In Venice, Harry Styles talks acting, music and fans

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except for food and gas and important decisions until after 8:30 a.m. After that, the moon moves from Sagittarius into Capricorn.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

You couldn’t pick a better day for sports training or improving a skill in the arts, music, welding, sculpting, pottery making or doing anything that requires repetition to improve. That’s because you have the patience and the perseverance to keep trying.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

In Venice, Harry Styles talks acting, music and fans

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Harry Styles already has an enviable acting resume for a newcomer, from Christopher Nolan's “Dunkirk” to the upcoming “Don’t Worry Darling” and “My Policeman.” But the pop star said Monday at the Venice International Film Festival that, with acting, he often feels as if he has “no idea what I’m doing.”

Styles’ arrival on the Lido, where “Don’t Worry Darling” is having its world premiere Monday night, has been one of the most anticipated events of a festival full of stars. At a press conference before the premiere, Styles was peppered with questions about his fans, his career and whether or not he would work with director Olivia Wilde again — neither of which he answered.

In “Don’t Worry Darling,” Styles plays Jack, who works for the mysterious Victory Project, run by Chris Pine’s charismatic cult-like leader, in a mid-century-styled experimental community. Florence Pugh plays Jack’s wife Alice, who gets every comfort in the world in exchange for not asking questions. But soon, she starts to see cracks in the veneer.

“I think it’s fun to get to play in worlds that aren’t necessarily your own. This world that is supposedly so perfect, it’s really fun to play pretend in there,” Styles said. “There wasn’t too much acting.”

Play ponders realities of interfaith marriages

Jordi Mand isn’t scared to talk about circumcision — she doesn’t bristle at the mention of a bris.

But the playwright born Jordan Mandlowitz understands that the importance of the rite of passage — a foundational covenant between God and the Jewish people — isn’t so cut and dry to the uninitiated.

And in interfaith marriages such as her own, the concept of brit mila isn’t as easily welcomed as lighting the Friday night candles to greet Shabbat.

“It was something that I knew growing up, that if you were Jewish, and if you were a boy, then you were circumcised,” says Mand, who was raised in a tight-knit Jewish community in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Hockey teams scramble after two city arenas put on ice

Instead of ice, Barry Bonni walks onto a dull concrete surface at the Terry Sawchuk Memorial Arena on Thursday.

The arena, as well as the West Kildonan Memorial Arena, have had to close after failing inspections. Predictably, the city’s hockey community is in a tailspin because ice time is so precious.

“We’re now in panic mode,” said Bonni, president of the River East Royal Knights on Thursday. The Sawchuk arena is the team’s home rink.

Bonni, who is a living legend in Manitoba’s hockey community, said the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League club is scrambling to find ice time.

Group’s second LP made to get hearts racing

While a live performance is a moment in time that comes and goes, a record is something that, ostensibly, lives on.

Both are important, often complementary methods of artistic expression for any band of musicians, not the least independent local artists carving out names for themselves in the dark heart of the continent.

Claire Thérèse & the Lockdown are celebrating the vinyl release of Racing Heart, its second full-length LP, with a gig tonight at Public Domain. The group’s last full-length record, Villainy!, was released in 2022.

“For me, this seems like perfect timing,” says Thérèse, primary vocalist and songwriter in the group. “This album has been done for almost two years now. I don’t even know if I would call it procrastination, (but) there are just those steps that one needs to take to actually release something into the world, and that’s how long it has taken me.”

NDP expects crypto, data centre electricity levy to shave about $50 annually off residential Hydro bills

Revenue from the province’s new electricity levy on cryptocurrency businesses and large AI data centres will go toward offsetting residential bills, rather than the coffers of cash-strapped Manitoba Hydro.