In 1947, the Luana III crashed into the W.S. Newton on Lake Winnipeg, not too far from Gimli. This, I believe, was no ordinary collision, no accident; the W.S. Newton, a freighter ship, was full of quassinoids, and so as the Luana III sliced into its hull, the ship’s entire contents were dumped into Lake Winnipeg.
Luana’s captain, Carl Tomasson, stated that only after the crash was the W.S. Newton visible (implying that it was invisible prior to being struck), and he had been curiously following an orb that silently hovered over the water. He claimed to have watched it emerge from the water, and that it looked like “brightly lit glass, like a glowing amniotic sac.” It was this orb that lured the Luana III into the path of the other ship.
Yet this was not the first time that ships carrying quassinoids had capsized. One of the first was Luana I, in 1914; and, eerily, not only did the Luana II disappear, but all memory of it even having existed was erased, too. I suspect it also carried quassinoids.
And each time this happened, there were reports of clouds of luna moths (Actias luna) swarming, almost as if they were deliberately monitoring, fisherman as they collected their nets near Hecla Island. It happened in 1914, it happened in 1947, and it may happen again.
What has this got to do with Luana Moth (the band) and their Feb. 1 performance at Sidestage? It’s all connected to Project Quassia and The Interlake Museum of Anemoia Scarring.
There seems, or so Luana Moth suggests, something – a creature, an alien, something not of this earth – living at the bottom of Lake Winnipeg. And, as far as I can tell, there may only be one person that truly knows for sure, one person who has met it: Luana Moth (not the band).
Who was (or is, if she still lives) Luana Moth? And what did she encounter when she walked into the water (as recounted in Luana Moth’s (the band’s) self-titled album)? Asides from the note she left behind, which suggests that she survived her encounter (or at least long enough to have written the note), what has happened to her?
• • •
To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice.
• • •
Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, “the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,” which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, “the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,” left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists’ songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.
