Big Fun! /  by Grey Gallinger

Last week I had the pleasure of shooting the Big Fun Music Festival. I got to shoot in three different venues around Winnipeg, including The Ballroom, which I didn't even know existed.

From Big Fun's website:

"Using Winnipeg’s prairie winter as the backdrop, the festival will showcase the best of Manitoba’s current and upcoming artists as well as some hand picked acts from across Canada. The Big Fun Festival wants to give the people of Winnipeg a reprieve to the brutal winter by organizing a unique and exciting weekend of events in the bitterly cold stretch of our darkest month."

I can definitely get behind their mission. It can be a daunting task to even think about leaving the comfort of your own home when it's 40 below. The cold and the wind and the cost and the energy weigh down on you, pulling you deeper into your couch cushions. But along comes a music festival in the dead of winter to coax you from hibernation.

Every show was well attended, so they must be doing something right.

My personal highlights were Warsaw follwed by Metz on Thursday night at Union Sound Hall. Even though I was being repeatedly shoved into the stage, holding my gear for dear life and fending off flailing throngs of testosterone, I had a blast. My plan was to get some shots from up near stage left, then wander to the opposite side and get some shots from behind the crowd. That's not how it went down though. As soon as Metz struck the first chord, the crowd erupted, I squeezed my way to the front and was then pinned against the stage until the house lights came up. Luckily it was the best shooting angle I could have been forced to stick with. On the musical side, I loved how Metz's entire set seemed like one long performance. I dont' remember their being even a moment of silence between songs as they were all weaved together with feedback and ringing notes and distortion. Props to sound guy Cam Loeppky for manning the board that night.

The other standout performance was B.A. Johnston, who brought his deep fried comedy rock to the Windsor Hotel. Johnston started and ended his performance in the bathroom, which he proclaimed made the Albert's urine soaked salle de bain seem like paradise.

You can see many of my photos from Big Fun in Stylus, in the Winnipeg Free Press, and on Flickr.

Kapyong /  by Grey Gallinger

Anyone who has spent time in Winnipeg will have noticed the vast area in South Winnipeg left vacant after the exodus of the Canadian Forces.

Glazed eyes may have noticed the empty houses during the daily commute, or noticed the hundreds of metres of barbed wire fence while enroute to IKEA.

It seems like such an unfortunate misuse of the many buildings and land that make up the complex. Local First Nations groups are seeking to acquire the land for residential and commercial developments. Media coverage of the First Nations plans predictably brought bigots out of the woodwork, spewing hate and vitrole on social media and the comment sections. The controversy and the mystery became an obsession to me.

I contact an uncle, a veteran who was once stationed in Winnipeg, to ask if he spent time in the place that now sits as a vacant space. He said he was stationed at Minto Armories, not Kapyong, but vaguely remembered the place. His vague recollections did little to satisfy my intrigue.

I decided to see grounds for myself, so one afternoon I walked the permiter of the barracks, through the snow, along the outside edge of the enclosed complex. Peeking over barbed wire and around warning signs from the Department of Defence. What mysteries remain locked away or forgotten in those many buildings? I felt like David Duchovny, looking over my shoulder for the lone security vehicle that patrols the grounds.

I came home with only these pictures and more questions.

New Years Eve at the Windsor Hotel /  by Grey Gallinger

Chris Hannah of Propagandhi performs at the Windsor Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Chris Hannah of Propagandhi performs at the Windsor Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

When it was announced that Propagandhi would be playing an intimate New Years Eve show at the Windsor Hotel Winnipeg's aging anarchists, beer leaguers, punks frothed at the mouth at the idea of seeing Winnipeg's (and North America's) most outspoken progressive thrash bands at a venue usually reserved for blues bands and local indie acts.

I was tipped off a few days prior to the announcement, yet the original run of tickets still fell just beyond my reach. Disappointement set in for many who had hoped to ring in the new year with their favourite band.

Luckily many who missed out managed to make it in anyways, through luck or the kindness of others. The crowd composed primarily of old friends and local legends. All were in high spirits and grateful to be in attendance.

You can checkout my collection of photos from the evening here.

Todd (the Rod) Kowalski

Todd (the Rod) Kowalski

David (the Beaver) Guillas of Propagandhi, performing at the Windsor Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

David (the Beaver) Guillas of Propagandhi, performing at the Windsor Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Books I Read in 2013 /  by Grey Gallinger

  • A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah

  • The Stranger - Albert Camus

  • Media Control - Noam Chomsky

  • Power Systems - Noam Chomsky

  • Breaking the Sound Barrier - Amy Goodman

  • The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther - Jeffrey Haas

  • Of the People For the People - Robin Hahnel

  • Death of the Liberal Class - Chris Hedges

  • War is a Force that Gives us Meaning - Chris Hedges

  • The World as it is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges

  • Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt - Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco

  • Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold - Tim Hetherington

  • Here I Am: the Story of Tim Hetherington - Alan Huffman

  • Stuck in the Middle: Dissenting Views of Winnipeg - Bartley Kives and Bryan Scott

  • The Dispossessed - Ursula K. LeGuin

  • Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

  • Shaman - Kim Stanley Robinson

  • Dirty Wars - Jeremy Scahill

  • The Great Shark Hunt - Hunter S. Thompson

  • A People’s History of the United States: 20th Century Edition - Howard Zinn