Ariel Posen so much more than a guitar soloist

Builder beefs up security after string of blazes

A Winnipeg builder said he’s had to beef up security around his developments after one of his projects sustained significant damage Wednesday in suspected arson cases.

Colman radiant in well-woven romance

There have been wicker-related films before. The Wicker Man from 1973 is a classic of folk horror. This bawdy, rowdy outing is more of a folk sex-comedy.

Adapted from a story by Ursula Wills by filmmakers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, Wicker is sometimes overly obvious in its satirical messaging. But like the wicker creation at its centre, Wilson and Fischer’s unexpected world is nicely crafted, the wonderful Olivia Colman weaving it all together with radiant, raunchy directness and real vulnerability.

In this feminist fable, set in some vague, peasanty time and place, Colman plays the ostracized, isolated Fisherwoman. Fisherwoman is either ignored or bullied by her fellow villagers, and in a community where the women are known as “Innkeeper’s Wife” or “Doctor’s Daughter,” perhaps the worst insult hurled at her is “Spinster.”

After a magical omen is dropped by her feet at a village wedding, Fisherwoman goes to the Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage), who has his own reasons for living alone at the edge of town, and orders up a husband.

Klein, Gillingham trade jabs over megaproject

Two of Winnipeg’s mayoral candidates wasted no time trading barbs over who bears responsibility for the skyrocketing cost of overhauling the North End sewage treatment plant, during a televised debate Wednesday.

Scott Gillingham and Kevin Klein pointed the finger at each other for the rising cost of the massive project, which had a cost estimate of $795 million in 2015 and had ballooned to $3.2 billion as of the latest estimate.

“We need to be able to understand how that amount tripled in that short a time,” Klein said at the event held at CBC’s downtown Winnipeg headquarters. He pointed out the first estimate was given when Gillingham was chairman of the city’s finance committee. He questioned what the incumbent did to garner funding for the project.

Gillingham shot back by noting Klein was Manitoba’s environment minister in 2023. He accused his opponent of failing to make a dent on the cost.

Henderson crosswalk has glaring safety gap, say researchers months after pedestrian killed

Six months after a fatal collision at a crosswalk on Henderson Highway, two traffic safety researchers question why the intersection remains an outlier that is missing key flashing lights.

The City of Winnipeg is being urged to install “backflashers” to better protect road users moving in all directions at the intersection where a 32-year-old father died in the spring.

“It’s these little, mundane, non-sexy engineering problems that can cause everything right up to fatality,” said Curt Pankratz, an associate professor at the University of Winnipeg who studies traffic engineering and policymaking.

On April 19, shortly before sunrise, Gabe Beardy was struck when he was crossing the six-lane thoroughfare at Neil Avenue.

Winnipegger soprano, Iranian composer exhibit tremendous talent at WSO show

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra launched its newly renamed Thursday night series, Symphonic Sessions, by showcasing one of the world’s finest sopranos hailing from our fair city, Andriana Chuchman.

The 75-minute concert (sans intermission), titled Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and Schubert’s Symphony No. 4, also featured the auspicious Canadian debut of Iranian conductor Hossein Pishkar, who led the program ranging from lush lyricism to tempestuous Sturm und Drang for a small audience of 660.

Chuchman’s artistry just seems to grow more luminous with each passing year, as the Ukrainian-Canadian singer continues to light up stages throughout North America and in Europe.

Her eagerly anticipated concert performances include shows at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, the National Symphony at Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center’s White Lights Festival, to name a few, as well as appearances with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and, particularly near and dear to the singer’s heart, Winnipeg’s Hoosli Ukrainian Male Chorus.