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This article was published 15/06/2015 (2905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GUESS WHAT? GUESS WHO: On a beautiful Wednesday night in June, where’s a funky and fine place to be in Winnipeg? Check out the Red River Ex with the Guess Who. That’s Wednesday night at 8 p.m. — and just for the price of gate admission ($10 in advance, at Mac’s and Sobeys; $15 at the gate).

The two original members are bass guitarist Jim Kale, who co-owns the band name with drummer Garry Peterson. The band includes singer Derek “Dexter” Sharp of Toronto, who’s married to singer Sass Jordan.

Also in the 2015 rendition — multi-instrumentalist “Lewsh” (nickname from the initials of Leonard Edward William Shaw) of Ministers of Cool fame and guitarist Laurie MacKenzie.

You might think you’ll miss Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman. Not so, says rock encyclopedia Howard Mandshein of 92 CITI-FM, who plans to be front row and centre if the weather holds.

“Sharp can hit notes that the original Guess Who band never heard of,” Mandshein says.

Over 55 musicians have been involved in playing in the Guess Who since 1963, says Kale, who then harrumphs: “Cummings left the band in 1975 and Bachman in 1970, but Bachman talks as if it’s just last month!”

 

GOODBYE ORGANZA MARKET, HELLO FRESH CARROT: Lisa and Terry Zolinski, who own the Gimli organic food store The Fresh Carrot, have taken over Organza Market at Confusion Corner. The new sign over the door boasts “cold pressed juice bar, homemade ice cream, local Manitoban meats, gluten-free, organic, fair trade, homeopathics and supplements.” The website is thefreshcarrot.ca.

“Everything we’re doing in Gimli we’re bringing, says Lisa, who says the hot and cold deli will be expanded.

Organza founder Gerry Dickson, who died in 2013, left the shop under the direction of longtime friend and business partner Zyg Iskierski. Organza’s website posted a farewell message on its website on June 7.

 

CULTURE SHOCK: Samantha Lacoste sat at Hair F/X getting prettied up for her graduation at University of Winnipeg Thursday — but her mind was in Africa.

That’s the birthplace of her adopted brother Eyob, 12. She had just come back from Ethiopia after a two-week trip to the village of Lalo, where Eyob’s family still lives.

She and her dad, Gerald Lacoste, went with $8,000 raised at a spring Cut-a-Thon at the Grosvenor Avenue studio where she works.

“I just thought you’d like to know where the money went,” she said in an earlier phone call.

She said the village’s elders had made a list of 36 of the community’s neediest families, so they bought food and clothing for them.

Then there was a girl of about 18 who had been orphaned and had nothing. “We were able to get her a little house built, big enough for two people,” said Lacoste. “We also had enough to give 200 students enough money to go to school next fall.

“Eyob’s older brother Denese told us, ‘When you help out the village, it is like you are helping us.'”

 

TAM THE TAILOR: Celebrity tailor Tam Nguyen, with wife Lien Dang, opened their takeout restaurant Tam’s Pho on June 10 at 899 Portage Ave. Tam is the tailor on Ellice Avenue, known for his charity work and for being the tailor for movies filmed here. Signed photos of actors such as Brian Dennehy, Catherine Keener and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman line the walls of his shop.

Nguyen and Dang held a fundraiser for Canadians Helping Kids in Vietnam on June 5, offering free Vietnamese cuisine in exchange for donations to the charity. About 200 donors and foodies showed up, raising $775.

 

NEW GRADS: Ace Burpee of 103.1 Virgin Radio took everyone by surprise when he stepped up to the podium after receiving an honorary diploma from Red River College at their convocation on June 10.

He gave practical advice to the grads instead of an inspirational speech. “Clean up your social media,” he urged.

Why? Because he says future employers go there to read all about young hopefuls, past and present. So kids should say goodbye to rude comments, naughty pictures, rants and other weird stuff from their social media presence. “Do it!” he said, to grateful applause.

SPOTTED: Lt.-Gov. Philip Lee, Red River instructor Dean Cooper, who pronounced hundreds of difficult names; college president and CEO David Rew; Lloyd Schreyer, chairman of RRC’s board of governors, who presented the gold me Brian Dennehy dals; alumni relations manager Elizabeth Glaseman; Thomas Spence; and convocation chairwoman Christine Crowe.

I must confess my personal reason for sitting three hours at the Centennial Concert Hall was my son, Dan Scurfield Huen, 27, who picked up his Creative Communications parchment, and was grinning ear to ear.

DINNER MUSIC ON CORYDON: Victor Hugo is alive and well and living in Winnipeg. Not the author, but the lively Peruvian guitarist, who often accompanies sultry singer Keisha Booker Wednesdays and Saturdays at Teo’s patio bar and Mano a Mano, two Corydon Avenue operations owned by Sam Colosimo.

Victor’s full name is Victor Hugo Lopez Bustamante. Other singers in the restaurants’ rotation are Maxine Peters and Jay Burns.

Got tips, events, special events going on? Call the tip line at 204-474-1116 or write Maureen Scurfield c/o Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.