• Nathan Boone
• Billie Dre and the Poor Boys

Longtime friend and supporter of Proskates Chet Kirkby recently suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and unable to work as a carpenter. The shop is hosting a fundraiser for Chet this Saturday, November 26 from 5 - 10pm featuring sets by the Graboids, Old Neck, Billie Dre and the Poor Boys, Castle Wolfenstein and Burdens, as well as sweet giveaways from Homegrown Skateboards and a foosball tournament with half the proceeds going to the winner and the other half to Chet. The cost is $5 or more if you feel generous. Come drop the party rock for a good cause and help Proskates help a good friend.
The Facebook event is here.

• http://www.partneringfirstsolutions.ca
• drumming workshops!

This Sunday, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will be combining a variety of musical and artistic activities for the kiddies as part of their Children's Festival celebrating International Children's Day.

The 10th annual gallery-wide festival is titled "Art Beat" and will explore how music and rhythm make us creative. A diverse group of performers will be on hand all day. Starting at 11am, a group of All Nations drummers will play traditional songs and chants, while a Symphony Nova Scotia brass quintet will perform at 1:30pm during an interactive workshop called "Pop Goes the Easel!" as part of a partnered event. There will also be painting and instrument-making workshops hosted by artists-about-town Sherry Lynn Jollymore and everyone's favorite Pastoralian Mitchell Wiebe. (Will he wear the Dweebo outfit? We hope so.)

The Festival runs from 11am to 5pm and all activities are free with the cost of admission. ($12 for adults, $5 for youth between six and 17 years old, free for children under the age of five, and $30 for families (max. 2 adults and 3 youths.) For more info check out the AGNS website.

• Citypages.com
• overcome

Zuppa Theatre’s latest fundraiser Get Thee Behind Me Satan: Songs of Protest is well-timed; as the fallout from the Occupy NS eviction last weekend continues, it might do some of us good to air our grievances through song. The show, taking place at the Music Room on Friday November 18, will present some of Halifax’s cleverest folk singers sharing classic protest songs, and newer songs dealing with protest, struggle and politics. Performers include Tanya Davis, Rose Cousins, Ryan MacGrath, Stewart Legere, Gypsophilia, Don Brownrigg, Molly Thomason, Ruth Minnikin Dusty Keleher, The Heavy Blinkers and members of Zuppa Theatre. The evening will be hosted by Jackie Torrens. The group will also be auctioning off coffee dates with the NDP’s David Wilson and Robert Chisholm. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at here — if you can’t come in person, there’s also an option to sponsor a patron.

You may not know Kevin Hall by name (yet) but chances are you've seen this recent NSCC Music Business graduate busting his ass backstage at various shows and festivals around the city. This very nice young man got the chance of a lifetime to tour with We're Doomed on their Warped Tour dates a couple of weeks ago. However, his trip was cut short in Montreal when he injured himself riding an off-road vehicle and fractured his shoulder and pelvis. Kevin is still in Montreal undergoing physical therapy. A show is being held tonight to raise funds for his travels back to Halifax at Gus', featuring We're Doomed, A Sight for Sewn Eyes, Orchid's Curse and Jason Szetzo, with special hosts Tupperware Remix Party. Donations will be accepted at the door and you can also donate online at service@redtentacle.ca (Please put "Kevin Hall Benefit" in the subject line). Pop by after you go to that thing tonight in Dartmouth.

• now i'm your dad! now i'm your mom!

Feeling water-logged from your half-hour walk home from work where you got totally soaked and none of the drivers let you jaywalk so you could get home faster for a hot bath and some dignity? (This didn't happen to me at all today.)

CKDU is hosting a dance party called Enchantment Under the Sea. The premise is fantastic - they'll be projecting Back to the Future and Back to the Future II while DJs play tunes from the '50s, the '80s, and the future. When the film is in one era - the McFly mom and dad era or the latter-day Marty/Doc era - the music will reflect the times accordingly. And it will switch as the scenes switch. Fun!

You are encouraged to dress in prom attire or like a McFly, whatever that means to you. I'd really like to see some Crispin Glover George McFlys, please.

It's happening at the Army Navy Force Club at 2409 Maynard (the building beside the food bank; go up to the second floor) it costs $6 and begins at 9pm.

Today's entry in the 30 Day Song Challenge is "A Song That Makes You Happy." And this one does it. It makes me feel happy and crazy and alive in spite of everything. Not much else to say other that. Why ask why?

Conflict of interest alert:

Oh hey, remember that girl DJ night thing I mentioned awhile back? Well it is happening THIS TUESDAY, HOLY FUCKING SHIT! It's called Girl U Want. Come and party with me and a bunch of cool girls while we play our favorite songs. You will hear everything from Motown to electro to hip-hop to garage to whatever you want to dance to. It will be really fun. Boys and girls of all persuasions are welcome. It's $3 and starts at 10pm, and all the money will be going to Bryony House shelter for women and children. The event is being sponsored by the kind folks of CKDU and our posters were made by Mike Jeffrey.

I will be on the CKDU program Third Wave Radio (hosted by the lovely Gianna Lauren) today to talk about the night starting at around 2pm. If you want to hear what my idiot voice sounds like in person, please tune in by all means. It's 88.1 FM on your radio machine or you can stream at ckdu.ca

Here's one of those Facebook events that all the kids like.

Here's a taste (and a summation of how I feel about this evening in general)

• dance dance

As of today, February 1, CKDU 88.1 FM — along with Pauly Shore and Boris Yeltsin — will be celebrating its birthday. The station is now 26 years old, and as part of the celebrations, the station is welcoming back old programmers to revise their radio show during the week of February 1 — 7. There will also be archival footage and old programmes aired during that week as part of the celebration. Fun fact: Two years ago I broke into my old college station at 2am and rebroadcasted a “greatest hits” rotation from my former radio show. It really is the greatest thing you can ever do — it’s like a music nerd victory lap —and imagine doing it legitimately! And sober! If you’re interested email Program Manager Tarek Al-Zand at tarek@ckdu.ca.

• i took this three years ago aw

This weekend heralds the annual two-day drunk that accompanies the birth of the one-man genius of love, B.A. Johnston. He has assembled a powerful line-up to surround him on these two evenings: Friday features Homo Duplex, Bad Vibrations, Fat Stupids, and Hymn while on Saturday Windom Earle, Quivers and the Deadly Hearts bolster the show (both shows are $6.) And as a bonus (like, do you really need a bonus?) the show has been advertised as having an all-you-can-eat Cheezie bar. While I think Cheezies are kind of sick (I hate how your fingers get all orange and you have to wipe them your pants, etc) I turned to B.A. for further instructions.. “I will be providing the Cheezies,” he says. “I will probably be buying with more of a concern for quantity over quality, but there will be several kinds including but not limited to, sticks, puffs, balls, and perhaps Funions.” If you are looking to appease the man with birthday gifts, as I feel I now am, he adds: “I can always use tube socks, and I would love a yearlong subscription to Cracked Magazine.” Noted.

• facelove

The Nymphets, who are so cute, are playing for the last time (for a long time) at Reflections' $Rockin4Dollar$ Monday night. They are moving to Sweden fairly soon and probably will not be back for awhile. Come down and give them all your big sloppy goodbye love.
This is also the last night that baked goods will be for sale as part of the IWK Crafts for Kids campaign. Also, The Deadly Hearts will be headlining - a group of scrubbed young men who cover Eddie Cochran and lots of fun romantic 50's-type rock songs that you will like.
Last but definitely least, I will be DJing, which really means I'll be playing Wendy O. Williams songs between every band probably. But if you want to come and yell at me in person about how I hate the Goo Goo Dolls, or take me out sniper-style from across the dance floor, here's your chance mon frere!
Monday, Reflections, 10pmish, $3, cheapo drinks, rockin4dollars.tumblr.com

Speaking to Stepping Stone director Rene Ross the other day, I was pretty surprised to learn that the organization (which offers support and outreach to sex workers and former sex workers) has never had a fundraiser before. "We try to only ask for donations when we really need it," Ross explains. With cutbacks and a recent increase of services, money has become tight, and so Ross and friends of the organization have put together the Fabulous Lobster Trap Cabaret, a fundraiser happening this Friday at the Paragon featuring No Flyers Please, Chris Martin and the Troubleshooters, spoken word from El Jones, DJs, pole-dancers and hula girls. The event’s title (and lovely poster) are a throwback to the Lobster Trap, a much-beloved bar formerly located in the Trade Mart Building on Barrington. “(The event) is about the time that bar represents,” Ross says. “Sex work is part of Halifax’s history—-good, bad and ugly, it’s there. This event is a tip of the hat to the sex workers of the past.”
The night kicks off at 10pm for $8.

Tonight at the Wooden Monkey, there will be a concert featuring Mary Stewart and Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers to raise money for Stewart's mom Emma Lee Stewart. Last month in this article on the lovely Mary and her song-a-day blog, we mentioned that her mom is seeking alternative treatments for metastatic breast cancer. The event will also feature a tree auction - 300 evergreen trees will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to treatments for Emma Lee. "Suggested donation is $20," says Stewart, "but really we just want them to go into the ground, so as much or as little as $20, $10, $5, $2 or just your well wishes are good enough for us."
Environmentalist Lil MacPherson will also be speaking. The event runs from 7-9pm at the Wooden Monkey and admission is free.

• see evil

After some delays, everyone's favorite punks Bad Vibrations now have their excellent 7" Under Pressure ready for your grubby little paws. It will be available during their show tonight with The Friendly Dimension, The Ether and Mean Mug waydowntown at Club 1668. $5, come after 10pm, and bring your pocket money for the record (it's only $7, ya dummy.) It is scary gooooooood. You will not regret.

• who wants to drink from the fire hose?

Eclectic Avenue, the monthly dance night that also helps raise money for CKDU, is happening again this Wednesday. A cluster of sweet local DJs will be providing the ennatainment this time around: Innez Da Future, DJ Regalia, the delightfully-named Bourbon Jungle, DJ Goldilocks, DJ Fancy Pants Adventure, and DJ T AL Z. We heard a rumor that Stewart Innes (aka Innez Da Future) is going away soon, so this very well may be your last chance to get in his pants (or dance.)

The magic happens at the Seahorse. The cover is $5, it begins at 9pm and as usual, there will be tasty pizza-based grub for free. Hump day doesn't mean schlub day, ya jerk! Go out, have a drinky.

The second installment of CKDU’s monthly dance party Eclectic Avenue is TONIGHT and there will be enough genres present to satisfy all of your friends’ discerning tastes. The station’s DJ Anderoc and DJ Megabrain will do you for reggae and funk respectively, Jenocide will pummel your face with electro beats and Duzheknew provides a sweet new wave aperitif. Come trick your brain and your ass into thinking it’s Saturday. And oh my God, there’s pizza! Wednesday, June 2, 10pm, five buckeroos.