Joe Jackson steppin’ out in Winnipeg this summer

Summer success sends Brezden to the Black Sea

Breken Brezden got off to a flying start as a new figure skating season dawned in August making the Manitoban one to watch, once again, among the sport’s elite in Canada.

The Dauphin athlete pocketed a silver medal in Montreal, then notched a win in Waterloo, outscoring a handful of Canada’s higher ranked women along the way.

In Montreal, Brezden, 20, topped the standings in the free skate portion of the competition and, with a total score of 171.03, exceeded the 166 benchmark Skate Canada set for international assignments.

“I’m quite happy with how my summer competitions went,” said Brezden, who trains in Hamilton, Ont.

Staying away to keep the heat on

It’s a tough sell these days for U.S. tourism groups seeking to attract Canadian visitors as tension, tariffs and traded verbal barbs continue to rise between the two countries.

Nothing wrong with planting trees, but it won’t get province very far on path to net zero

Manitoba’s new plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is a lot of things. It’s detailed. It’s certainly comprehensive in scope. But when it is all said and done, it is still very much a work in progress.

Joe Jackson steppin’ out in Winnipeg this summer

Joe Jackson is a man of many musical faces. After the British singer-pianist burst onto the scene in 1979 with the new wave-influenced Look Sharp! album, he released records that incorporated jazz, blues and reggae — even an album of 1940s swing covers.

The Grammy-nominated artist appeared at the Winnipeg New Music Festival in 1998 supporting his quasi-classical concept album Heaven and Hell.

However, his Fast Forward tour — which brings him to the Burton Cummings Theatre on July 25, is a return to the rock format with a band featuring longtime collaborator Graham Maby on bass, along with guitarist Teddy Kumpel (Rickie Lee Jones) and drummer Doug Yowell (Suzanne Vega).

Setlists for the tour have included a mix of the singer's early power-pop hits (I'm the Man, Sunday Papers), later jazz-inflected numbers You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want), Steppin' Out) and new material from 2015's Fast Forward album, as well as covers of artists such as David Bowie, Joni Mitchell and Television.

50 years ago, we thought we could change the world

We began as a small loose unorganized group of teaching friends and educators who shared the same political and social convictions.