What’s up: WSO Pops, Halloween flicks, Donovan Woods, drawing workshop, Ritchot Textiles

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This article was published 10/10/2024 (711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WSO presents 70 Years of Pops

• Saturday, 2 p.m.
• Centennial Concert Hall
• Tickets $16-$89 at wso.ca

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra strikes a nostalgic note Saturday as it looks back on seven decades of Pops concerts.

In the spotlight are Indigenous folk group Burnstick, a Juno-nominated wife-husband duo, and pianist Ari Hooker. They’re backed by the orchestra under the baton of WSO assistant conductor Monica Chen. Burnstick’s 100-year-old Weissenborn lap slide guitars add a savoury seasoning to the matinee’s pop-sweet program, featuring light classical, Broadway tunes and movie-score hits.

A concert highlight: Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue, the original classical-pop crossover. From its opening glissando — played forever in this sultry way because its first interpreter, jazz clarinettist Ross Gorman, deliberately messed with the notes on the page — Rhapsody is filled with iconic moments designed to delight crowds and annoy that era’s American musical establishment.

Paving a new path for American orchestral music that had as much in common with Hollywood as modernism, Rhapsody is recognized 100 years later as a masterwork, whatever genre it belongs to.

Third year U of M piano student Ari Hooker’s spot on the program adds to the anniversary concert’s forward-looking energy and fits with the Pops series’ intergenerational spirit, with Ari’s father and principal WSO cellist Yuri Hooker playing alongside him from the string section.

— Conrad Sweatman

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Halloween flicks at Little Brown Jug

• Friday, 7 p.m.
• Little Brown Jug Brewing Co., 336 William Ave.
• Free

Raven’s End Books and Little Brown Jug Brewing Co. are teaming up for a spooky double feature that’s sure to set the tone for a truly frightful Halloween.

The brewery will be screening the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London and the 1982 creep-out practical-effects classic The Thing on its patio. Bundle up for a crisp fall evening, grab a pint of your favourite LBJ brew — perhaps a new releases such as their rich, malty marzen, or a spooky standby such as their frightfully tasty black lager — and settle in for some chills and thrills.

Raven’s End Books (1859 Portage Ave.) will be set up at the brewery selling all manner of spooky books for people to take home. Admission is free.

— Ben Sigurdson

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Donovan Woods returns

• Friday, 8 p.m.
• Burton Cummings Theatre
• Tickets $54-$61 at Ticketmaster

“No one tells you you’re chasing something that you won’t ever get to, and doing everything that you’re supposed to doesn’t mean you’ll end up getting what you’re owed.”

With curved phrasing and sharp observations, folk singer Donovan Woods always manages to get his point across. On I’m Just Trying to Get Home, the ninth track off the Toronto songwriter’s latest album, Woods gets some help from Manitoba’s William Prince, their earthen voices colliding with the circular embrace of stones skipping on rippling waters.

No word whether Prince will make a guest appearance, but the Juno Award-winning Woods will take the stage at the Burt Friday with 21-year-old Milton, Ont. songwriter Billianne.

— Ben Waldman

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Figure-drawing workshop and exhibition tour

Wednesday, 6-8:30 p.m.

School of Art Gallery and 255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba

Free for U of M students, MAWA members; $10 for public

Feminist artist Sheila Butler likes to paint women — not as objects to be admired and gazed upon, but as beings in motion.

It’s in that spirit that the University of Manitoba School of Art, in partnership with MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art), is presenting a live figure-drawing workshop along with a tour of Other Circumstances, the Butler retrospective on view at the School of Art Gallery until Oct. 26.

Winnipeg contemporary dancer and choreographer Carol-Ann Bohrn will be the evening’s live model, and will run through a series of both quick and longer poses.

Drawing boards will be provided but participants are asked to bring their own materials. All genders welcome, no registration is required.

— Jen Zoratti

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Ritchot Textiles releases debut

• Friday, 8 p.m.
• Darling Bar, 171 McDermot Ave.
• Tickets $13 at reallovewpg.com

A new band sews itself into the fabric of Winnipeg’s indie music world Friday at the Darling Bar when Ritchot Textiles celebrates the release of its debut EP i.

Drew Riekman, Mitchell Trainor and Reuben Houweling’s project of discovery draws inspiration from krautrock, Cocteau Twins, Nine Inch Nails and the distorted soundscape of Silver Apples.

Recorded with Matt Roach at No Fun Club, the lead singles from i — Heaven and Weight — play appropriately with the tension between order and disarray, finding splendour in the grass on either side of the chain-linked fence.

Fast Tripper and Strawberry Punch open the show.

— Ben Waldman

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