’Tis the season for holiday music to fill the air. From classics to covers and everything in between, the Manitoban staff are getting into the holiday spirit by sharing our favourite seasonal songs, and some we would rather forget. Pour the eggnog, press “play” and enjoy.
The Bulldog Event Centre hosted the first ever Manitoba Loud Music Awards (MLMAs) to great success over the weekend of Nov. 19 to 21. Organized by Badlands Promotions of Portage la Prairie, Man. and Frozen Fire Studios, the awards ceremonies were accompanied by live performances from Manitoban bands in the loud music genres with three bands performing each night.
The saying goes that Canada has two main exports: hockey and comedy. Though a blatant generalization of our country, it’s not an understatement to acknowledge that one of the Canadian comedy giants — particularly one oozing of Canadiana — is Rick Mercer. As the pandemic brought comedy to a near standstill, Mercer took to a new project, writing Talking to Canadians: A Memoir.
The Good Will Social Club was lit purple on the night of Nov. 20 for the first live showcase of the House of Wonders roster.
This winter, Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR) presents a remounted production of Shakespeare’s Will, written by Winnipeg-born playwright and two-time Governor General’s Award winner, Vern Thiessen. The play’s original run was in early 2020 during ShakespeareFest, the final iteration the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Master Playwright Festival. It was filmed for the screen on the mainstage at Prairie Theatre Exchange with video direction by local filmmaker Sam Vint.
Beginning as the solo project of Isiah Schellenberg, former member of indie bands brite and notme, Winnipeg’s meadows has expanded its membership and established itself as one of the most exciting and prolific acts in the city. Among the three EPs released in the past year, its most cohesive is wild flower.
Arranged in a fairly straightforward manner around the perimeter of the gallery, the works in Traces begin to the left of the entrance, leading viewers clockwise around the space. There is a natural order and flow to the works and their relatively small scale invites patrons to come closer and inspect them, rather than forcing themselves into view.
Toronto-area indie rockers Casper Skulls are back from a four-year hiatus since their debut record Mercy Works, with their harsh edges dulled and their spirits wizened. Originally drawing comparison to noisy art rock legends like Pavement and Sonic Youth, their new album Knows No Kindness brings influence from ’70s folk rock and alt-country, with widescreen expansiveness and a renewed focus on songwriting and storytelling.
The popular phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is perhaps the best way to summarize the events that happened between July 2017 and May 2018 in Markham, Ont. On a July morning that fateful year, the residents of Cathedraltown — a residential neighbourhood of Markham — awoke to find a giant chrome cow on 25-foot tall stilts in the parkette that acts as a front lawn to some houses on Charity Crescent.
Winnipeg-based writer and former Manitoban contributor Alex Passey has just released Shadow of the Desert Sun. Published in September, this “sword and sorcery fantasy” is Passey’s second novel to date.