Precious pages: 9K books going to isolated communities

Christopher Nolan crafts modern epic, brings wartime saga home

Months before this week’s release of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, the film was already being criticized for being too “woke,” insufficiently manly, overly casual and not faithful enough to the original 2,800-year-old poem.

There was a lot of online griping about the historical inaccuracy of the armour, the helmets and the boats. (These accusations about lack of realism being made, mind you, against a story that also includes a one-eyed, man-eating giant, a six-headed sea monster and a sorceress who can turn men into pigs.)

If you’re willing to approach it on its own terms, Nolan’s cinematic epic is magnificent, moving and visually astonishing. And — putting to one side those quibbles about period-specific Bronze Age breastplates — his take ends up being “realistic” in a much more profound sense: even sequences reaching toward mythic heights remain grounded in fundamental and enduring human questions about love and loyalty, death and war, time and age.

Worrying about fidelity to the original also seems by-the-by. The Odyssey is a foundational text that weaves through centuries of re-imaginings in literature and art. Even the comparatively brief history of cinema offers up several adaptations, from a 1905 silent short by Georges Méliès, to a (sadly) unrealized Ray Harryhausen Claymation version in the 1990s, to the Coen Brothers’ antic musical O Brother, Where Art Thou? from 2000.

Precious pages: 9K books going to isolated communities

HUNDREDS of children in remote Indigenous communities will crack open books they can call their own thanks to a charity created by a former provincial cabinet minister.

The Share the Magic Book Program has partnered with the Rotary Club of Winnipeg to get 9,000 books into the hands of children in four communities that are accessible only by air or ice road during the dead of winter.

“I’ve waited for a long time to somehow get books into the north,” said Christine Melnick, the program’s founder and executive director, on Tuesday.

“I hope this means these children will be happy and that they’ll become very interested in reading and maybe become lifelong readers. We also hope it helps raise literacy levels throughout the province.”

‘Weather whiplash’ leaves Winnipeg businesses sore

A spring and summer of intense weather has wreaked havoc on southern Manitoba, slamming it with torrential rain, tornadoes, intense heat and, now, wildfire smoke.

The Beer Can, a popular summer patio located next to the Granite Curling Club, had to close early Thursday due to a thunderstorm. Prior to that, customers had to deal with a blanket of smoke that rolled into town from wildfires raging in Ontario.

“We’re just keeping (staff) on standby and adapting to the weather as the days come,” said supervisor Kisis Angeconeb.

Winnipeg has seen its share of “weather whiplash” — the phenomenon of violent swings between extreme conditions in a short period of time.

Sea Bears defeated by Surge, but buoyed by clearance of Moon

The Winnipeg Sea Bears lost on the court but won off it on Friday.

A messy 93-85 road defeat to the Calgary Surge at the WinSport Event Centre was far from the follow-up that the Sea Bears were hoping for after clinching a playoff berth earlier this week, but the biggest news of the day was at home.

Before the game, star guard Xavier Moon’s long-awaited clearance from FIBA was granted, paving the way for him to finally join his Sea Bears teammates on the court. Moon will make his season debut on Sunday when Winnipeg hosts the Montreal Alliance at Canada Life Centre (2:30 p.m.).

Moon arrived in Winnipeg over one month ago but was forced to stay on the sideline while he waited to be cleared — a holdup that stemmed from his contract with Zenit Saint Petersburg in Russia.

Animal rescue worker reportedly killed in dog attack

Police are investigating after a woman died on the Sandy Bay First Nation, reportedly after being attacked by dogs.

The woman was identified by family as 37-year-old Amanda Nobiss.

“It’s just disbelief,” said Sherri Nobiss, her mother, in a phone call. Her family is devastated by the loss. “You just want to know what has happened.”

She said Amanda was a dedicated animal advocate who was volunteering with K9 Advocacy Manitoba in the community at the time. Amanda, who was from Winnipeg, is pictured with a dog in almost all of her photos on social media.

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