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Fashion Streeter
The Uniter Fashion Streeter is an ongoing documentation of creative fashion in Winnipeg inspired by the Helsinki fashion blog www.hel-looks.com. Each issue will feature a new look from our city’s streets and bars in an attempt to encourage individual expression and celebrate that you are really, really good looking.
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The PROFile - Christina Szurlej
Before diving into a lecture on human rights and conflict resolution, Dr. Christina Szurlej likes to start off her class with some music. She even takes requests, and if you just happen to ask for Tanita Tikaram’s Dust on My Shoes she’d likely be happy to oblige.
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Education at the core
After years of working in Manitoba’s education system, Heather Hunter is helping others learn through her extensive experience.
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A different ending
If every picture tells a story, filmmaker Cameron Monkman is counting on several stories to reveal the big picture.
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Lost in the Flood
Quietly and without much fanfare, more than 800 people from First Nations communities were evacuated from their homes this year.
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Time for a change
The political landscape in Manitoba is in vast need of a shakeup. Barely a month after a shocking municipal result, the spotlight, whether Brian Bowman likes it or not, has quickly shifted to the provincial stage. This stage will feature an election within 18 months and currently hosts a governing party in a rare state of dysfunction.
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Winterizing ability
Winter in Winnipeg is upon us. The mercury has plummeted and the snow has started falling. Buses have filled as people trade their walking shoes and bike helmets for bus passes (except for the winter cyclists, whose grit puts us all to shame). In the true Winnipeg way, conversations have started to begin with a brief synopsis of the long-range forecast. Such is winter.
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A whale of a time
It’s so easy to forget that Manitoba’s a coastal province. But travel some 1,700 kilometers north from Winnipeg to Churchill and spend a few days kayaking amongst the belugas in the Hudson Bay. That sort of memory won’t fade in a hurry. It was that experience that eventually convinced Kristin Westdal to return to the frigid area for a full-time gig.
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No bells and whistles
Lunch Bell Bistro opened a few months ago on the ground floor of Main Street’s Bell Hotel Supportive Housing Complex, between Higgins and Logan Ave. The small diner’s staffed mostly by people living with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Press coverage was initially sparse. But as Josh Marantz, the restaurant’s general manager, welcomes us at into the nearly empty spot on a snowy Wednesday, he informs us that it’s one of the slowest days in memory.
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The Theory of Everything
It’s interesting that The Theory of Everything is billed as a romance. The film follows the real life story of world famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and his relationship with Jane, a religious Cambridge arts student, who later became his wife. The two had only known each other a short time when Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21. Indeed, it’s a love story, but not necessarily one of romantic love.
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Dumb and Dumber To
In my books, 1994’s Dumb and Dumber is a classic comedy. Sure, writers/directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly have made better and funnier movies (Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary), but the naively hopeful performances of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels elevated that goofy, juvenile material in an undeniably endearing fashion.
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Meet your new neighbours
Every year, hundreds of people flee war-torn refugee camps for a more peaceful life in Winnipeg. In 2013, Manitoba welcomed 1,484 refugees - the highest per capita in the country. The dramatic transition between countries and cultures is what’s explored in Letters to Our Children: Stories of Refuge.
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Sharing the love
At this point, most are somewhat aware of the tenets of polyamory. Monogamy is restrictive, if not a totally bunk relic of Judeo-Christian metaphysics. Why can one become emotionally intimate with new people, but not physically? Why bother drawing such lines? As long as consent and honesty ground everything, anything goes. The logic seems sound.
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Gleaming the Edge
Skateboards and snow don’t mix, which becomes an annual problem for local practitioners of the sport, though many think of it as an art form. What happens when your addiction, your passion, your life vanishes for half of the year? When the white stuff falls, the Winnipeg skate scene is forced indoors.
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Not your baba’s clothing store
“A lot of the stuff I sell is more casual,” Rachael Poklitar tells me over coffee at The Good Will Social Club. It’s a freezing cold evening and traffic is slipping and sliding all over Portage Avenue. “I personally don’t dress super fancy. I just kind of mish and mash what I like. So I take that approach with the shop, too. Wearing vintage in a modern way.”
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A silver lining
Jim Silver has long provided a voice against the status quo.
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FINN
The debut EP from Winnipeg quintet FINN delivers five ultra-clean pop rockers that live somewhere between late-period Death Cab and early Teenage Fanclub. "Father's Chair" and "River's Shore" both have a bit of an edge while playing it safe, blending acoustic guitars with light distortion.
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Vogue Dots
This four-song EP from New Brunswick chillwave duo Vogue Dots delivers the sad.
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F.P. Tranquilizer & Microdot
I'm not sure why these two local albums, which exist fine on their own, are delivered here on one disc, but it's okay because it's economical and it all really works together.
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Homeward Bound
There are few artists who hold the ability to work in a myriad of media while still being humbly productive and keeping their feet grounded. Rae Spoon is one of those few.
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Out of the wild
A cabin in Manitoba’s Interlake region lacking both running water and Internet was Kathryn Kerr’s creative space for the genesis of her debut EP. Wood Songs was released this past summer and serves as an introduction to her folk-based solo project that goes under the moniker of astre, (the French word for “star”).
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Freethinking
On November 12, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a pact between their nations to focus on addressing climate change. The agreement - while imperfect - is a positive development.
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Whose House? William’s House.
The downtown apartment of comic book writer William O’Donnell is a bit unorganized, as he recently moved. Clusters of shelves surrounding his television are stuffed with hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays, a wonderfully diverse collection with such titles as The Complete Mr. Bean and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Boxes overflowing with action figures and memorabilia rest at our feet.
University of Winnipeg and downtown community newspaper