What’s up: Grotoko, Philipp Schott, flower arranging, Dirty Dancing

GrotokoPark Alleys, 730 Osborne St.Saturday, 9:30 p.m.Tickets: $12One month after donning witch hats at Public Domain for their first gig as a full band, Grotoko — the former solo project of Winnipeg songwriter Blue McLeod — will keep on rolling at Park Alleys, a revitalized bowling alley that forms a veritable South Osborne venue trifecta along with the Park Theatre and Sidestage.

Known for its cynical, yet routinely optimistic lyrics — a necessary specialty for post-pandemic indie dirges — and McLeod’s clear-eyed, diaristic delivery, Grotoko is gearing up for its third album, a followup to 2022’s Periwinkle.

For those looking to get acquainted, Periwinkle sees McLeod’s lyrics floating atop jaunty baroque rock air, with the panflute and the glockenspiel joining as occasional passengers. Alongside Veronica Blackhawk’s project Tinge, Grotoko is one of the city’s top contemporary interpreters of the grunge era, with McLeod frequently decorating their tunes with Celtic mysticism. Grotoko is the main event on Saturday night, with midwest emo rockers On Purpose greeting audiences at 9:30 p.m. sharp.

— Ben Waldman

Tom Wilson never stopped giving to the game of hockey

Tom Wilson was never a big hockey star on the ice, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone more committed to helping build the game in this province.

Wilson grew up on Garfield Street in the West End and strapped on his first pair of skates as a child. As a youngster, he played minor hockey at Isaac Brock Community Centre and later at Orioles Community Centre, where he won a city championship in 1955.

By his late teens he had hung up his blades as a player, but it wasn’t long before he was drawn back into the game. In 1971 he began refereeing and a short time later started coaching community club hockey, including his son Jeffrey’s team. He was also recruited to pitch in with everything from timekeeping to refereeing to overseeing disciplinary hearings for players.

Where Wilson really left his mark was behind the scenes. He served three terms as the president of Hockey Manitoba, the official governing body for amateur hockey in the province, where he also contributed as treasurer. Twice he was presented the Hockey Manitoba Volunteer of the Year Award (2000 and 2008). He was also a recipient of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association’s Meritorious Service Award.

The View from Here: William Pura. View from the Bridge, 1991

Staycation: The Art of Being Here features more than 100 Manitoba-related artworks from the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq collection, spanning the past 50 years. These pieces reveal how the places around us are layered with memory, story and lived experience. Over the coming weeks, the Free Press will spotlight works from this eclectic exhibition, each one offering a new way of seeing home. Experience it in person and enjoy some staycation time at the gallery, on view until December.

William Pura. View from the Bridge, 1991

Oil on canvas. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from The Winnipeg Art Gallery Foundation Inc., G-92-91. Photo: Ernest Mayer. Artwork sponsored by Ken & Lynn Cooper.

If William Pura’s View from the Bridge feels familiar, it should. The painting depicts a stretch along Kingston Row in Winnipeg, but the scene could be any suburban setting, making it easy to place yourself right in the painting. Its large scale draws you in, while the cool colour palette and absence of activity create an eerie calm. Curator Riva Symko describes it as “a big, concentrated work of seemingly nothing”— a fleeting but recognizable moment of Winnipeg life. The artist Bill Pura, who was born in Winnipeg and taught at the University of Manitoba School of Art for many years, currently resides in Santa Fe, N.M.

Canadian Paul Alexander Nolan sinks teeth into Broadway’s ‘The Lost Boys’ musical

Paul Alexander Nolan is sinking his teeth into his newest role as “The Lost Boys: A New Musical” hits Broadway. 

The production is generating buzz from audiences and praise from the original 1987 bloodsucker himself, Kiefer Sutherland.

"Doesn't Kiefer still look fantastic? You know, maybe he is a vampire," Nolan quipped.

Canada’s Artemis II astronaut gives thumbs-up to ‘Project Hail Mary’ starring Canadian Ryan Gosling

HOUSTON (AP) — The new space movie “Project Hail Mary” starring Ryan Gosling is getting rave reviews more than halfway to the moon. 

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen said Saturday that he and his Artemis II crewmates got to watch the film with their families before launching on the lunar fly-around. He said it was “a real treat” to view the movie while getting ready for his own space adventure. 

Gosling, a fellow Canadian, sent best wishes to the four astronauts ahead of Wednesday's liftoff.

“Art imitates science and vice versa,” Hansen said during a live televised event arranged by the Canadian Space Agency. “I thought it was just such an inspirational example — somebody who goes out there and just gets what was done to save humanity. It’s a pretty extraordinary example that we can all follow.”

Damaged RCMP vehicles recovered after First Nation protests in N.S., police say

Police in Nova Scotia have launched investigations after RCMP vehicles were damaged and highways were blocked following a raid on a First Nations cannabis shop that a local leader says ruined years of building trust.

RCMP officers, with the help of Potlotek First Nation leaders, on Friday morning recovered seven police vehicles that were left behind during protests the day before and ended a partial blockade that remained, according to a news release. 

Photos of the recovered vehicles shared by the RCMP show an unmarked police car missing its wheels, while glass windows were shattered and tires slashed on several of the SUVs.

An RCMP spokesperson confirmed all but one of the seven vehicles left behind Thursday were damaged. 

Stunning stories explore families’ untreated mental illnesses

There’s Always More to Say is a beautiful debut collection of stories from English-born Montreal author Natalie Southworth.

The nine stories within are filled with ache and grace, often naming (without shaming) the toll that untreated and/or undiagnosed mental illness takes on families, and the fractured realities that youth in these upbringings are left to navigate on their own.

Already this summary is no match for the elegance of the collection, which blends a delicacy and clarity with dignity in its portrayals of nuanced shifts in sanity.

The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is mentioned once, but otherwise Southworth’s characters — children, siblings, mothers, fathers, friends, puppeteers, realtors, politicians, live-in nannies — use the language at their disposal to name the dissonance of mental instability, including “strange,” “spiral,” “fluorescent-lit,” “that kind of brain” and “ambiguously alive.”