Winnipeg: A Little Guide for Foreigners

Legislative building in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Can you see the Golden Boy on top?

As I make my way through the hostels and bars all over Poland, people ask me where I’m from and they don’t recognize the name. In regard to Canada, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal get all the attention, Winnipeg gets skipped. I have no doubt it’s because we’re so far away from everybody else.

But I’m gonna try to shed some light on my home city for all of you foreigners fortunate enough to meet me and are curious about where I came from. I understand that my other recent post, Winnipeg: A Love Story, may not be very clear for foreigners so this post is meant to be a little guide to Winnipeg. Fully printable! 😀

So it’s for you, darling foreigners, that I write this next bit.

(I am working on a video about Winnipeg and I do have a lot more photos. However, I couldn’t find my camera before I left Winnipeg, and that’s where most of my pictures are. I ask your patience in waiting for the video.)

Getting to Winnipeg

Just a few tips on getting to Winnipeg. Most international flights land in Vancouver, Toronto to Montreal. Flying is the fastest way to get to Winnipeg, but also the most expensive. Check tripadvisor.com, expedia.com, or orbitz.com for cheap flights.

Once in the larger cities, check the VIA Rail website for last minute express train deals to Winnipeg. In the off-season, you can get from Toronto to Winnipeg for $100 and get a chance to see the wondrous Canadian Shield.

You can also take the Greyhound bus. Both journeys will take 36+ hours to get to Winnipeg, and you may meet some interesting folks along the way. But, if you’re a brave backpacker, or unemployed, or are in no rush, it’s not so bad. You can read about my experience on the bus here and watch the video here. You’ve been warned.

The Power Months

If you were to ask me what months to visit Winnipeg, I’d say it depends on what you’re looking for.

If you don’t mind the cold, and I mean “I DON’T BELIEVE IT!” COLD, go in February. That’s when you can go skating on the Red River, attend the New Music Festival, the Festival du Voyageur, take pretty scenic photos, and smell the wood-burning fire places along Wellington Crescent. You can even go North to Churchill to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis, but if you want to see polar bears, you’ll have to come in October.) In the end, you can brag to your European or Asian friends that you’ve actually been in -40 degree C weather… and survived.

If you hate the cold, as most people do, go in mid-July and stay until mid-August. July plays host to many festivals, warm weather, women in nice clothes on Corydon and Osborne, not too many mosquitoes, better weather, etc. August is used for finishing those festivals that started the month before.

Festivals

For music, hippie-fest (also known as the Winnipeg Folk Festival) takes place in July. Be careful of the cookies you eat. The most jazz you can see and hear at one time in Winnipeg occurs in June during the Winnipeg Jazz Festival. One festival I have regrettably NOT attended is the WSO’s New Music Festival. Taking place usually in February, I never seemed to be caught up enough in my university studies to make it out to this festival. Dauphin, Manitoba also hosts a wildly popular Country Fest at the end of June.

Film buffs will have to travel North for a couple of hours to see the Gimli Film Festival in July or you can try the “Uh, what did I just see?” WDNX Festival in October. You can also get the same effect from some of my films on Vimeo.

Theatre lovers will find fulfillment with the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July.

For culture, try the Festival du Voyageur in February, Folkorama in August (this one festival will introduce you to just about every cultural group living in Winnipeg and the surrounding area), there is an Icelandic Festival I’ve never been to and, of course, Dauphin hosts its own Ukrainian Festival in August.

Sight seeing

Starting off, go see our legislative building with the Golden Boy on top. Yes, he’s made of gold. Fact: he took forever to get there, not because he’s not alive, but because he was placed on a ship which was being used for transporting troops in WWI. So he did a little travelling before settling down in Winnipeg, I completely understand. Now he stands, looking north, holding some wheat and a torch. He was recently given a good shining so he’s all nice and sparkly now. I believe they still run tours inside of the legislative building, but I haven’t been on one in years.

Visit The Forks, our most attractive tourist attraction and future home of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. I’d also suggest spending a day in St. Boniface exploring the French side of Winnipeg. If you feel so inclined, you can check out the University of Manitoba, which is out of the way but kinda scenic and maybe you can meet up with some wandering students.

For shopping, try St. Vital or Polo Park malls. Osborne Village and Corydon also have some shopping offerings, but they have more pubs and coffee shops than shopping.

Visit the Exchange District to view the historical place at which we had a good ol’ fashioned uprising back in 1919, something about workers’ rights. Though I’ve never been on a walking tour in the area, I’ve read about them and think that they might be a good investment for your Winnipeg blog post or Facebook status update.

We make money in Winnipeg. Visit the Royal Canadian Mint, it’s one of three in Canada.

There’s also a really nice old basilica in St. Boniface. Many a newly-wedded couple go there for photos.

Lastly, if you dare, ask to be booked into the haunted room at the Fort Garry Hotel. It’ll be a tad expensive (ca. $100/night), but then you’ll have a cool story to tell your friends. I have not been brave enough to go there yet. Oh, and don’t piss her off.

Assiniboine Park

Take a bus up Corydon Avenue to get here, or hop on a bike and cycle up Wellington Crescent to see this Assiniboine Park, a large park hosting a first-class restaurants, zoo, Leo Mol’s Sculpture Garden, and open fields a plenty to frolic with your Winnipeg friends. For the learning experience, find the sculpture of the pilot and bear that commemorates A.A. Milne’s finding of a small bear cub and who later named the cub “Winnie”. That’s right folks, Winnie the Pooh is named after my hometown of Winnipeg. Check the Authorita Wikipediae if you don’t believe me. 😛 (Or this History of Pooh website.) The park is nicest in the summer, but a winter drive looks pretty cool too.

Reading

Check out our recently renovated Millenium Library not far from the MTS Centre, our hockey arena. The library also has a great cafe where sandwiches and coffee are served, the place is called the Human Bean. If you want to buy books, head on over to the Grant Park Mall and find the McNally Robinson’s bookstore. Playing host to a children’s bookstore upstairs, a music section, discounted books, lectures, jazz and great food in the cafe (called the Prairie Ink Cafe. Try the chicken fingers with the honey dill sauce. Mashesayo!)

If McNally doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you can also check out Chapters near St. Vital or Polo Park malls.

Eating

Koreans often asked me what we ate in Canada. To be honest, I’d never thought about it. WTF do we eat in Canada? Well, I’ll list the places that I normally go and you can tell me what we eat. Aside from McNally Robinson’s, Osborne Village is where you can hang out with the locals. Wasabi caters to your sushi cravings, the Toad in the Hole is a meeting place while Papa George’s will nurse your hangover with some thick and greasy pizza until 4 am.

If you want to hang with other tourists, or go skating in the winter, head on over to The Forks, especially the Johnson Terminal, where you’ll find all sorts of shops and food stores, sights and sounds.

Corydon Avenue also hosts several Asian restaurants, though European holdouts Niko’s and Kristina’s On Corydon serve up Greek food.

For Ukrainian food, try Alycia’s or, if you’re curious enough, you can try finding a church that will sell you perogies for about $3/dozen.

To keep up to date, you can read our news rags, the Winnipeg Free Press or the Winnipeg Sun. Uptown is all local material. The Manitoban and Stylus mags belong to the universities.

Drinking

Toad in the Hole in Osborne Village. King’s Head Pub in the Exchange District.

Coffee

My addiction is no secret. First place goes to the Human Bean cafe at the Millenium Library. Second goes to the Second Cup, same same but different to Starbucks. Third place goes to the Greek coffee served by Kristina’s On Corydon. Fourth place goes to Tim Hortons, because it’s cheap.

Music

If you’re a night owl, The Royal Albert Arms in the Exchange district will help you catch up on the music played by Winnipeg’s rebel youth. The Zoo in Osborne Village will educate you on the metal scene, while The Cavern can show you just about anything. For more rock, Irish or modern Ukrainian music, check out the King’s Head Pub, not far from the Royal Albert. For jazz, Paragon restaurant hosts jazz every Friday night at 5:30, McNally Robinson’s hosts jazz usually every Friday and Saturday nights. There’re also some jazz venues in St. Boniface. Touring bands usually hit up the Burton Cumming’s Theatre or the West End Cultural Centre. Larger acts hit the MTS Centre.

Aside from our larger radio stations like Power 97, 92 CITI FM, Groove FM 99.1, and CBC Radio, try the university stations of UMFM and CKUW. If you like AM radio, I recommend try CJOB 680 for talk radio, CKJS 810 for ethnic offerings, and CFRY 920 for country.

Movies

For local or independent fare, check out the Cinematheque, which plays lesser known or classic material. For you international filmmakers out there, you can go upstairs and meet the folks at the Winnipeg Film Group or the Video Pool, the first group catering to peeps who like playing with actual film, the second group a bunch of experimental video artists. Careful, brain expansion may occur. The Globe Cinema in Portage Place also plays a few alternatives to the Hollywood movies screened at the larger cineplexes.

Museums

I’ll confess, if there’s one thing I didn’t go see myself lately, it’s museums. I think the last time I was in the Manitoba Museum (previously called the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature) was when I was a playing with Popples. Go to the Winnipeg Art Gallery for paintings and photographs; Oseredok for Ukrainian history; and soon, the  Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which will remember those killed by genocide all over the world.

And That’s Winnipeg

Check out my other post, Winnipeg: A Love Story, an emotional and poetic history of my life growing up in the city.

Winnipeggers, use the little buttons below and share this post.

Foreigners, welcome to Winnipeg, and share this post. 😀

The 62-Hour Bus Trip and My Polka With a Fighter

The Greyhound bus.

62 hours on a bus. It was an interesting journey. Very scenic, something I’ve never seen or done before, or do again. There was an amorous old couple, a gross bus toilet, highway closures, a chick who met a Montrealer and, well, they made poutine, semi trailer accidents, a drug runner who had to pick up his car in Nipigon, and gorgeous scenery.

The scenery itself made me proud to be Canadian. There’s something about being able to conquer this harsh terrain and flourish in such a climate. I wish they would twin Highway #1, but that’s something we’ll work on. I originally wanted to take the train, since you can often find cheap, last-minute deals, but nothing went to Ottawa, only Toronto. If you want to know what the scenery was like, take a look at the video I made.

I understood what I was doing: taking a bus (a step up from a car… maybe) across 2400 kilometers in the dead of winter. It was cheap, $106 including taxes, and I already had experience with long-distance bus travel since I had done it from Hanoi to Vientiane (that one was only 24 hours).

The trip brought me back to my youth when my family did a road trip across much of Canada to visit some relatives. This was a little different: I slept on the bus, I didn’t know anyone, and there were some sketchy folks on the second bus that caught up to us in Thunder Bay.

In particular, I remember the city called Wawa because, as a kid, we bought a moose here that had a shirt with “Wawa” printed on it. The name of the city became a joke among the passengers, with just about everybody laughing and saying “wah-wah-wah.” But there we were, stuck until the roads were opened again. Wawa.

And Wawa is the city that would present me with the highlight of my trip: a polka with a guy I’ll identify as “Mr. Fighter.” There was another individual, but he dislikes cops so I’ll identify him only as “Mr. Montreal” (not to be confused with the Montrealer who was teaching the Winnipeg chick how to make poutine.)

Mr. Bus Driver did warn against having a few drinks, but that only stopped me from sipping the wine I’d brought onto the bus for the trip. I wanted a beer or two while I checked my email. So I walk down the road from where the buses are parked and enter one of the restaurants that is still open. And that’s where I meet Mr. Fighter and Mr. Montreal.

So we had a few.

Well, Mr. Fighter dude couldn’t hold his booze very well and passed out at the table. It was kinda funny, actually. Apparently they’d been drinking before they got to that restaurant. When I got there we had a few shots, mostly tequila, and then he just dropped his head and went to sleep right there at the table.

The time came to leave. As we’re walking back to the buses, Mr. Fighter mutters something completely incoherent. Mr. Montreal and I agree, thinking we could just keep going. It works the first time, but now Mr. Fighter dude is on the highway, with large snow-plows going by. Finally, he turns to us, mutters something incomprehensible again, we tell him we’re going back to the buses, he says ‘no’ and sprints down the highway in the opposite direction. I’ve never seen a drunk man run so well. Perfect form, he would put Olympic sprinters to shame.

Mr. Montreal and I stand there kinda confused. We don’t want to babysit him, but at the same time we didn’t want to read in the papers about this guy passing out and dying in the snow. For all those thinking that it would’ve been smarter to just leave the guy, you’d be right. I commend you for your foresight. But, we go look for him.

We find him at the Tim Hortons sipping a coffee. We ask the lady working there, who’d just come out for a smoke, what would happen if we just left him there. She said he’d probably pass out and then they’d call the cops.

I don’t know why, but we thought it best to take him back. We go inside and get him. He seems to be better with the coffee.

As we’re walking back to the buses (again), I compliment him on his amazing sprint down the highway and that he was actually able to buy a coffee. Well, that seemed to set him off. He takes the lid off of his coffee, splashes it in my face, and starts swinging his arms at me.

Mr. Montreal is just as surprised as I am by the sudden change. To be honest it wasn’t really a fight, more like a polka. I wasn’t sure if Mr. Fighter was serious, he kept coming at me with his hands in the air and his eyes wide open. He reminded me of a monkey. I really wanted to ask him if that’s how he learned how to fight, maybe it’s a distraction technique? I decided against further instigating the approaching monkey and instead concentrate on trying to deflect the wild beast.

So we grapple, and turn, and do the polka all the while Mr. Montreal is trying to talk him down. I keep telling Mr. Fighter that we’re trying to help him, but he keeps telling Mr. Montreal to stay out of it, he just wanted to hit me. Just once.

There was a moment I thought about letting him hit me, Fight Club style. I mean, I’d done Thai boxing but never actually fought before. I quickly let that thought perish as he came at me monkey-style again.

Realizing this wasn’t going to end well, I ask Mr. Montreal if he could pin him so I could clear out. We manage to get him down a few times and start to back off but the guy just kept getting up. Kudos on the tenacity and endurance.

Finally, on the last polka he grabs at my face and grasps my glasses. Up until this point, the worst thing that had happened was the fact that I was covered in coffee, but now he had manged to grab my glasses! Mr. Montreal is finally able to pin the guy to the ground. But I can’t take off until I get my glasses!

After a little bit of a struggle, I manage to tear my glasses away, they’re not broken but they definitely had more of a modérn look to them, and who knows how long they’ll last after they’re fixed.

So Mr. Montreal pins Mr. Fighter to the ground and that seems to do it. I take off and, looking back, see Mr. Montreal take off as well. Mr. Fighter just lies there, a monkey sleeping on the side of the highway. How serene.

And that’s why you don’t go drinking while stranded in the middle of nowhere: some people get cabin fever and can’t deal with the stress of sitting on a bus for that long of a time.

The next morning I tell the bus driver what happened. He is less than happy to hear about it. They find the guy out and I say all I want is the replacement cost of my glasses. Understanding that there’s nothing really that can be done, pressing charges would mean having to come back to Wawa to be a witness. My goal here is Ukraine, not a court battle.

Settling back down into my bus seat I make a discovery that made me laugh pretty hard, kinda like a crazy man. I notice that the lids on the Tim Hortons coffee cups have a penis and vagina on them. Typically you fold the plastic lip backwards onto the cup to make a drinking hole. Well, the lip that folds back had a what looked like a vagina, and the part it clips onto looked like a penis. Not two seconds later, the Winnipeg chick and Montrealer step out of the hotel.

At this point I think I’ve gone crazy and am thinking about other things I’d rather be doing than sitting on a bus, driving through a Canadian winter, having polka’d with a crazy drunk guy and still only 2/3s the way to my destination.

The rest of trip, thankfully, passed by pretty uneventful. We left Wawa around 9 am and made it to Sudbury a few hours later. Having made it to Sudbury, we transfer to another bus that then takes us onto Ottawa, finally! All being said and done, 62 hours on a bus! I commend the Greyhound bus drivers for their navigation of the weather and roads (though others have seen fit to bad-mouth them). But I’m not sure I’ll be signing up for another epic bus trip, even if it’s dirt cheap.

The 62-Hour Bus Trip: The Movie

For those of you interested in seeing what Canada’s scenery is like from the view of a bus seat, I invite you to take a look at the video I made of my epic journey across the Great Canadian shield. Facebook it, Twitter it, burn a copy and sell it to your friends, share it with others or subscribe to my blog, it’s the cool thing to do. The links are below. Or, better yet, buy me a coffee.

Running time: 3:20

Format: HD

Video and editing by: Me, Steven Sirski

Music by: Dan-O, www.danosongs.com

Since WordPress doesn’t allow me to embed Vimeo files, you’ll have to go here.

Winnipeg: A Love Story

Winnipeg Legislative building with the Golden Boy on top. View from Memorial Boulevarde.

“A crop of concrete and glass pops out of the prairies in an area fertile with history and culture. Winnipeg’s isolation, self-sufficiency and outside ignorance have allowed it to evolve into one of Canada’s most honest and composed metropolitan cities that can handle being the butt of the Simpsons gag, ‘That’s it! We’re all going back to Winnipeg!’ The result is Canada’s cultural cradle without pretense, with world-class ballet, world flavors and world-famous sites.”

–Lonely Planet website, January 11, 2011

We are isolated and often during the harsh winters many a 2nd-generation immigrants are likely to ask, “Why, grandfather/Дідo/할아버지, why did you stop here?” To which grandfather typically responds, “We arrived in the summer.” Such is Winnipeg’s marketing ploy to immigrants. What else is there to do in the winter except hump to keep warm? With such marketing and humping, Winnipeg remains home to many cultures.

And so I think back to my youth, short years long ago, and the memories I’ve had in this cold cold city.

The Exchange District. The heart of the arts and business communities, though not necessarily together. Politicians work to rejuvenate the Downtown area, with some success. Here I find the Cinematheque, the movie venue at which I so much want my film work to screen. There I find the Pantages Playhouse, where for so many years I participated in a Ukrainian dance concert every year. Here I see the King’s Head Tavern, a place where I’ve drank so much. There I see the music palace known as The Royal Albert. Not far away is my first music store, Into the Music, moved from its original location in Osborne Village.

Downtown. Walking Downtown I spot the Millennium Library, my new favourite hang. Across the street I see our new arena, the MTS Centre, host to so many great concerts and a hockey team called the Manitoba Moose. Just a glance over the street brings mine eyes to Portage Place mall, a mall which I trawled for so many years while working for an undisclosed company. And what’s this? I spy with my little eye the only man, made of gold, who can withstand the harsh Prairie winter completely naked. I recall, too, the three wise men who join the man of gold in winter, sponsored by a local company.

The Forks. An old historic site that I hardly ever visited. The old meeting place between the Europeans and the natives of this land, this is the place that the Assiniboine and Red Rivers meet, dirty water both of them. It is in this park that I’ve attended Canada Day concerts featuring The Tragically Hip, that great and proud Canadian band. It is in this park that I’ve often strolled the walkways, pondering philosophical wonderings.

Osborne Village. Ah, my alternative bretheren, goths and punks. Whereforth have thee gone? How I, too, pine for the long lost Collective Cabaret, replaced by an American Apparel. Fear not! There is The Zoo, home to the monsters of rock. And then movies movies movies in Movie Village, and music music music in its musical brother, Music Trader. Here I see my watering hole, The Toad. But as I cast mine eyes skyward, a thought, only one, crosses my mind, who lives in all those pretty condos? Where did they come from? What do they do? Do they know the history and culture of this wondrous street they overlook? Do I?

Corydon Avenue. Previously owned and operated by Italians, now the Koreans. Condos condos everywhere, where is one place I can find a beer? A coffee I can find at the Second Cup, the Starbucks, or even the Fresh Cafe. Ginormous fatty burgers at the Daly Burger. Gelati at Nucci’s Gelati. How much you’ve changed over the years! What will you be like when I return? Who will be there then?

Wellington Crescent. My running path for so many years. Running not only for fitness, but to impress that hot blonde who went running at 6:45 am. Five minutes too early or late, and I’d miss my chance to impress that gorgeous example of the female species. Failing the morning run, I could make up for it during an evening run when I could catch a glimpse of the office workers running off their frustrations for Corporate Canada.

Assiniboine Park. Moo baa, eee ya ya ya go the little furry animals in the Zoo. Silent observers are the sculptures in Leo Mol’s garden. Behold! Winnie the Pooh! And lo! Green grassy fields on which I, as a young aspiring soccer player, played soccer. Ah, to drive the pathways at night again, bottle of wine in hand, woman in the passenger’s seat, riding along.

Winnipeg. Here I was educated, here I was born, here I ran the streets as a child on sunny days, racing against my siblings, laughing, joyful, ignorant of the world around me. Perhaps it was better, how can I know? Do I desire to capture that playfulness in the greater world? There we played street hockey, on these streets we delivered newspapers, there lived my best friend, there was parked my Datsun before the accident, there we played on the stages, there was my first love. Such memories lived, such memories alive! How far, how far have I gone? Can I ever come home?

And so I leave you, Winnipeg, bid you adieu, Pegtown, until we meet again, my Love Eternal. A tear slips mine right eye, falling softly to the World below.

Reminiscences of a Winnipeg Musician Part 3: Ciaira’s tears

As I was writing up my posts about Winnipeg rock venues, it dawned on me that I’d done quite a bit of recording here in Winnipeg. By no means do I claim to be a great studio artist (my band mates would probably have more than a few stories to share), but I’ve been in Winnipeg studios for five recordings. The first true band I was a part of was called Ciaira’s tears.

This is the band with which I learned how to play on stage with, encouraging my “free-form” drumming style (metronome anyone?). This is the band in which I went from long hair to a shaved head. This is the band in which I learned about marketing and postering. This is the band with which I made my first studio and live recordings. This is the band that went through a band member change only to break up a couple of years later. This is the band that taught me tact with women, with moderate success. This was my first rock band.

Originally, the band was called Ciaira’s Problem, of which I was not a part. Then shortly before I came along the band was renamed to Ciaira’s tears. You’ll have to ask Mr. Baria for the story cause I’m still not clear about it. Something about a girl named Ciara not liking Steve.

There were three of us, three Steve’s. And yes, we heard all the lame-ass jokes you could muster: Are you The Three Steves? You could use Steve Cubed. Usually followed by some sort of dumb laugh. Suppressing the urge to say “Shut the fuck up,” the band went by Ciaira’s tears. The second “i” in Ciaira is courtesy of my guitarist who, for all his computer wizardry, doesn’t like using spell check. (Maybe this is why Ciara didn’t like him?)

Early photo of Steve and Steve.

We released two recordings. For those of you lucky enough to have a copy of the original Jellybean Single (released in January 2001), know that there were only something like 50 copies ever made. They’re rarities. 😀 I personally recorded those tapes from the master tape. And it all had to be done in real-time, no CD ripping here. The tape had 4 tracks total: Jellybean, two jam songs, and a crappy version of Alconol.

The firstest first recording was Jellybean, probably our catchiest song. We were lucky because my guitarist was taking a studio engineering course at Studio 11 at the time (guess who else was in the class, John Turner of Phoenix Sound). The class needed a guinea pig band, and so we volunteered. One cold Winnipeg evening, we trucked in all of our equipment, set it up, and let the students handle the mic placements and recording. It was also the first time I’d ever used a click track, and that took some getting used to!

Life After... EP. Released March 2002. Cover design by Steve Baria.

We decided to hit the studio again later that year and record some more tracks. The result was the Life After…, called such because the recording was supposed to represent the life of the band after Jellybean. You see, Jellybean was a fan favourite, but it was a rarity. Jellybean was catchy, the rest of our songs not so much (except maybe Mrs. Alexander).

We rehearsed like mad and recorded three more songs. Though I encourage you to listen to the songs for yourself, I think Jellybean was about an ex-gf, Stuckpig is about gutting pigs (it’s not really, but I don’t know exactly), Aconite is about vampires, and Pink Napkins is about… well, that’s a fun one to figure out. We also added two of my favourite songs from a live show, Alconol and Mrs. Alexander (the first song about tylenol and alcohol, the second about a wayward son).

We tried to make a music video for Aconite, but I don’t think that will ever see the light of day. I wrote and shot it for one of my university classes, casting my brother and his then-gf as vampires. The band makes an appearance (as vampires playing instruments), but only a short one since my instructor encouraged me to tell a story instead of just recording the band play their instruments. I shot it on 16mm black and white film, costing somewhere around $800. I’ll chalk that up to a learning process.

Early poster.

Early poster.

But Ciaira’s tears was on the wane. Band tensions increased and our desire to keep trying decreased, all of us looking for something different. So, after 6 years together, some 43 shows played in the gritty bars of Winnipeg, 2 two recordings, and one last show at the Collective Cabaret, we called it quits.

But Steve! I want to listen to your music! I’m eager! Tell me more! For those of you interested in hearing my early drum work with my first rock band, you can find many of our songs on the CBC Radio 3 website. In addition to the Life After… EP, you’ll find a couple more recordings. One is titled Make Me Happy, recorded live after a lineup change, and the Changing String Jam Pt. 1, which was one of the two jam songs included on the Jellybean Single.

The next logical step for me, of course, was to join a polka band, but that story will have to wait for another time.

Reminiscences of a Winnipeg Musician Part 1: Venues Still Operational

Recently, over a few beers with a high school friend, he mentioned that his younger brothers were going into the studio to record their first album. They would be recording with a man named John Turner at his new studio. Now, more than likely none of you know John Turner, but I’ve known him for years. He was part of a band called Burnbox with whom we shared the stage so many years ago in our younger, more ambitious days as rockstars.

That got me thinking about all those years I spent slumming around in nothing but the classiest places of the Winnipeg music scene. So, one fine gloomy and overcast November day, heading out toward my new favourite hang, the Millennium Library, I decide to take a wander past some old venues. I even took pictures of some of them which I will post shortly.

Wow. I hadn’t realized how many different venues we played at. As a result, I’ve separated this post into two parts: those that are still operational, and those that, well, are retired like an aging, washed-up rockstar. In this part, I’ll cover those venues that are still operational.

West End Cultural Centre. Still operational and recently renovated, this is the last of the small-venues in Winnipeg before you step up to the Burton Cummings Theatre. When my rock band, Ciaira’s tears, played there for a band battle, it had a great sound system and competent sound engineers. I convinced my cousin, then at university, and five of her friends to climb into my Chevette and watch my band. One of the easiest venues to load into, and much cleaner than some of the other venues on this list. This venue often hosts touring acts and helps support both the Winnipeg Jazz Festival and the hippie-joint-fest that is the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Catering to music of all kinds, the King's Head Pub remains a staple in the Winnipeg music scene.

The King’s Head. Though Ciaira’s tears never played here, Zrada did. It was the last venue I played in Winnipeg with Zrada back in 2008. Still operational, the venue is hospitable to bands of all types, encouraging Irish, Ukrainian, and jazz music acts. They also play host to a series of shows during the Winnipeg Jazz Fest. Though they’ve had the same bar staff for ages, they still employ smart and beautiful waitresses. 😀 And not far from the King’s Head is…

The rear entrance to the long-standing Royal Albert Arms venue.

One of the stickered walls in the Royal Albert venue.

The Royal Albert. *Tear* Great place. What a fucking dive. I’m not sure how many other bands experienced the same plight our band did, but every time we played a show there the bar owner would tell us that someone or some thing got broke that afternoon. Maybe it was just coincidence. But this bar is iconic and legendary in the Winnipeg music scene. One time it even payed host to a Winnipeg Fringe Festival show, Henry and The Angry Inch. Everything my parents encouraged me not to be was on display at this bar: rock, metal, and punk, the same words used to describe the audience are also applied to the music. Piercings, tattooes, knives, drums, beer, blood (and, during Trousermouth shows, toilet paper) harmoniously meld with the band stickers plastered on the wall and the unsafe pillar on the side of the stage. If you haven’t played the Albert, you haven’t paid your dues. Oh, we were warned about the Albert curse: play the Albert more than once a month and your band is doomed to fail.

Rear view of The Zoo rock venue.

The Zoo. The bar, not the lovely sight-seeing animal park for families. No no, it used to be biker bar #1, The Zoo is the Village’s quintessential rock palace. Loud, proud, and fucking dirty, this venue is attached to the Osborne Village Inn and has a beer vendor out back. Attracting both local and touring acts, this venue is part 2 of 3 in the essential Winnipeg scene. It has one of the loudest sound systems on the scene, and a competent sound guy to work it (a rare combination). Pick a famous Canadian rock band, and they probably played at The Zoo at some point during their formative years.

The Pyramid Cabaret

The Pyramid Cabaret. Part 3 of 3 for the mandatory Winnipeg small-venue scene. We played there once or twice, most notably when my first band, Ciaira’s tears, released its first (and only) EP, Life After…. Who would’ve figured it could snow so much in March? Well, cheers to you folks who made it out to that show because I think that was the most people we ever played to, somewhere around 90-100. Sold damn near every copy of our CD, too! Thank goodness because my gtar player lost the rest of the CD inserts and stickers. But this venue isn’t just for local acts, touring acts also stop by. From what I can remember of the night, the most notable band to pass through here was GWAR. Insane, blood-spattered, and politically-aware space-jockeys smash about the stage chopping off the heads of presidents and terrorists while spraying the crowd with blood and alien semen. And then I had to explain to my bookstore boss why I had green and blue dye on my face the next day. Wonderful show. Full of excitement.

The new location of the Academy Coffee Co.

The Academy Coffee Co. (No website!) Before the ACC moved into Osborne Village, it had a location near yuppied-up River Heights. The River Heights location closed down as the owner devoted all his energy to the new place in the Village. Owned and operated by the same dude who ran the Noiseworks music stores, Brian, this place was phenomenal. I really liked the place when it was both a CD store and a coffee shop. But, when it was a coffee shop, he couldn’t sell alcomahol. So, he changed that. Catering primarily to acoustic, jazz, and blues artists, Brian always went to great lengths to ensure the sound was gorgeous before resuming his duty at the cash register.

Having covered the places that are still opened, in my next post I’ll cover those that have been shut down and mention what those places have now become. Careful, one is even haunted.

The Musician – Update #3

There’s no easy way to put this, but my proposed feature film project for 2010 will have to be put on hold. Things didn’t come together the way I expected them to. I’m not sad or angry, nor disappointed or depressed about it. As a matter of fact, I’m okay with the project being pushed off for a little while longer simply because I learned so much this summer. Let me explain what I’ve been up to.

I’ve been reading and writing profusely over the last two months. I’ve been studying finance, other people’s scripts, and how to write stories (you’d think I’d know already!) Furthermore, I’ve kept busy with this blog which I hope you find a bit entertaining or informative. I’ve gone through The Musician‘s script again, breaking it down to its fundamentals, and started another script, a ghost story. I’ve also written some guest posts for a travel website, Art of Backpacking, which you can view here and here. And the short film I made in Korea has been featured on the same website, you can see that here. Lastly, I’ve moved up to Dauphin to work on my uncle’s farm. So things kinda moved in a different direction.

The story is simply not ready, and giving it a little more time will allow it to grow a little more. Although I don’t expect my first film to be on the level of James Cameron, George Lucas, or Steven Spielberg, I do expect that it would be watchable and entertaining.

Yes, it’s a disappointing thing to push off this film but it will get done it due time.

In the meantime, I’ve posted some videos of my work on Vimeo. One short film, Coffee and Milk (the same one mentioned above) and I’ll be releasing another short film in a little bit (it’s my first EVER short film… uh oh!) and that one’s called The Five Muses. There are some videos of me drumming there too.

Many thanks for all of your support!!

The Musician – Update 2

Back in Winnipeg and visiting friends and family. Talked to a few people about the project and I’m motivated to get this done. If it doesn’t get done, I’ll be going to Saudi Arabia to teach English.

Received some feedback about the 3rd draft. Need to do a 4th. I think musicians will like the movie and understand many parts of it, but I’d like to offer non-musicians some insight into what musicians go through.

I’ve asked one of my cousins if she and her son would want to take part in the movie. 3 scenes, a mother video taping her son playing guitar, drums, piano, etc. Looking for a mother-son duo, don’t need to be pro actors at all.

What’s the budget? In my mind, $50,000. “WOW Steve, that’s a LOT of money!” Yes, but that includes:

1) $20,000 for the soundtrack (12 songs, all original, professionally recorded at a studio, mixing, mastering, honorarium for musicians involved, printed CDs, booklets, etc.)

2) $21,000 for the actual production (camera rental, crew, editing, props, DVD copies, printed script booklet (maybe?), etc.)

3) About $9,000 for marketing (movie poster, postcards, adverts, magnets (maybe?), preview copies, etc.).

Looking to shoot HD, maybe a 3 week shoot total, possibly less. I’d like most people to get paid for this project, albeit discounted rates 😦

I want to post the project online at kickstarter.com. That way you can pledge money but not commit until the financial goal is reached. Trouble is, I don’t know what incentives to offer to donors. I need some feedback on this, so if you could please have a look and suggest an incentive per price category: $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1000. $1000 is already a producer credit, but maybe you’ll want more? Please let me know by posting comments below.

Oh yea, what’s the movie about? It’s about a musician trying to understand his gift of music. I will post a larger synopsis shortly and maybe some rough sketches of what’s going on. If it helps, I want to do a script reading soon, so if you have some free time and want to read a script out loud, let me know and we’ll set up a date and time.

The Musician – Update 1

The script is now in it’s 3rd draft.

I have some ideas for marketing the project, including busking and attending some film festivals this summer (I’ve submitted The Five Muses to a few film festivals but have yet to receive any confirmation). In regard to the busking, if you want to join me on the streets of Canada this summer to help raise cash for the project, I’ll give you a great big hug and put your name in the credits.

I will be putting up some cash for this project, but I’m looking to have this project crowd-funded. I’ll be posting more info as the project develops, so if you want to donate to this project, please send me an email at stevensirski@gmail.com. There will be different levels of donations available, something like this: $10 will get you a hug from me or a digital copy or something like that, $20 a copy of the finished DVD or the soundtrack, $30 a copy of the finished DVD and your name in the credits, $50, etc. $1000 or more and we can talk about you getting credit for being a producer on the project. I’ll find out how to post a Paypal link within the next couple of weeks.

One of my friends has expressed interest in working on the soundtrack, we’re aiming to hit the studio by August. I’m actually almost more excited about the soundtrack than the movie itself. The script combines a lot of my musical interests: rock, jazz, Ukrainian, electronica, beat boxin’ and some world percussion.

Also trying to find an artist to work on the movie poster which I hope to have done sometime by the end of June. I thought I could get it done while travelling through Asia, but none of the artists were willing to do it. They were afraid of the language barrier.

The opening credits will be a short film, tentatively titled “The Life of a Musician”. I’m in talks with a flash animation artist to get it done. It should run about 2-3 minutes in length, black and white, stick figure flash animation.

That’s all for now. First feature!

The Musician

Some information about my first feature film to be shot this summer in Canada.