Remember how thoroughly I stressed calendar weeks when relaunching this format? Well, this is why. (Hey, the week ain't over yet!) Hello and welcome to Manitoba Links Weekly!
Yes, it's been another big and busy week in local culture and current affairs, so let's start with the brand-synergy segment to cover what I'm leaving out of the post this week. This week's episode of Winnipeg Internet Pundits covered the University of Manitoba Southwood lands' first renderings, the mysterious Provincial rejection of the City's new-home-builds fee proposal, and a delightful interview with Barley Kives about his Stuck in the Middle: Dissenting Views of Winnipeg collaboration with Bryan Scott. (F'real, if you haven't already bought this book by now, I'm assuming it's because you intend to ask for it for Christmas.)
Also! Thank you once again to Scott Price and CKUW 95.9 FM for having me on the airwaves this past Tuesday afternoon; we did a special mystery show about our favourite bassists and bass recordings, and it was a blast and a half. You get me talkin' about music, man, it's hard to get me to stop.
Ah, but enough off-topic rambling out of me; time for on-topic rambling! ManLinkWeek, engage!
[ West End Dumplings: Happy 140th Birthday, Winnipeg ! ]
[ University of Manitoba News: Happy Birthday Winnipeg ]
[ Winnipeg Sun: Happy birthday, Winnipeg! Share your wishes/wants ]
[ Sentimental Winnipeg: Why I celebrate Winnipeg with THIS photo every day! ]
[ Winnipeg Cat: November 9th, 2013 ]
Happy 140th Birthday, Winnipeg! Officially incorporated on November 8th, 1873, Winnipeg experienced forty years of promisingly rapid development aaaaand never mind the rest of that anecdote here we are today let's party.
Except, of course, that we didn't. (I suppose it's theoretically possible that the city's brown water has been a special retro throwback all along and they just forgot to tell us.) Why, if people found out that Winnipeg was having a milestone anniversary, they might do something foolish and reckless like congregate at Portage and Main or consider the future of the city! THINGS TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS. So well done, there, City of Winnipeg. On the ball as always.
Also this week: The Manitoban turned 99, the Royal Albert turned 100 (in very Royal Albert-ian fashion), and the Garrick Hotel turned 106. Huzzah for history! Hooray for heritage!
And while we're considering old buildings:
[ Wholly Shit | church reviews from a serious punk ]
Okay, wow, so. I feel comfortable in describing this site as a singular work. And I wish we could just all agree to use "Winnipeg" as an adjective, because, man, this is Winnipeg as all get-out.
Self-described as "a serious punk" with "a bummer of a catholic heritage" [sic], the now-agnostic author and a rotating cast of friends visit a different church every Sunday -- seven of the eight to date have been in Winnipeg -- and rates the experience in various categories, including "pastor charisma", "scare quotient", "décor iconography", and "people who will die in the next 20 years". Then a quintessentially punk-zine summary of the sermon follows, and really, just read this whole site, just read it right now.
It's also apparently slated to expand into physical zines sometime soon, so keep an eye out for that, too.
"Important note: hipsters in the choir – not cool."
Let's take a moment and check in on the sports beat:
[ Jade's Guide to Winnipeg: Bomber Assignment, But Not Really (also featured in Metro Winnipeg) ]
WHAT, AUGH. WINNIPEG, NO. WINNIPEG, WHY. GAH. GAAAAAAAH
okay well that's enough sports then, back to culture
[ Winnipeg Free Press: Hulked-up Comic Con just keeps growing ]
[ Observations, Reservations, Conversations: Central Canada Comic Con 2013 ]
Comics, everybody! I know I'd listed this last week, but I want to include a postscript here for two reasons. One, and the reason I linked the Free Press article above, is to note this very important passage:
"'We will use all three floors next year,' (C4 coordinator Brian) Mitchell, dressed in high lace boots and a kilt, said on Sunday."
Everyone got that? I want to make sure everyone sees that, because I know from firsthand accounts (and from, y'know, being there) that more than a few people were upset about the extended delays to get into everything and anything, and I don't want anyone who likes the same ridiculous nerdy shit I do to feel like the event isn't going to be worth attending any more.
I volunteered this year (and last year, and--) as part of the team providing and running the fighting-game-tournament section, and we missed out on a few of our regular participants because the event was at full capacity and folks had to wait for hours to get in. People were finding this out after paying for admission; it, uh, it wasn't really the best optics, per se.
So it should be better, next year! Next year they should hopefully be upgrading to a more appropriate footprint, and in the meantime I'm very happy to play video games with anybody who was disappointed by not being able to make it to the tournament. (I'm still outright hot trash at Injustice, but quite surprisingly legitimate at Marvel. Fourth place, baby! ALSO WHO HERE WANTS TO PLAY VIRTUA FIGHTER)
Reason two that I bring up C4 again is that I met some pretty cool dudes at one of the booths who are working on a fighting-game/beat-'em-up hybrid; it had an early but promising playable alpha that I got a kick out of, and one of the project leaders is a huge Fatal Fury fan (you don't say), so they had Terry Bogard-style hats they were giving out to anyone who likes Terry Bogard.
Well, I am also a huge Fatal Fury fan. It resulted in this photo.
Man, I'm pretty. (Dude on the right's a buddy of mine, you probably saw us at the karaoke event on Friday, it was good times.) Anyway, like I said, they were cool dudes, keep an eye on 'em.
And speaking of things to keep an eye on:
[ grippingrain.ca: BEER, YELLING ]
I've argued previously that the Grippin' Grain tagline of "ALSO FEATURING BEER AND YELLING" should really just be the Winnipeg motto, just slap it on our highway signs and call it accomplished.
This freshly-launched site features every single majestic event poster to date -- for an inexpensive good time, read the site aloud from top to bottom -- as well as photo galleries being added for each event (working backwards, up to #20 as of last check).
NO JERKS
NO AIR CONDITIONING
NO WORRIES
[ TaxPayer.com: FEAR THE BEARD T-SHIRTS. ]
Harvey Smith t-shirts, if'n you need it.
Colin Craig selling Harvey Smith merch is one of those things you just sort of tilt your head at for a second and then inwardly shrug off as being sort of strange, but stranger still is that we've had two different physical pieces of Harvey Smith iconography pop up in the last two weeks. Like, is this going to be a thing for the next ten and a half months? Every week I'm going to check back and there'll be a Harvey Smith comic book, a Harvey Smith mural, Harvey Smith trading cards. Gonna go to the Petro-Canada and pick up some commemorative Harvey Smith glasses. Harvey Smith, the lunchbox! Harvey Smith, the breakfast cereal! Harvey Smith the flamethrower!
I'm not against any of this, I should note. S'just weird! Just still working on wrapping my head around it.
Speaking of hard to wrap one's head around:
[ Winnipeg Free Press: Police help on way... in 77 minutes ]
[ Winnipeg Sun: Police response time 77 minutes: Report ]
And, finally:
[ West End Dumplings: West End Dumplings - The Radio Edition is back ! ]
Blogosphere radio ahoy! Following a wildly successful pilot episode in the WIPs timeslot this past summer -- vastly more popular than my fill-ins, to what I'm sure was the surprise of no one -- rightfully beloved local blogger Christian Cassidy will be bringing his urban heritage expertise to the airwaves Sunday evenings at 7:00 PM.
(If you're wondering why he hasn't been on WIPs lately, it's 'cause dude's got a job and works a lot of Wednesdays. Happens to the best of us!)
So make sure to tune in for his debut episode tomorrow evening, 7:00 PM, 101.5 UMFM! It'll also be streamed live through UMFM.com and available as a podcast after that, so you'll be able to revisit it as desired.
Thank you once again for reading ManLinkWeek! The next installment should drop earlier in the week -- heck, it can't drop much later -- so I'll see you then, true believers!
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