Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter
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Honouring dad in the dark
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This is a weird week for me, because it’s both the anniversary of my father’s death and his birthday; he would have been 90 on Friday.
I think about him all the time — not in a maudlin way, because he had a long and, I think, fulfilling life — but because there’s so much of him in me. I have his hands, I hope I have some of his facility for language and I have his love of going to the movies.
The only time I can remember seeing my dad run — the man did not own a pair of jeans, let alone running shoes — was when we were late for a movie. I believe we were going to see The Gods Must Be Crazy at the Towne 8 and I recall jogging to catch up as he hustled with uncharacteristic speed down the sidewalk. (I also remember him laughing so hard during the film that the row of seats moved back and forth.)
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For my dad, the movie experience started with the trailers, and it ended when the screen faded to black, not a second before.
He always sat in the same spot, seventh row in the centre, which he claimed was the best place to fully enjoy the Dolby Surround Sound. He never visited the concession stand — he thought popcorn smelled like a hamster cage (he’s not wrong; don’t think about it too much or you’ll never eat popcorn again) and he hated the squeaky crunch of people eating it.
He was on my mind last week when I went to see The Banshees of Inisherin, which he would have adored for its black humour while he lamented its lack of car chases. As the brother of a cinematographer, he would also have appreciated the moody Irish atmosphere captured by Ben Davis.
I don’t know where exactly he would have chosen to sit in the new-style recliner seating at Grant Park (I suspect he would find the whole concept déclassé) and I’m positive he would have turned up his nose at my giant bag of popcorn with dill pickle seasoning.
But I know he would have remained in the semi-dark until the final credit rolled. So, that’s what I did too.
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Jill Wilson
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What’s up this week
The Free Press Arts & Life team has six picks for y’all this week.
Ellen Peterson’s None of This is Happening, featuring three of Winnipeg’s best actors, continues to Sunday at Theatre Projects Manitoba (Rachel Browne Theatre); see my review here.
The Offspring is bringing its Let The Bad Times Roll Tour to Canada Life Centre on Nov. 18 in support of the new album of the same name. Multi-platinum Canadian rockers Simple Plan open for the California punk act fronted by Dexter Holland, which first found fame in the ‘90s with such hits as Come Out and Play and Pretty Fly (For a White Guy). Tickets are $100 at Ticketmaster.
Virtuosi Concerts presents From Far Above: Bringer of Light at St. Andrew’s River Heights Church on Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Canadian musicians Marina Thibeault (viola) and Janelle Fung (piano) will perform a program that includes works from the classical canon by Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger and Rebecca Clarke and contemporary compositions by Alexina Louie, Anna Pidjorna and Manitoba-based violist-composer Melody McKiver. Tickets are $47.50 on Virtuosi Concerts website.
Virtuosi Concerts presents ‘From Far Above: Bringer of Light’.
Opening tonight at Theatre Cercle Moliere is Sick + Twisted’s musical adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone: Ben Waldman has a preview here.
Described as a “magical mix of music and theatre,” Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s The DreamPlay Collage Concert series — the brainchild of composer Glenn Buhr, featuring soloists Duncan Mercredi, Scott Nolan and Victoria Sparks — comes to the West End Cultural Centre this weekend for two shows, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Tickets are $30 here.
Recommended
Books: Supervised-consumption sites are very much front of mind in Winnipeg right now, and Beth Macy’s latest non-fiction book Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis, should be required reading for politicians and pundits alike. The author of Dopesick, which investigated the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma’s culpability for the opioid crisis via their marketing of OxyContin (it was made into an excellent Disney+ series), returns to the topic with a more hopeful slant, following people on the front lines of harm-reduction efforts in the United States. Anyone who is struggling with the idea that supervised-consumption sites offering a buffet of treatments options and wraparound supports are the best way to deal with drug addiction and its attendant issues will find evidence, both anecdotal and statistical, in this well-researched tome.
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NEW IN MUSIC
Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter
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NEW ON SCREEN
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NEW IN BOOKS
Alyssa Sherlock:
McCandless’ mosaic memoir lands on lauded short list
Rowan McCandless, a writer from Treaty 1 territory, continually pushes the boundaries of creative non-fiction. In 2021, Rare Machines, an imprint of Dundurn Press, published McCandless’ mosaic memoir Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments, a collection of essays about leaving a long-term abusive relationship. A year later, Persephone’s Children was shortlisted for one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards, the Governor General’s Literary Award, in the non-fiction category. Winners are to be announced on Wednesday.
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