Class war fought one floor at a time

Spotty service, U.S. roaming charges leave Somerset woman calling for answers

A southwestern Manitoba woman is voicing her concerns about cell service in the area after she was billed more than $100 in U.S. roaming charges despite never leaving her community.

Teresa Acheson received a notification on her phone Monday at about 7:30 a.m. saying she had entered the United States and would be charged $13 per day for unlimited calls and text messages.

The only problem is that she was not in the U.S. She was lying in bed at her home near Somerset, some 50 kilometres away from the U.S. border.

“People have said to watch if you’re driving close to the border because you’ll get dinged, but I was sitting at home,” she said Wednesday.

Class war fought one floor at a time

Brutalist architecture is named not for its association with brutal cement institutional buildings of, say, prisons (or a certain Public Safety Building). The root of the word — brut — is the French word for raw, as in raw concrete. Its unyielding, hard-edged utilitarian look made it popular in the 1960s and ’70s for government buildings... and high-rise apartments.

High-Rise, director Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of a 1975 J.G. Ballard novel, does ramble a bit, but it effectively connects the dots between brutalism and brutal social constructs with its titular structure, a monstrous, self-contained apartment complex that makes it unnecessary for its inhabitants to ever have to leave home.

Taking occupancy on the 25th floor is Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston), a physician recovering from a personal tragedy. He embraces the patriarchal philosophy behind the towering phallic symbol in which he lives, going as far as to befriend its prickly upper-crust architect Anthony Royal (the patrician Jeremy Irons is well-cast). Royal lives in an idyllic penthouse, complete with its own horse pasture.

But the building is perhaps too much a model of a stratified class system. The residents of the lower floors suffer power outages and service failures. They can access some amenities, such as a swimming pool, only when the wealthier occupants of the upper floors aren’t using them.

‘Disrespectful’: residents frustrated after Wyatt arrives hour late to committee meeting

Several Winnipeggers attending a city development hearing on Thursday expressed frustration that one councillor arrived about an hour late, delaying the matter from being heard.

Coun. Russ Wyatt, who continues to attend city hall while facing criminal charges, began participating in the 9:30 a.m. East Kildonan-Transcona community committee meeting at 10:35 a.m.

A resident who hoped to speak at the meeting about a development plan in south Transcona noted the tardiness led the committee to bump the topic down on its agenda, while dozens waited to speak on it.

Christina Pyra eventually opted to leave city hall instead of waiting for her turn to make a presentation, to avoid missing a work commitment.

Making the right move on rail lines

It’s a familiar sound in Winnipeg.

(No, not sirens, which are now almost a constant.)

It’s the 3 a.m. distant and lonesome train horn, the sound of a train crew working through the night hours, the horn giving its warning at level crossings. Some Winnipeggers hear far more: when the night is still enough, they can hear the rhythmic “tap-tap, tap-tap” of rail wheels on the tracks as long trains thread through the city.

Sounds romantic, in its own way. Unless, of course, the romance is close enough to your bedroom window to wake you up.

City Lego seller continues to build up its business

Brick by brick, a Winnipeg Lego seller is building its third expansion — in less than two years.

The Little Brick Market Co.’s new shop was mainly a blank slate Thursday.

A case of Lord of the Rings figurines rested against a wall. In a week, a corner nearby should have some 1,350 minifigures displayed for sale.

Staff are hauling in more than 2,000 Lego sets, two “pick a brick” tables and retro Lego magazines for reading.

Three security guards charged with assault after Sea Bears star injured outside nightclub

Three security guards are facing assault charges, accused of injuring a Winnipeg Sea Bears player at a nightclub earlier this month.