Entertainment

How music gets you in the mood

"Like peacock feathers, music is used by humans to attract mates and we've been writing love songs for centuries," said music psychologist Dr Sandra Garrido of the University of Western Sydney.

Given these days we have access to such an unprecedented range of music styles, as part of ABC Classic FM's celebration of the music of passion and heartbreak, we're asking: can science help you decide what music will get you in the mood?

Jennifer Lawrence can't save the sadistic spectacle that is Mother!

Mother! suggests a sympathetic, if essentialist view of women and their role: giving birth, nurturing life. And in this case, supporting a celebrity author husband with writer's block. But Ball and Chain! might have been more appropriate.

The film is a devastating portrayal of male selfishness in which an artist behaves appallingly to his wife who spends much of the movie trying to get his attention. He acts out of neglect more than anything else, but this triggers consequences that are catastrophic for her.

How to shoot wildlife (with a camera) like a pro

His "bread and butter" as a wedding photographer pays the bills, but his real passion is wildlife.

The Sydney-based photographer was a finalist in this year's Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Awards with a portrait of a family of brolgas that had just returned to their nest to settle in for the night in Victoria.

He won the award in 2015 with an incredible symmetrical shot of a white-winged tern about to take off.

"I grew up with parents who took us camping, so I loved nature, I loved being in the bush from a very young age," Mr Stowe said.

True Blood star dies aged 39

Ellis's manager, Emily Gerson Saines, confirmed the actor's death via an emailed statement on Saturday (local time).

The Hollywood Reporter, which was first to report Ellis's death, quoted her as saying the actor died from complications of heart failure, adding more information would come to light in coming days.

Vivid Sydney uses sounds, touch to bring light festival to vision impaired people

Vivid transforms landmarks across the city using light, colour and sounds and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

But making the spectacle accessible for people with limited or no vision is a challenge, particularly when it comes to what is arguably the highlight of the show, the lighting of the sails at the Opera House.

Aussie hip-hop sisterhood is breaking down barriers

"I'm having a visual of, like, people walking in the street for a cause," Akimera Burckhardt-Bedeau tells a group of women sitting around her.

"We are building a community out there, of women, who are out there doing it in hip-hop," she told News Breakfast later on.

Ms Burckhardt-Bedeau is lead facilitator at Sisters on the Mic — a program for women learning the hip-hop ropes — but she prefers to go with just Akimera on stage.

Sydney Film Festival's Screenability puts spotlight on people living with disabilities

For the first time, films that have been made and acted by people living with disabilities will be a key part of the program.

It has been made possible by Screenability — an arts initiative in New South Wales to help more people with disabilities break into the film industry.

"I think it's really important that you have creatives with disability in charge of that narrative," Sydney Film Festival's Screenability programmer Sofya Gollan said.

Pepe the Frog cartoonist kills off character that became hate symbol

A Pepe cartoon released on Saturday in comic book stores shows Matt Furie's creation in an open casket.

In a Time magazine essay last year, Furie described Pepe as "chill frog-dude" who debuted in a 2006 comic book called Boy's Club and became a popular online subject for user-generated mutations.

But internet trolls hijacked the character and began flooding social media with hateful Pepe memes more than a year before the 2016 presidential election.

Dance me to the end of adulthood

From leg irons to tap dancing

David Watson, 83, took up tap dancing in his 40s, and has danced ever since.

He took up it up by chance, after accompanying a friend from work to a dance class in Melbourne.

The ex-architecture lecturer recalled the very first lesson on a "lousy" floor located above a porn shop in Swanston Street.

"I used to have to hide my face as I walked in," Mr Watson laughed.

Didjeridu joins Adelaide Symphony Orchestra to bring The Sound of Australia

A new exhibition showcasing the history and the culture of the instrument aims to change that.

A career as an instrumentalist has taken William Barton from "the soundscapes of the Australian bushland" to Carnegie Stadium, the Beijing Olympics, and even a private concert for Queen Sofia of Spain.

Now it's taken him to Adelaide's Town Hall, where he's collaborating with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, as part of the world-first exhibition on the didjeridu, The Sound of Australia.