Don’t panic and give up your lake life so fast

After 20 years, Planet of Sound is still in its own orbit around the world of music

According to a press release issued last week by the Recording Industry Association of America, for the first time since 1986 — the year songs such as Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach, Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus were topping charts all over the globe — sales of vinyl records outstripped sales of compact discs for the initial six months of the year.

Hey, Mr. Mister, it wasn’t even close. The RIAA report stated that between January and June, audiophiles doled out US$232.1 million on vinyl albums as compared with just less than US$130 million on their digital counterparts. And while that bit of news was music to the ears of Planet of Sound owner Dave Wright, it certainly didn’t come as some big surprise.

“Vinyl is definitely on the upswing and has been for a while, which is precisely why we started carrying it in the store about 10 years ago,” says Wright, whose cosy, 800-square-foot shop at 1109 Henderson Hwy., which stocks a healthy number of LPs in addition to CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, even an assortment of long-considered extinct LaserDiscs, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in November.

“It’s not just people who grew up listening to vinyl, either,” he goes on, sporting the office uniform: sneakers, dark jeans and an aquamarine-coloured, zip-up hoodie, the latter of which only partially conceals a well-worn, Joy Division T-shirt. “The other day there was a gal in here who I would have put at around 14. She picked up the Tea Party’s Edges of Twilight plus an album by the Wallflowers, the one that had their first big hit on it (we think he means Bringing Down the Horse). As she was taking out her debit card to pay I was like, how do you even know about these groups? Don’t they predate you by at least 10 years?”

One family passes trapping knowledge through three generations

Snow falls softly over a muted landscape of boreal forest, rock ridges, spruce swamps and beaver ponds. This 60-square-kilometre area of land in the southwest corner of Whiteshell Provincial Park is the Imrie family trapline; they are designated to trap and manage the populations of fur-bearing animals.

Right now, three generations of Imries — Murray, 72, Devin, 36, and five-year-old Thomas — are gathered at a beaver house. Devin thumps a 1.5-metre-long ice chisel onto the surface of the pond, looking for the entrance of the lodge (the movement of the beavers swimming back and forth below weakens the surface). Thomas climbs onto the pile of sticks and brush with his grandpa, and the two dig through the snow to find the breathing hole. Hot air and a thick, musky smell means that the beavers are active here this winter.

The scene could have taken place a century earlier. Other than the snowmobiles parked nearby, the process hasn’t changed much over the years. Devin cuts a hole in the ice, chops down a long, thin tree to serve as a pole for holding the traps under the water, and then gets to work setting them. They are wire “conibear” style traps, orange with rust after many seasons of use, designed to snap around the animals’ neck or body, killing them instantly.

Murray explains the beavers have already eaten all of the poplar in the area, which is their preferred food source, and have moved onto birch and spruce. If the going gets really rough, the rodents might even resort to eating cattail tubers to make it through the winter. A twig of poplar, scratched to simulate tooth marks, is stuck into the trap as bait. “We’re going to have a beaver probably in less than two days,” crows Thomas.

Occupied Ukraine holds Kremlin-staged vote on joining Russia

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Kremlin-orchestrated referendum got underway Friday in occupied regions of Ukraine that sought to make them part of Russia, with some officials carrying ballots to apartment blocks accompanied by gun-toting police. Kyiv and the West condemned it as a rigged election whose result was preordained by Moscow.

Meanwhile, in a grim reminder of the brutality of the 7-month-old invasion, U.N. experts and Ukrainian officials pointed to new evidence of Russian war crimes. Kharkiv region officials said a mass burial site in the eastern city of Izium held hundreds of bodies, including at least 30 displaying signs of torture.

The referendums in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions were widely seen as a prelude to Moscow annexing the regions. The voting, which was overseen by authorities installed by Russia, is scheduled to run through Tuesday and is almost certain to go the Kremlin's way.

Authorities in the Kherson region said residents of a small Moscow-controlled area of the neighboring Mykolaiv province also will be able to vote, and that small area was “incorporated” into Kherson until all of Mykolaiv is taken over by Russian forces.

Paralympics open in empty stadium - just like Olympics

On Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET, Toronto Star baseball columnist and Deep Left Field podcast host Mike Wilner will answer your questions about the Blue Jays and anything else baseball-related.

COVID-19 forces province to indefinitely suspend K-12 classes

The indefinite suspension of in-person classes may mean all Manitoba students will finish the school year via worksheets and online lessons.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, Premier Brian Pallister and Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced the latest measure to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus: putting all kindergarten to Grade 12 classroom instruction on hold, until further notice.

The decision, they said, was made in the interest of students, teachers, and the entire population of Manitoba.

“If, prior to the regularly scheduled conclusion of the school year, the public health officer determines that it is safe to reopen our schools, then we would eagerly welcome our students back,” Goertzen said.