“Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!”
Yuri Gagarin
Humans have achieved a lot in the last few millennia. The mighty Ancient Egyptians constructed the pyramids. The Chinese invented (and Gutenberg popularized) the printing press. Obama actually managed to pass a health care reform bill in the US.
But few feats match the challenge of sending human beings off our planet and into space. The first human in the rarefied class of “spacegoer” was Yuri Gargarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who on April 12, 1961 traveled into space and orbited our planet aboard the Vostok 1.
And for the first time, Winnipeg is joining in a worldwide party to celebrate this human achievement. On Yuri’s Night, “people from all over the world come together to celebrate humankind’s first flight into space and shape our future as a species.”
Who exactly is bringing “The World Space Party” to Winnipeg? Quite unsurprisingly, Eve “DJ Beekeeni/Vav Jungle” Rice and some of her friends, including the Shake (DJs Lotek and Manalogue), DJ Cyclist and DJ King Kobra.
Return to the science education haunt of your youth, the Planetarium, now licensed for the occasion (i.e. this time you’ll be drinking something stronger than a juice box). Wear a space-themed costume. Check out a science exhibit or video installation. Dance your ass into outer space.
“Winnipeg is now charted on the interplanetary map as ‘The Dance Capital of the Milky Way,” says Rice. Make it happen, astronauts!
Three years was maybe a little too long for one of Montreal’s grandest rock bands to follow up their magnificent 
Collaborations like this always sound good in theory. Both great artists in their own right—Will Johnson, the largely unsung helmsman of Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel, and Jason Molina, the well-seasoned songwriter behind Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co.—Molina and Johnson should be an exercise in one-upmanship, a chance to push and be pushed. There are some worthy songs here and it’s hard not be intrigued with such a beautiful album cover. But apart from Johnson’s wistful “All Gone, All Gone” with Sarah Jaffe, the death-rattle duet of “Now, Divide,” and the duo’s most developed effort, “Almost Let You In,” the album is chock full of old fashioned molasses. Especially after the half-way point, it takes real effort to stay interested in the fractured piano/guitar template and the particularly unmemorable solos of “Lenore’s Lullaby” and “Each Star Marks A Day.” If Molina and Johnson took the time to explore some of the differences and dynamics between their respective approaches, this could have been an interesting record. Instead, echoing Johnson’s words, it sounds like these boys are “just passing through.” (Secretly Canadian, 
Jets Overhead are a band that would have fit in perfectly in the mid-1990s. Their sound, very much influenced by the Verve and Radiohead circa The Bends, was seemingly tailor-made to be included in film and television from around that time. That is not to say that they are a bad band; not by a long shot. Their sophomore album continues in the same direction—guitar-driven alternative rock that has an ethereal, dreamlike quality to it. Each track on the album has something that makes it stand out from the rest of the album. There is not one song on this album that could be classed as filler. Adam Kittredge’s vocals give the album a melancholy vibe. Jets Overhead are able to pay respect to their influences from past decades, while still making an original album that is relevant and enjoyable to today’s crop of listeners. Key tracks include “Heading for Nowhere,” “I Should Be Born” and “It’s a Funny Thing.” (Vapor Records, 
