No reported damage in Philippines from Chinese rocket debris

A Life's Story: Musician made great contributions, advocated for fellow artists

When a University of Manitoba dean came to inform Victor Davies that he was booted from pre-med in the late 1950s, it was — to permit a cliché — music to his ears.

“In his mind, what he heard was much more encouraging. He heard, ‘Follow your own dream. Listen to your own melody. Speak with your own voice,’” says Davies’s daughter, Heather.

Davies, who died at 87 from pancreatic cancer and PLS in late September, was nevertheless about to take a major gamble, one that would eventually earn him an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba and a nomination to the Order of Canada.

Few careers are as uncertain as music, and at a time when the composition departments were saying au revoir to tonality, embracing the heavily dissonant styles of France and Germany, Davies was about to go against the grain. He would soon find a new home across the border in Bloomington, Ind., where for four years he studied at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Deaths, injuries as fire hits Alberta military base: McGuinty

WAINWRIGHT - Defence Minister David McGuinty says there have been deaths and injuries after a fire broke out Saturday at a military base in Alberta.

Fire crews scrambled late into the night as fierce winds whipped flames beyond CFB Wainwright, a massive military training base located 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

McGuinty, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, confirmed the casualties but had no other details to share, including numbers or what happened.

"I cannot recall such an incident in my short time for sure as a minister, but I cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory,” McGuinty said.

Author Emily St. John Mandel’s Exit Party a story of hope in dark times

If Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel Exit Party is in any way prophetic, Americans should be worried.

The B.C.-born, New York-based author’s bestselling fourth novel, 2014’s Station Eleven, chronicled a performing troupe in a post-pandemic world. The novel experienced a second wave of popularity when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and when HBO’s Station Eleven miniseries premièred in late 2021.

Mandel launches Exit Party, her seventh novel, at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location tonight, where she’ll be joined in conversation by Winnipeg novelist Joan Thomas.

Published in September by HarperCollins, Exit Party sees Mandel once again working in the near future, in this case in a novel that features two timelines — one (dubbed the A-side in the novel) where the U.S. has fractured into a number of small countries following a civil war, and another (the B-side) where a singular, autocratic surveillance state has tightened its grip over its citizens.

Half Pints Brewing out of bankruptcy, back on shelves

A pioneer of Winnipeg’s craft brewing scene has reopened under new ownership.

Playoff hopes dwindle for Bombers after loss to Edmonton

EDMONTON — It’s a script the Winnipeg Blue Bombers should’ve shredded, burned, and buried.

Go to Edmonton, dominate the first half, crumble in the final two quarters and lose.

That’s what happened in Week 12, when the Bombers blew an early 16-point lead in a 22-19 loss. And in their return to Commonwealth Stadium on Friday night, the Bombers went down a nearly identical path in a 35-27 defeat to the Edmonton Elks.

In their latest disappearing act, the Blue and Gold led 21-10 with less than a minute remaining in the first half before seemingly vanishing into thin air.