Long and McQuade Coming to Henderson Highway

There are two streets in Winnipeg that are known for a number of music related businesses along them, some in close proximity. Quest Music, St. John's Music and Long and McQuade are all along Portage Avenue or just off of it. There used to be three more stores as well but the market is tough, especially for piano sales.

Another road that has an abundance of music related businesses is Henderson Highway. It is there that you will find Croft Music and Mar Schells Music in terms of instrument sales.

Now we learn that Canada's biggest music seller is adding heft to Henderson Highway. Presently cladding is up around the former location of River City Sports. The sports equipment retailer that once had multiple locations in the city has consolidated at their St. James location across from Polo Park. Founded in 1991, it may have expanded too fast and their location at Seasons of Tuxedo probably was a bridge too far.

The building at 1074 Henderson Highway has Akman Construction busy gutting and re-building the 10,000 square feet inside. The exterior will be getting a new glazing replacement with the famous colours of Long and McQuade. 

The store itself will be very open in concept and concentrate on sales, rentals, lessons and repairs. The basement will be staff related and repair related.

Henderson Highway has quite the mix of businesses along it despite how busy it can get. In that way it is like portions of Portage Avenue with right to the curb businesses.

Long and McQuade has had many locations and now multiple ones in recent years but Henderson Highway might be its most intimate street location in the city.

Portage Place...the Future

This is what was envisioned for Portage Place way back. Many people don't seem to realize it was built to have towers on the east and in this picture, the west pad. This is an office but the talk now is that it will be residential, possibly student housing.

TV and Movie Reviews Snapshot...Chernobyl

With so many competing streaming services, cable and premium channels and regular TV, it could generally be said peak TV has arrived. Streaming is even competing with movies now with a short window in theatres and then exclusive rights on Netflix or Amazon or whatever.

I occasionally review movies here but don't get to as many as I once did. That's the price of work and also trying to do other recreational things within and outside the city. Time and a budget are always at a premium.

In the days of fewer channels, the shared experience of watching things together at the same time on TV or theatres was huge in its immediacy. Now, only live sports is that immediate. Video recording starting in the 1980s changed things a lot but it was more about the speed than total loss of immediacy. For example, recording TV usually meant you tried to watch the recorded program within a short timespan. The reasoning behind that was that blank tapes were not exactly cheap in the beginning.

TV series were rarely rented or sold on tape as they would take up so much space.  I remember how the only video cassettes I often saw of series were Seinfelds.

Streaming has killed both the video rentals market as well as downloads. The only recordings people make now are with PVRs for TV. Even that is not really owned by you. It is digitally stored and has some limits. It can expire and delete. You can reach maximum amount of storage. It is not the same as having the movie or TV series in your hand. But then again people seem to have accepted that.

My big complaint about cable has been and still is that despite so many channels there is not as much international TV series or movies on it. Netflix and others in the never ending drive to feed content goes everywhere to find as well as fund it. And now other streamers are doing it too.

Truth be told the big studios and broadcasters are all reaching a convergence where they do everything from theatrical releases, DVDs, Video on Demand, network and cable, streaming and downloads. And working with partners to create bigger productions, shared budgets or access to other markets including broadcast and production.

HBO has become more than a premium cable channel. In Canada it is now an anchor for Crave TV in Canada for their streamer. Game of Thrones has been an important part of driving traffic to the channel in recent years. However, it is not the only quality program that has come from there. In some ways HBO originally faced the same accusation that it mostly made money from movie content produced by other studios including its own. If that was once true, it isn't the case now. They have produced their own material from all the way back to the 1980s. In 1983, they produced Fraggle Rock which was filmed in Canada in partnership with CBC.

Following Game of Thrones many wondered if HBO still had the chops to draw eyeballs to their network. That has proved true with Chernobyl.

Chernobyl

This is a five part mini-series based on the real event of the explosion in a nuclear plant in the USSR in 1986. It is by the far the scariest series I have ever seen. The first episode I could only take in short amounts. So deep was my sense of dread that I winced every time a decision was made that was truly and curled up in fear as it unfolded.

There has been a great deal made about how authentic the series is. Complaints and kudos are all over the place. The producers went to great lengths to tell the story and make it look and feel like 1986. However, it is a dramatization and some characters are a composite. And the dialogue is at best a guess as the interactions among the players. 

While there is a large cast, there main focus is on three. The actors are Jared Harris, Stellan Skargard and Emily Watson. Essentially, the represent the political and scientific response to the nuclear disaster. Quite simply the performances by the stars is simply the best are are likely to be forgotten during award season.

As for the story, the first episode starts off with a bang and confusion and absolute terror. That horror comes from the fact that no one seems to know what happened or how bad it is. There is denial even as evidence of people being exposed to huge doses of radiation is exhibited. Once the extent of the continuing disaster happens, the story in future episodes tells what the response is in terms of evacuations, putting the fire out and the capping the damage.

The continued exposure and deaths of those responding to the crisis weighs even as the investigation goes on side by side of the response to the explosion. And throughout this, the oppressive and secret Soviet society denies, covers up or otherwise inhibits the truth until it threatens all the Soviet Union and Europe.

The final episode takes place in a court and re-creates how and why the explosion takes place. It is still frightening but intercut with explanations that make it more clinical. In the end, the story concludes with vignettes about the players in the story.

All in all it is great television. The best. I suspect the ending might have been more conclusive with an a death estimate but even now there is controversy in regards to it all in both the east and the west. Still, great television on a subject you would not expect such great writing and acting from.

Popeyes Coming to Crossroads Station

A short time ago I mentioned that Popeyes was going to built in the former Hakim Optical on West Portage. Now we have a Popeyes announcement for the east of Winnipeg on Regent at Crossroad Station.

The closing of Payless Shoes across North America left a glut of real estate in many communities including Winnipeg where we had several locations. Some of those locations are attracting interest while others sit empty as most of the continent looks to find new uses for retail space.

In the case of Crossroad Station the wait for a new use came quick. The popularity of Popeyes in Winnipeg is evident any time you drive past Seasons of Tuxedo. The location there is always busy both inside the store  and the drive-thru. There is no doubt that the location on Regent will be extremely popular.

Also part of the complex where Popeyes will be located is an EB Games and an Ultracuts.

Zoning is just going through so expect a few months to pass before we see Crossroad Station Popeyes go up but should be ready for fall/winter of 2019.

Movie Review: Spider-Man Far From Home Review

In fifteen years we have seen a lot of Spider-Mans. Sony has done origin stories with two different actors and the first started well and ended off worse and the second didn't gain traction. Good but quite enough for the marquee hero of the Marvel universe. More concerning for Sony/Columbia Pictures was that their asset was on the outside looking in at Marvel Entertainment/Disney's 22 film enterprise with dozens of superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This is no longer the case as Marvel Entertainment bridged the gap between Spider-Man's two studios, Sony and Disney, and made it possible for Spider-Man to be with his Avenger superhero friends. As of the time of this review, Far From Home has scored one of the most successful 4th of July openings in history. Already it is being talked about as possibly saving the summer box office as the latest X-Men and Men in Black franchises fizzled.

The young actor chosen to play Spider-Man Tom Holland was put under the wing of Iron Man's Robert Downey Jr. both figuratively and literally.  The two had real chemistry together in the first Spider-Man movie Homecoming as well as the Avengers movie. For those not wanting to be spoiled read no further. The new movie Far From Home is how young Peter Parker/Spider-Man is coping with the loss of his mentor Tony Stark/Iron Man. He is mourning and wants to take a break from the monstrous responsibility of being an Avenger.

The timeline of Spider-Man makes it a direct follow-up of Avengers: Endgame. Not only does Peter Parker have to still cope with high school, he has to cope that like half his class, he didn't age during "the snap." This means he goes back to school where he left off five years later with kids who would have been in junior high when half the universe disappeared. A funny scene in the movie demonstrates how students from the marching band appear in the gym when the snap is undone. Everyone is bumping into one another as it is so unexpected and sudden.

Suffice to say everyone is still adjusting to the new world including Peter Parker. All he would like to do is going on a field trip and tell the girl he likes how he feels and perhaps kiss her for the first time. If only Nick Fury as played by Samuel Jackson would let him. He and former SHIELD member Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders) need Spider-Man as the ranks of the Avengers are depleted due to deaths and other assignments. Peter dodges the calls even as Happy (Jon Favreau) warns him Fury won't be put off. Happy, Iron Man's best friend and still working for Pepper Potts at Stark Industries looks out for Peter and gives him a gift of Tony's glasses as per the inventor's last request. To confuse things more it appears that Happy and his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) might be dating.

Peter continues to ghost Nick Fury even as the world seems to be fighting off a new threat known as the Elementals. Since it seems far away, Peter concentrate on his European trip and his plan to get next to his crush MJ played by Zendaya who capture the awkward, geeky but beautiful girl perfectly. At every turn his plans seem to be thwarted and his best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon) who said they should be bachelor's in Europe suddenly has a girlfriend even before their flight arrives.

The gift that Peter gets from Tony is the man's glasses which we learn is tied to an Artificial Intelligence called E.D.I.T.H. that controls the database and battle drones of Stark Industries. In his haste to remove a potential rival for MJ's attention, he almost has a drone strike do the job for him. It once again affirms to him that he is over his head.

The humour and action are never far away and even as Nick Fury highjacks his school trip and even gets him a superhero disguise which gets dubbed the Night Monkey. He fight the Elemental threat with the aid of Jake Gyllenhaal's character of Beck/Mysterio. It is then in desperation to shake the unworthiness, he gives Beck Tony's glasses and the key to the database.

It is only after in the presence of MJ where she reveals to him that she knows he is Spider-Man that he sees evidence that Mysterio is a fraud and how dangerous he is. This inevitably sets up a high profile clash, various turns and surprises and incredible CGI action.

For an audience, it never completely overwhelms because Tom Holland makes you believe everything you see and hear with an authenticity and humour throughout. It feels like this movie is both the close of story behind and a representation of the story ahead. In other words, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in good hands.

Double secret spoiler ahead!

The mid credit scenes have so many twists and funny parts and action that it is a shocker when Spider-Man is outed as Peter Parker.

And in the very end credit, we see Nick Fury in a funny scene in space. Only seeing it will somehow explain it.

Barstool Pub and Eatery Coming to St. James Hotel

The St. James Hotel has been undergoing a pretty extensive rehabilitation. A fire in 2017 could have been the end of the 1928 built hotel. The second floor damage included smoke and water damage to the Fox and Hounds pub on the first floor. It certainly looked like curtains for the landmark historic building that greeted people as they passed down Portage Avenue to St. James.

One of the frequent questions as people drove by was whether the classic British style pub The Fox and Hounds would rise from the dead. The answer is no. A pub shall return but it will come with a new name: Barstool Pub and Eatery.

The marquee sign gets a digital upgrade as well for Portage Avenue drivers advertising the fare inside.

More to report as we get closer to it all being done.

Portage Place and Parkade for Sale?

Portage Place can stir up some raw emotions in Winnipeg. As a mall it has been barely hanging on. The Vancouver-based owner has few ways to make real money there and no incentive to do anything. Why? Because they don't own the land or the parking lot.

The parking lot and other parts of the land earn the The Forks, owner of the parkade, a whopping $3 million a year. In 1994, The Forks was borrowing money just to pay staff. It is not a stretch to say Portage Place saved The Forks and made it what it is today.

There is 1000 parking spaces at Portage Place and they are used all the time. At Jets and Moose game and concerts, the place is packed and customers pay premium parking. It is a cash cow. And the milk has gone to The Forks. In 2017, The Forks started charging for parking at its parkade and then surface parking lots. The parkade is around 300 cars. Forks Market is around another 100 around meters and Railside has just shy of 600. No recent tally of how much parking brings in at The Forks takes in but let's say it is significant. It may even be more than Portage Place takes in given we're talking about almost the same amount of spaces.

And that is fine. Some people said they will never go to The Forks again if they have to pay for parking. Seems pretty drastic and raises the question of whether their boycott is in effect for sports, concerts and the like where free parking may be difficult to find in proximity to an event. I won't even go into hospital parking and its costs. Suffice to say it is unavoidable if you drive a car. Build 2000 spaces for parking and you will find people park free all day. Like The Forks once had happening.

In any event, The Forks now has two revenue streams...North Portage parking and Forks parking. And life is good. However, they also have two mandates which is to promote and develop not just The Forks but North Portage. To that end, North Portage has been neglected.

The owner of the mall, Peterson Group from Vancouver, bought the mall for around $20 million from Consolidated who bought it for around $45 million from Cadillac Fairview who built it for $92 million. That is quite the depreciation since 1987. Still the mall stumbles along. It has a number or stores that service the businesses in the Monday to Friday day hours. The food court which has been the source of scorn and danger makes money. However, the owner has NO incentive to do more.

There have been some conversion of retail into offices. That has helped. However, the west and east pads atop the mall remain undeveloped because any business or hotel would want to have parking. And that is owned by The Forks. Moreover, the land is not even owned by Portage Place. It is also owned by North Portage/Forks. Portage Place only has a long term lease and agreement to turn everything over for $1 after it expires.

The Forks has no interest in investing in Portage Place as they don't own it. And the present owners are not interested in buying the lease out. They just want out. Winnipeg may only get to know after the weekend what's what as a closed door session with the city in planned with the major principals involved.

It is quite possible that what we'll here is that someone is interested in buying Portage Place, the parking lot and the lease. If this is the case, it is likely to trigger a major investment atop the two pad of Portage Place. A hotel, presumably a new Westin, will go up on the east side and offices or residential units or both will go up on the west side. The food court is toast. A hotel lobby, meeting rooms and ballrooms are likely to take up the first three floors. The overpasses will be preserved as well as the mall corridor. If residential goes up, I suspect we see a grocery store go up. A street presence and patios is no doubt a possibility.

Assuming a hotel goes up, the rear drive behind Portage Place will be the obvious valet pick-up/drop off and check-in space. The whole dynamic behind the building changes to serve two potential towers. A new owner would know that $3 million would be coming in annually just from the parking. That's a lot of lettuce.

How do we know this will work? It works because this is exactly what happened with Winnipeg Square parking. The 900 spaces there made oodles of money for the city. When they sold the parking lot, it was an incentive for a owner to own both the tower, the mall and the parking lot together. Lots of incoming cash. Enough for the owner to completely re-do the building and then plan for Winnipeg's tallest tower, a new gym and a grocery store (if the renderings are accurate) on the two unused pads behind Trizec tower. One can make an argument that CityPlace also was more lucrative for any owner because of the parkade inside.

This looks to be the biggest obstacle to seeing Portage Place be something different than how it is viewed now. A new owner can make money and do things with the property. No, it won't result in the whole building being torn down. No, it won't result in housing for below $1000 a month. But we will see changes that have density, serve new business and public access needs and probably more people living right on site. And very likely a less hostile street presence.

And let's not forget...there will be millions from the sale of the parking lot. Everyone and their dog will want a say on it. Not all of it should be sent to The Forks. It should be well planned out with the goal of bringing self sufficiency and prosperity to both the areas it was created to serve.

Za Pizza Bistro Finally Coming to Osborne Village

It took 12 months. Yes, you read that right. From the time it was first talked about to the sign going up in the window, it took 12 months to say Za Pizza Bistro is coming to Osborne Village. Why? Who knows. But all of the buildings have problems borne of being many decades old. Electric, water, false ceilings, multiple layers of flooring, heating and cooling and the big one in the Village: landlords. Most of the landlords were once business operators themselves who transformed the community and led beloved stores and restaurants. Today, they own high rent assets that have seen little infrastructure improvement and newer entrepreneurs who look further down Osborne or Corydon or Sherbrook or Sargent.

A few things have happened though. Some landlords have sold their buildings and new landlords have arrived. Some new business people have come to revitalize once proud corners of Osborne Village with a new restaurant concept. A few gyms have opened in spaces deemed to big for stores but useful to a growing community where apartments and condos abound.

And then there is the cannabis stores. The deep pocketed cannabis stores have grabbed large retail spaces in the last year. That has left a few gaps where some new businesses see an opening. Some new immigrants have opened some ethnic restaurants that could be set to take off. Everyone you look there are opening soon signs.

However, where Second Cup once stood for many years, the first floor has been vacant and waiting for the the promise of a licensed pizza restaurant. Some said it would never come. And then the sign went up. Za Pizza Bistro Coming soon.

Osborne Village had a very successful Canada Day event. Moreover, since Assiniboine Park pretty much shut down at 7 PM on the big day, it left very few late night places to celebrate. The Forks did its job, of course, but Osborne felt like it was reaching a tipping point to being a busy, social and successful street once again.

At some point possibly in August, we might see very few vacancies for a few blocks. Some notable exceptions though...The Osborne Hotel remains closed and with no obvious work being done. What a waste for a place that lived on music, a busy beer vendor and restaurant and being the centerpoint to beer gardens to wrestling.

Yay for Za Pizza Bistro coming and hope it inspires a long overdue focus to do something with the hotel that doesn't feel like a real letdown of what looks to be a bright future.

Netflix Review: Trapped

It used to PBS that could reliably bring non-North American drama to Canada. The private channels had plenty of U.S. fare to choose from and where mandated, produced Canadian material that was sometimes indistinguishable from the American stuff. CBC, on the other hand, was mandated to produce Canadian drama so material from say, Europe, would have had to have been co-produced for unique reasons.

In recent years more work is done in partnerships and demand for unique voices is strong right around the world. Canadian material has reached such a high level of production in terms of story, acting and location that its audience is no longer limited to home geography.

In today's broadcast world, Canadians see some material from overseas on Canadian channels but it is still very limited. PBS continues to be a powerhouse but skews heavily British. Nothing wrong with that except there has been other exception material missed along the way.

Nordic Noir are the words to describe movies and series coming out of places like Sweden, Norway and now Iceland. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series out of Sweden is some of the best television you are going to find on Netflix. Occupied from Norway was amazing. And now from Iceland we have Trapped.

It is a series that can be found on Netflix and is now into its second season running 20 episodes. It is very binge-worthy. Each season revolves predominantly on one case and the complications that surround it. Agatha Christie being channeled through the beautiful lens of Iceland and story about a dogged police officer and his team.

The story takes place Seydisfjordur, an isolated port town in Eastern Iceland connected to other area by a single desolate road, airport and port. The Chief of Police Andri has left under a cloud from work in Reykjavik but still commands respect despite enemies. His family life is in turmoil. His wife has split up with him and is seeing someone new in the capital. His daughters, who remain with him, are school bullies. To make matters worse his wife is coming to town with the boyfriends to take the daughters away. All of this, of course, is happening under one roof as the weather worsens.

As a blizzard heads towards the town, a torso of a body is pulled from a fishing boat just as a ferry pulls into port arriving from the mainland bringing with it Icelander, assorted Europeans and others. The ship is held as Andri and his team of two officers try to figure out who the culprit is as the storms socks them in. No one can leave and no help can come in. And the murderer is most certainly in their midst.

The title Trapped certainly holds true over ten episodes. Haunting, suspenseful and full of twists, it is hard to stop watching. The writing, acting, production, music and beautiful scenery it makes it far from ordinary.

The second season of 10 episodes doesn't replicate the blizzard conditions but emphasizes how people and society themselves are trapped in patterns that are difficult to break. We catch up with Andri who is back in Reykjavik but who ends up heading back to Seydisfjordur because of an attempted assassination is linked to a militant group in the isolated town.

Once again murder drives the investigation but this time it is also right wing politics, international business, the environment, foreign workers and deep family secrets showing how people are trapped by the past, present and future. And poor Chief Andri has to deal with a daughter whose nose for trouble puts her in the path of a killer.

Old characters are re-visited and some are doing better than others. All of this again is shown amidst the beauty of Iceland and how it continues to try to pull itself up from the economic crisis of 2008. So much has been displaced and for many, such a the sheepherders clad in their Icelandic sweaters, it has brought out the worst in them. But there is more to it all and is rooted in the deep horrible secrets of one family in town.

The two seasons of this show are worth sitting through even with captions. As fine a production as you will find in the world.

TableSpace to Open in Osborne Village

Osborne Village continues to transform as businesses and landlords who once shaped the street in 1970s begin to sell or close their shops and lease to new people to take us into the 2020s. It hasn't always been easy as retail on the street and within malls has been revolutionized by the Internet. Despite a dense population in the village business people have found it a challenge to draw traffic, pay high rent and keep up. In New York it is called Luxury Blight. It is when some posh shops come in that push up the rent and then leave when they fall out of fashion. Somehow the rent stays too high.

Restaurants and some retail have shied away from jumping back in to spaces that have high overheads. This has led to the opening of two fitness centers Shapes and Anytime that serve the growing residential population. Cannabis shops have also found that their business model allows multiple retail spots along the street. The types of shops that have left though are businesses such as Oxford at the corner of Gertrude.

So what do you do with what seem like amazing spaces in a world where street retail and restaurants have changed so much? Not everything can be a fitness center although it does seem like that lately with multiple openings. The answer it seems might be shared space, particularly work spaces. And who not? With so many people living in the area many have their own businesses alongside other professional endeavours. Working from home is an option but sometimes you just need space and the traditional options don't work.

At the site of where Oxford used to be at 196 Osborne, TableSpace is being setting up by the two female entrepreneurs with an opening targeted for August. However, with all the Canada day celebrations going on July 1st, the new owners, Rachel and Andrea will be showing off renderings and giving tours. From 10 till 4, they will explain how the 2015 Harvard Business Review inspired them with an article on the gig economy and how curated co-working business spaces were where entrepreneurs and freelancers were going. Such spaces have emerged in Winnipeg in the downtown and suburbs with a focus in some cases on manufacturing.

The Osborne Village though is not known offices although at one time in the 1980s there were several. In recent years though, the need for some kind of business center has grown. Moreover, ones that have amenities such as coffee, WIFI, printers, lockers and the like are just no where to be found. Having female friendly ones is like finding a unicorn. The opportunity to create a networking environment for work and a social setting was very compelling to the TableSpace owners.

"TableSpace will give entrepreneurs a place to get from distractions and focus on their goals, whatever they might be," explained Rachel.

"We want to touch on self-care needs as well. We want to help our members achieve the work-life balance that they are dreaming of," Andrea added.

With meeting and boards, podcasting studio and desk space and office amenities mixed in with future wellness programs and yoga, the space at 196 Osborne could be a wellspring of future business start-ups in the city and new network of female entrepreneurs.

Look for Andrea and Rachel from 10 AM till 4 PM Canada Day and we'll keep track of their official opening.

F45 Fitness Center Coming to Seasons of Tuxedo

As if the fitness expansion in Winnipeg has not exploded enough, it appears that another huge gym group is looking to expand to the city at Seasons of Tuxedo. F45 is presently being constructed behind Frankie's restaurant. The program at F45 is built upon intensity training within 45 minutes covering 36 programs. A comparable gym comparison might be Orange or 9Round for the fitness level.

This will be the second fitness center to locate on the site. The other would be the recently completed Wheelhouse which centers on spin cycle training. Both F45 and Wheelhouse specialize in next level fitness.

In the coming months there is likely to be a surge of announcements at Seasons of Tuxedo to lock down new tenants as all the major malls compete to fill new or vacated space. Retail is not always what is being looked at to fill the gap. Services such as gyms that had never been considered for malls are now going up all over as a way to drive traffic.

If a workout is not what you need, it also appears that Modern Man barbers will also be setting up shop beside the newly opened Liquor Mart.

Red River Ex 2019 Crash Test Dummies Saturday Night

Scenes from Saturday at Red River Ex and Crash Test Dummies performing on the Main Stage.

Main Stage a few hours before show.

Canadian flag over Midway.

Intimate Crash Test Dummies

Performance on windy Saturday night.

Sun just setting on Main Stage.

That Crash Test Dummies voice recognizable anywhere.

Hmm, Pizza or Footlong?

Look how hard that wind is blowing. Almost everyone has a jacket just to make sure.

I see some cheese.

Everywhere I look it is mini-donuts.

Oh my. Fries.

Is that lemonade I see there?

And Skinners Hotdogs with a line-up.

Off to the Midway.

Roller coaster fun.

Merry go round is my speed.

Suns going now and I might not make fireworks.

Haunted Mansion is safe, right?

Yeah baby, let's swing!

Sun slowly sinking. It stays bright so late this time of year!

Often forgotten at the Ex is the amazing arts!

What the devil?

Amazing work.

Looked west from Ex. Yawn, I can't make it to the fireworks. Better pics next year when I remember to bring a better camera.

Fanquest Winnipeg 2019

This is the third year for Fanquest in Winnipeg and second at Red River College's downtown campus. It runs Friday and Saturday from 10 AM to 6. With the hiatus of Comic Con this year, a number of people will be looking for events where they can celebrate their interest in genre media and music. Fanquest fits in nicely with the remaining genre conventions of Keycon and Ai-Kon.

Costumes, gaming, panel discussions and special guests abound for the event which will inside Red River College's Exchange campus. It will be busy in the area with nearby Jazz Fest taking place so be sure to that into account when heading downtown.

Cosplay and costumes are one of the main reasons to come to Fanquest and it is quite the mix of sci-fi and fantasy inside. Attendance has grown and the convention looks to see a thousand people pass through the door versus last year's 750.

Weather forecast for Saturday looks a little wet so some Jazz Fest and Red River Ex attendees could have a place to go till the weather clears!

Popeye's Louisiana Chicken Coming to Portage Avenue West

Until recently, Hakim Optical called 3420 Portage Avenue home in the St. James area. Long before that it was a Wendy's. In fact, it still looks like a Wendy's in terms of the bricks and design and still has the drive-thru configuration.

Hakim went big when it entered the Winnipeg market and put locations in a variety of storefronts that seemed unlikely at first. In some cases they ended up being closed as the company opened better locations. In the case of Portage Avenue West, Hakim probably had interested buyers of their property, especially restaurants wanting drive-thrus.

Less than a year ago Popeye's Louisiana Chicken opened up in Seasons of Tuxedo courtesy of the group that owns Boston Pizza's in Manitoba. The crowds continue to be enormous there. At the time there was a promise that more franchises were coming.

It is very likely that this location will be quite successful for the restaurant operator as Portage Avenue remains one of the biggest commercial streets in the city. Look to see the restaurant open up in the summer sometime.

2019 Red River Ex June 14 to June 23

The Red River Ex has been a tradition since 1952 for Manitoba and since 1997 has called the spot by Assiniboia Downs their home. The 90 acres of Red River Exhibition Park features a midway, concert stages and an exhibition hall and agricultural grounds. The non-profit has music groups from classic rock to country to pop to symphony.

Crash Test Dummies, Doc Walker, Bif Naked and Trooper are some of the headliners this year. The Dummies performed way back in 1992 and the old arena/stadium site and brought the house down. The Royal Canadian Air Force Band will opening on the first Friday night.

Other stages will be geared to kids and families and will feature some music, magic and other entertainment. There will be opportunities for those who attend to be part of the talent or just be able to dance and enjoy.

The midway is what lots of kids gravitate too. If it spins, drops or speeds, it is attractive to kids and families. I hit too many in a recent year and combined with a hot sunny day I was left a little spun out. Fair warning for parents with barfy kids or feel barfy themselves. I'm usually fairly hardy but park overload is a thing.

Sometimes it is good to just find the animals and stop spinning. Find the ag grounds and enjoy the events and farm animals encounters. Or go to exhibition hall and browse vendors and crafts. Dog agility shows and exotic creature shows are also featured.

And don't forget about food. Red River Ex has everything from mini-donuts to funnel cakes to hotdogs to Asian dishes. A time interval might be required to stop the world from spinning first.

Leopold's Coming to Academy Road

Leopold's Tavern opened last year next to the Park Theatre on Osborne. The July 2018 opening brought the total number of restaurant/bars to nine across the prairie provinces. The vibe the bar wants is for customers to feel the place is theirs and subsequently all sorts of stuff is tacked to the walls. They advertise themselves as a dive bar but it is probably more of a friendly neighbourhood clubhouse feel.

The Regina-based company has steered away from from some more obvious choices. The Osborne location was not in the Village but being beside the Park, there was a certain synergy the two businesses could create. And they have. Both places draw people.

Academy Road is tricky place. Homeowners routinely complain about businesses on the street. It is all about parking mostly or fear of noise. There are cars in an unbroken chain from Wellington Crescent all the way to Taylor. On EVERY street. Why? It isn't generally about the businesses. It is that River Heights residents have multiple cars and most homes have one car garages. Moreover the neighbourhood has people passing through it every day as quickly as they can to go elsewhere.

Some homeowners have gone so far as to seek zoning to create a permanent residential designation to avoid any commercial development. Bowling alley landlords complain about future restaurants making noise. A furniture retailer complains about a medical clinic going up. And so it goes. The real issue is now many cars each house has in Winnipeg including River Heights.

The location that Leopold's will open has recently gotten attention and has some real curb appeal as a building. It is possible to renovations and rent increases led to Inferno's Bistro closing there. They had occupied the building for six years. Prior to that it had been J Fox's Restaurant and Local. It is a phenomenon known as luxury blight. High rent chasing away one business after another. It could explain why some businesses have moved over the years to other places or simply shut down.

Leopold's could be a walkable favourite in the neighbourhood. With a relaxed "dive bar" atmosphere, it could make the area have a more livable feel. The best commercial streets will have something for locals in addition to posh shops and restaurants. It used to be that people would walk to their pharmacies or dentist office on Academy Road but that happens less now. We need more of that.

Leopold's plans more locations so that other neighbourhoods could have their places to hang out. It will be interesting to see what sort of impact it will have in River Heights or whether residents and landlords will chase away all the business and create a re-newed restaurant and shop desert with no street life.

The End of Space Channel

Space, the Imagination Station came into existence in 1997 primarily to block the entry of the American Sci-Fi Channel which started in 1992. The CHUM network was the original owner and where it might not have had a lot of original Canadian dramatic material produced in the beginning, it did produce innovative entertainment and news covering sci-fi and science in general.

The first movie aired was Forbidden Planet followed a commentary from Canadian author Robert Sawyer. Mars Attacks! came next. And so it was that a mix of old and new sci-fi became the staple of programming with zippy documentary style snippets in between. Canadian programming produced on other networks such as Relic Hunter would find a home on Space as did Stargate SG-1. In the past such programming might find it hard to land a spot as second run or syndicated programming. Not every program such as Star Trek was as lucky to be continually running in syndication. On Space, not only Star Trek but every American as well as Canadian program that had even an inkling of sci-fi in it would land on the network.

In some ways Space was able to land programming that even Sci-Fi Channel in the U.S. couldn't land as studios would direct their second run stuff to affiliated cable networks. In Canada, Space was almost always the central repository of sci-fi programming whatever country, network or studio originally aired it. CTVglobemedia acquired CHUM in 2007 and the formula continued of broadcasting sc-fi from around the world and from Canada. in 2011, Space went high definition. That same year Bell took 100% control of Space.

In 2013, Bell began its first re-branding of Space by changing the logo and the slogan to "It's all around you." This coincided with the Canadian co-production of Orphan Black and the network was concerned that the audience associated Space with Star Trek and the like and not on fantasy or speculative fiction.

This was untrue of course. The original slogan of the network was "The imagination station." It was an attempt to broaden Bell's programming restrictions which they chafed at constantly. They always wanted less Canadian in CRTC hearings and as it turned out, less sci-fi programming. Somehow the least sci-fi program Castle was broadcast non-stop on the station.

In the U.S., the Sci-Fi Channel was re-branded SyFy in the same year of 2013 to give Universal a trademark name. This spread all over the world or alternatively Universal channel which was owned by NBCUniversal. To the annoyance of sci-fi fans as early as 2006 the U.S. network was airing Law and Order spin-offs and well as other non-sci-fi entertainment.

Space remains Canadian owned and this will fall will be re-branded once more at CTV Sci-Fi. It will have sister stations CTV Drama, CTV Life and CTV Comedy. The CRTC remains steadfast on Canadian content and the success of some Canadian produced shows has encouraged networks not only to broadcast material but take ownership stakes in it.

Canada is a top producer of TV and film programming but it remains to be seen if the new CTV branding strategy is to help production or to package the entire company for an international sale under a new government.

Three New Goodlife Fitness Locations for Winnipeg 2019/2020

Safe to say that Winnipeg is experiencing a building boom when it comes to fitness center across the city. The reasons for this vary but in part it can be explained as community centers not having nearly enough space or resources for a mature market of people wanting exercise centers. After graduating from schools and universities the choices for the adult fitness market are more often than not private fitness places. Moreover, how people keep fit can change as we age out of school and community sports like hockey, football and basketball. It is difficult to keep active with team sports due to work, family commitments or wear and tear.

Fitness is a solo thing save for joining group exercises such as yoga, cycling or dance/weight classes. We can still do our regular stuff such as swimming and biking, gardening and golfing but Canada is a winter country and daylight hours wane away so have created an infrastructure of indoor recreation facilities nation-wide.

Until recently you would really only be able to point to the Y as being the one true national fitness center. However, the Y kind of gives away its mission statement. It skews young and always will. It is a family friendly place and make no apologies for it. And over the years many of their facilities and services have upgraded and they do their job very well.

Goodlife, on the other hand, is a genuine Canadian coast to coast fitness center with a large presence in Winnipeg. That presence is about to get bigger. Goodlife is going to spend $30 million on two new clubs, relocation of one club and renovations on the rest. And by big, that means big. As reported already here on this blog, a 60,000 square foot club is going up on Bishop Grandin between Pembina Highway and Waverley along the north side. It will be double the size of Grant Park and Kenaston locations.

The Bishop Grandin location above will have a women's only section, a pool, a hot yoga studio and meditation space. The fitness center is scheduled to open in December. It would appear to be that it is in a race with the Altea fitness center which looks to be complete about the same time in the Bridgwater area on far south Kenaston. The Altea will be even larger and feature its own exclusive amenities. The continuing residential development and density building along Kenaston and now Bishop Grandin might generate the population to sustain the large facilities. In the case of Bridgwater, this growing area seems to have an anemic public recreation area so Altea might be only place for several years to come. As far as Bishop Grandin, the new bus rapid transit and high rises are right along the route the new Goodlife will stand on.

The Kenaston Goodlife is likely to benefit from a huge residential component in Kapyong and along Sterling Lyon while the Grant Park location is surrounded by apartments and is also adjacent to bus rapid transit. A lot of thought has gone into these multi-million dollar developments. Winnipeg is growing and the competition to serve the city means we are seeing some top notch building taking place.

Goodlife has indicated clubs in existence will be getting renovations. In this heavy competition, fitness centers will have to look to upgrade faster lest people look elsewhere. As far as other fitness centers like Shapes, Planet Fitness, Snap or Anytime Fitness, they will have to compete on price, location and amenities. Big won't always win the race. For those not in a car, the presence of a gym in a place such as the Osborne Village will be the choice they often make.

It is obvious Winnipeg has seen a dramatic increase in fitness centers across every geographic area but one area has been sadly lacking: St. Vital. The rumours have been true all along and Goodlife will be building in St. Vital Mall likely in the old Sears location. The location will be 27,000 square feet and be ready in spring on 2020.

The third new club will be at 330 Main Street in what people still call the Trizec building. It will be part of the residential/commercial component being building above Winnipeg Square and will be ready in summer of 2020. Once it is complete, the old Goodlife in what was the TD/Canwest building will be shut down. The new club will be about 24,000 square feet.

Once complete the new clubs will add about 200 jobs to the market.

The growth of Winnipeg by the tens of thousands in recent years and a desire to get healthy will probably fuel this competition for the next few years. It is interesting to note that malls such as Winnipeg Square, Garden City, Grant Park and now St. Vital Mall are adding fitness centers to drive traffic. It is difficult to imagine it happening 10 years ago in the city.