Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 17, 2012, Winnipeg, Manitoba winnipegfreepress. com THIS CITY A8 SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2012 OUR WINNIPEG I N spite of the much- debated, love- it- or- hate- it Cube stage, I must say Old Market Square is one of my favourite places in Winnipeg. As a musician, it is amazing to perform in front of a huge crowd, gathered with a common love of music. In the space of a one- hour set, I see parents dancing with toddlers, teens buying burgers, cyclists stopping in their tracks, grandparents lounging on lawn chairs, 20- somethings in the beer tent ( of course!), homeless people, business people, working people, fringes- people - all hanging out because there's music, it's free, and that's what we love to do in Winnipeg. I performed at Old Market Square for the first time a few years ago with Papa Mambo for the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, and have had the privilege of performing there annually ever since. Jazz Winnipeg puts on a great festival every year, and it always starts off with a free weekend of concerts in mid- June to kick off the festival. In fact, all this next week there are concerts at noon hour to continue the fun. Contrary to its name, there's a lot more to the jazz festival than jazz. You can hear R& B, blues, soul, funk, rock, and Latin music - all at the free weekend at Old Market Square. The great thing about Old Market Square is its central location and the quirky shops and restaurants that surround it. The old buildings are interesting ( I always see photographers in this part of town), the people are great, and there's that big patch of green to dig your bare feet into. Within view of Old Market Square: I like to eat at the Line Up ( it recently changed its name to Bodegoes) - their Pad Thai Peanut Noodle Box is delicious! The Haberdashery is a fun hat store. I know the owner, Luke Nolan, who is always popping his head out during the outdoor festivals to check out the music. He has a strict rule about only playing vinyl in his store. I've ducked into the King's Head many a time for quick costume changes on nights at the Jazz Fest when I'm in three different bands. The mini- doughnut truck - this only appears at festival time, but I have my bucket, so I can get a deal ( and more doughnuts)! My best memory of Old Market Square is from last year, when Papa Mambo closed out the Latin Night. The square was full of people dancing salsa and grooving to the music. They called out " one more song!" and we had to make it quick in order to stay in line with the law ( about being quiet after a certain time). My feet were killing me from dancing so hard on concrete in high heels! But it was worth it. So come by the square sometime this summer - don't let the huge shiny Cube keep you away! There's a lot going on - Jazz Fest, Fringe Fest, weekend concerts, and you can help carry on a fun Winnipeg tradition. Amber Epp gets crowds up dancing with her award- winning Latin group Trio Bembe, belts it out with popular Winnipeg salsa band, Papa Mambo, and delights listeners with jazz stylings as a solo artist. You can see her perform on Friday, June 22 at noon at Old Market Square with Victor L�pez & Son Urbano, and at The Forks on Canada Day with Trio Bembe. For more about Amber Epp, visit triobembe. com and amberepp. com . Some of the best, and worst, advice prominent Winnipeggers remember HELL THE YOU SAY Rob Lowe's tweet divided Winnipeg into two solitudes. Which one are you in? . OUR WEEKLY LOOK AT THE PULSE OF THE CITY Two summers ago, a cave- in at Chile's San Jos� Mine left 33 men stranded 700 metres below the surface of the Atacama Desert. Initially assumed dead, the miners were discovered alive and well in the hot and humid bowels of the copper and gold mine. They spent a total of 69 days underground. Their rescue was televised around the world. If any of those miners had access to the Internet and a Twitter account during the ordeal, they could justifiably have told the world they were trapped in a hellhole. Given their experience, it's easy to see how Rob Lowe would feel the same way. Yeah, I know it's been a few days since the dude who spent four years playing Sam Seaborn on The West Wing gave Winnipeggers something to focus on besides an incomplete football stadium for a couple of hours. By tweeting he was " trapped in a hellhole" while attempting to watch an NBA broadcast in some unnamed sports bar, Lowe managed to enrage overly sensitive types who take offence every time Winnipeg's allegedly good name is besmirched. At the very same time, other Winnipeggers appeared to be just as annoyed by the reaction to the Lowe tweet rather than the comment itself. To this crowd, if you complain when your city is compared to the opening to the gates of hell, then you probably belong in such a place. In other words, the now- tiresome # TrappedInAHellhole meme divided Winnipeg into two unsavoury camps: A) Easily offended smalltown yokels; and B) Humourless, disaffected hipsters. If you merely found the entire episode amusing, well, too freaking bad. You must choose between being morally outraged by the random musings of some wraith- like Dorian Gray figure, or being mortally offended by the lack of sophistication of your fellow citizens, who serve as a constant source of embarrassment to you. Yes, these are the two solitudes of life in Winnipeg, at least for the next 15 minutes. Not rich versus poor, urban versus suburban or aboriginal versus white, but outraged versus outraged by the outraged. If you're not sure how you fit into this extremely narrow dichotomy, I've devised a test to discern how detestable you are: BARTLEY KIVES bartley. kives@ freepress. mb. ca FATHER knows best wasn't just a hit comedy show on radio and television back in the day. It's also a phrase that sums up the paternal pearls of wisdom that come when a man gains entry in the dad club. And so on this Father's Day, the Free Press asked a number of prominent Winnipeggers for the best bit of wisdom they ever got from their dad - along with some advice they probably shouldn't have listened to: PHILIP S. LEE, MANITOBA'S LIEUTENANT- GOVERNOR BEST ADVICE: Whatever you do, do a holistic job and do not leave anything unfinished. BAD ADVICE: Everything my father told me was positive and for my well- being. I don't believe there was any bad advice given by him. From the mouths of dads PAUL LAPOLICE, BLUE BOMBERS HEAD COACH: BEST ADVICE: " I guess one of the best things was the time I was offered the Toronto Argonauts ( quarterbacks coach) job and I remember talking to my dad about it and I was unsure whether I should take the job because I had a good gig going and was probably going to be the next head coach at the college I was at... And he said ' So what? You can always go back to Div III football'... And that was obviously great advice from my father." BAD ADVICE: " Bad advice? Not that I can think of. I probably just didn't listen." STEVEN SCHIPPER, ROYAL MANITOBA THEATRE CENTRE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR BEST ADVICE: " Treat women with respect." BAD ADVICE: " You can't go into the theatre; do you think we come from Hollywood?" KEITH MCCASKILL, WINNIPEG POLICE CHIEF SAM KATZ, WINNIPEG MAYOR BEST ADVICE: " Get an education and you can accomplish anything." WORST ADVICE: " My father never gave bad advice." STEVEN FLETCHER, TORY MP BEST ADVICE: " My dad didn't provide advice. He demonstrated through his own actions and conduct on what one should do. He is an awesome father and good Canadian. He worked hard in his profession and when he is not doing that he is focused on his family. If I have the opportunity to be even a fraction of a father to my kids as my father has been to me and my siblings I will consider my life a success. Furthermore, I did not appreciate the silent advice until my late teens. WORST ADVICE: Dad and I used to go on wilderness canoe trips in the glorious Great Canadian Shield. We would often be on the water late looking for campsites because Dad would say " let's keep going, there is a better campsite around the bend." There was never a better campsite. I have spent many a night in beaver bog and muskeg. It was special and memorable because I was with my dad. BEST ADVICE: " My father was a police officer, the chief of police of St. James- Assiniboia. Growing up, what he regularly preached to myself and my brother is you've always got to treat people with respect and get to know them as best as you possibly can, because, obviously, with co- operation and getting to know people you get a lot more things done. But the most important thing was to treat people with respect. And he drilled that into us regularly." BAD ADVICE: " I'm sure there was advice he gave me that was not good but I can't remember any of it - it's all positive stuff now because of who he was. I can't think of anything negative. There probably was but I can't think of it." How Lowe can you go? When it's time for a little pick me up, where do you get your caffeine? 1. Tim Hortons. The drive- thru lineup moves really quickly and it's cheap, you know. 2. Starbucks. The staff is so friendly and they're really not that expensive, you know. 3. Parlour. They have the best beans and it's really not that expensive, you know. 4. I only drink yerba mat� from a gourd I bought in Peru. What goes through your mind when the MTS Centre crowd chants " True North!" during the national anthem ? 1. " I love Mark Chipman so much, I would gladly conceive his child or undergo gender- transition surgery in order to make that happen." 2. " Whooooo! Go Jets!" 3. " Man, this beer is expensive." 4. " The magnetic- north reference in the Winnipeg Jets logo is just another intolerable corporate intrusion into everyday culture and that would upset me greatly if it wasn't for the more egregious fact the logo is a symbol of military might and, wait, have people already forgotten what happened in Libya or never mind, that one turned out OK for NATO so I should have probably said Afghanistan because that one is a real mess, although I am conflicted because it's not like the Taliban share my values, either, and oh, look - it's the second period already." What's your favourite summer festival? 1. Folklorama. I love the food. I mean, where else can you get, like, perogies and spring rolls? That's just crazy. They also have really interesting beer. I had something called a " Heineken" at the Dutch pavilion. It's not even from here. Crazy! 2. The Red River Exhibition. I am so stoked to see Tom Cochrane. You know that part in Life Is A Highway when he says, " Sometimes you stand and sometimes you bend?" That really speaks to me, man. 3. The Winnipeg Folk Festival. Ozomatli is playing Thursday on the main stage. I saw them in Kathmandu in 2007. You've never really heard Spanish hiphop until you've heard it performed in the Himalayas. 4. It's a really small festival. You probably haven't heard of it. What is your favourite all- time TV comedy? 1. Everybody Loves Raymond. I really miss that show. 2. Big Bang Theory. They're like, geeks, and they're living next to a hot chick. That never gets old. 3. Robot Chicken. I would have said Family Guy, but the writing has fallen off in recent years. 4. Game of Thrones . If you watched it really closely, you would know it's actually a comedy. OK, so you just got your municipal property- tax bill. The first thing you do is . 1. Complain about it to your neighbour. 2. Complain about it in the comments section of winnipegfreepress. com . 3. Complain about it on Twitter. 4. Tell your neighbour, online commenters and everyone on Twitter they are wrong to feel the way they do about their property taxes. How did you do? Give yourself one point if you picked answer No. 1, two points if you picked No. 2... you get it. ( If you don't get it, subtract 10 points from your score.) If you scored 4- 7 : You are detestable. You were so offended by Rob Lowe, you attempted to visit the set of the Casey Anthony bopic in an effort to cause him physical harm. He now has a restraining order against you. You own at least one ATV and one snowmobile. The only American cities you've ever visited are Grand Forks and Fargo. You know a lot about lawn mowers. You have a very large television. One day, you will watch the Casey Anthony bopic on this TV and you will not notice the wraith- like Rob Lowe. If you scored 17- 20 : You are detestable. You believe Winnipeg is a hellhole. You also wear suspenders, have a very long beard and make your own cocktails from scratch, using syrup you distil yourself from juniper bushes and very rare orchids. You want to move to Williamsburg, Brooklyn or Portland, Ore., but you can't afford to do so because you still haven't finished that master's degree in urban studies. You know a lot about charcuterie. You stopped listening to Metric after their first album. If you scored 8- 16 : You are not detestable. You laughed when Rob Lowe compared Winnipeg to a hellhole. Then you got on with your life. magnet Winnip anothe ate in cult up wa eg wa al ha ne turn s Af though th an al favo y r pav Crazy To i S Thursda Ka rea hop h sm ? By Amber Epp The Square is the root of all FUN ... and I get to see it all from the Cube stage Old Market Square is one of Epp's favourite places. HUGO INFANTE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Chilean miner Ariel Ticona Yanez ( left) smiles after being pulled out of the San Jose gold and copper mine where he had been trapped with 32 other miners for more than two months. ;