I Wasted Enough of My Time On You
You’ve been on welfare for over ten years. I have watched you go from an educated academic to a trailer trash drunk during those years. You can work but you won’t, nothing’s good enough for you. You use all your friends and cut them off cold if they don’t agree with you (even if they’ve…
Love lit: CBC Literary Awards announced tomorrow
The CBC Literary Awards are a big deal for a winning author, and not just because Jian Gomeshi said so. The 12 winners (six English, six French) receive $6,000 for the first prize and $4,000 for the second prize in each of the three categories: Creative Nonfiction, Poetry and Short Story. The winning stories will…
Pothole Fantasy
Ach, my aching head,” Judith moaned! “Where am I? I hear water dripping. It’s freezing. What are those upside down icicles? They can’t be stalagmites, or are they stalactites? How’d I get here?” She looked at the bedraggled people standing over her. Judith tried to recall how she’d ended up in this damp hellhole that…
Herring Cove Road Asshole Drivers
This bitch is for the asshole selfish sub-humans who could not stop to let us cross the road once we get off the bus at the 500 Block: One of these days you might be walking yourselves, and I hope you get just the same treatment. You people are insensitive, cold-blooded crocodiles, and I hope…
Obey Convention III line-up
Tyvek won’t disappoint. Lovers of loud and/or experimental music rejoice. Divorce Records’ Obey Convention is back for a third triumphant year; the festival is taking place May 22-24 in Halifax. The Obey Convention is “a festival of free ideas in both music and art.” Expect loads of music, video screenings, installations, a zine fair, workshops…
NS Government and the new Keno game
Drug + Pusher = Drug addict Drug(money/greed/take your pick) + Pusher (government) = Addict(family member/boss/coworker/suicide victim/statistic) —need i say more
Bridge Toll Increase ? What The…
What a backassward city we live in. First they were taking peoples land away from them to widen roads to accommodate for higher volumes of traffic coming into the city. And now I hear that the bridge commission is thinking about raising tolls during rush hours, to deter people from being so dependant on their…
I hope you go deaf
To the late teens/twenty something fucker on the 2 Downtown this am with you MP3 cranked to the roof….I hope you go deaf. Fuck you….I don’t need tyo hear that shit (metal or whatever) @ 7am in the morning. There are rules against this behavior; I suggest maybe you read them….assuming you can read… —learn…
Get Over Yourselves
I can’t believe that the group who had their banner rejected by Metro Transit are citing an abuse of freedom of speech. I’m of course talking about the banner that says “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”. Now on a personal level, I, for the most part, agree with this…
Thanks for Parking My Car!
To the very, very kind gentleman at the DMV this afternoon: you helped me to move my car after I failed my driving test when the previous tester just took off leaving my car illegally parked when he knew I couldn’t legally move it. Your patience in showing me what I did wrong (which the…
Shoptalk-lets: small business news
A few other recent downtown closings that were sad news to us, so we thought to share the details: Fanatic Footwear (1475 Lower Water) has shut its doors, and Destiny Jewellery (1903 Barrington Street) is also a business in the past tense. You may know the name from the well-appointed stationary boutique on Quinpool Road,…
The one who got away!
To my guy friend…I’ve completely fallen for you. You know I have feelings for you but I don’t think you realize how strong they are! Things are real complicated right now, mostly on my end but…it will work itself out…we will be together! ~ Can’t wait to see you next! ~ If you only knew…
recycled love
It was windy out and my recycling bags blew onto the sidewalk. While I debated leaving my nice warm home and moving my bags back to where they should be on my driveway, a stranger walking past threw them back into the pile for me. Thanks stranger! e
THE VIEW FROM HERE
Thanks so much to the woman who got on the bus the other day I really enjoyed the view of your bare ass flying right in my face as you swung into the seat. It made my day to see your freckled fat ass . I was so stunned by that that I failed to…
Get off the radio!
To the Radio personality who constantly slaps her lips together, slurps and all you can hear is spit sloshing around her mouth.. GET OFF THE RADIO!!! I can barly understand you threw all your lip smacking —Turning the channel.
I want to give YOU a ticket!!
Why is it that i am always seeing Halifax Police cars flying down the circ?? Im travelling at 80KM/H on the dot so i do not receive a ticket and they pass me like im stopped!! This evening i sped up behind one, matching its speed.. 104km/h!!!!! then it starts to pull away from me!…
I Don’t Think You Can Say That….There Still Human
To an announcer on the 90.5 radio station. A little while you and a girl were talking on the radio about hurricane Katrina and how many people it killed and effected. Now thats fine it did, but what wasn’t o.k. was when you(being the man) said as follows”well a lot of the people who died…
Quick sale at Frog Hollow
Heidi Hallett at Frog Hollow Books sends the following email: I wanted to let all of you know that we had some potentially very good news this week from our landlords at Park Lane. After many months of negotiation, there is an offer “on the table” that would see us on MUCH better ground, if…
not worth their salt
ok, I get it, Halifax will never have their sidewalks taken care of in the winter. We’ll never get the treatment that Dartmouth gets with snow removal. Fine, whatever. But maybe, just maybe can we see if there’s any way possible that we could just get a couple of those little tractors putting salt down?…
Get a life people, Go outside, Get some balls…
Is it just me or do the same fucking people come on here and continuously bitch? I always read the same commentators and have a sneaky suspicion that the same people are writing all the bitches. So… i am going to bitch about unoriginal people who need to MOVE on. Boring! —Uxas
Bring some tact back to Hali
To the lady on the MacKay bridge at 8:45am in the Blue Chevy Cavalier Coup. If you choose to dig into your nose like you have lost something of value up there, I beg of you, do it in the comfort of your own home. Do not drive over the bridge and all the way…
jobless bitches
I moved back here awhile ago. I was in town for 2 days before I got a job. (And NOT a crap job either). “How is this possible?” all you whiny bitches say… I joined a TEMP AGENCY about a month before I moved here. My first assigment came 2 days after I interviewed with…
Did I miss something?
Just wondering why Halifax no longer has concerts on the Hill? It seems like no one likes having concerts on the commons except for the people who are making money, and there is such a better view from the Hill! I just don’t get it! —Hill Lover
Faceless, spineless comments…
To all the faceless, spineless fucks out there who insist on shitting on every bitch. You realize you are bitching about a bitch. Goddamn pathetic! Get a life you fucking losers! —Darkseid
Josh Martinez is “Going Back To Hali”
Josh Martinez – Going Back to Hali w Classified, Skratch Bastid Josh Martinez came back to Halifax with a mission in mind, film his new video or freeze trying. Martinez’s “Going Back To Hali” (with Classified and Skratch Bastid, directed by Cazhmere) brought him back east from his Portland, Oregon home for a visit with…
Mumford Small Change
“Excuse me, I seem to find myself short on small change for the bus…” Alright, ENOUGH! I mean come on…some people might buy it the first time around, but to ask the same people every damned day for change for the bus and not recognize them? This is the third time in a few days…
To the cab driver who wanted to put my purse in the trunk…
To the cab driver who came to pick me up at the Acadian Lines Bus stop in Burnside on Wednesday night, why the hell was it so damn important for you to put my 2 open handbags in the trunk? “All bags must go in trunk!” Ignorant, pushy bastard, I don’t want my shit rolling…
You don’t like my shoes?
To the bouncers at the cabaret! Not only are you ignorant, rude, but also you need to learn proper English. What was once my favourite bar in the city, has now turned into an ignorant, arrogant piece of shit bar. I waited in line for 35 minutes, in the freezing cold, only to hear that…
Economic predictions, pt. 1
Stephen Harper, Oct. 7, 2008 (four and a half months ago): I think there’s probably some great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market as the consequence of all this panic. The Dow closed that day at 9,447.11. Today’s closing: 7,114.78
Foot Bridge please!!
This is two bitches in one post. To the people who cross the highway between Highfield and Burnside (by the Metro transit building) you are going to kill yourself and probably cause a major accident. Every day I have to slow down in that area because you people run across the highway. I undestand that…
Odd
Anyone notice that the news is filled with death and destruction these days? I know it never used to be like that. I was reading CBC.ca and it’s just all filled with this bombing here.. and that dying there. —Scary World
Park the drive-thru
To the editor, Regarding Chris Benjamin’s “Drive-thru madness” (Feb. 5, Sustainable City), repealing the ban on drive-thrus in St. John’s was a mistake. Driving, unfortunately, is our main form of transportation, but would it kill people to get out and actually walk into the restaurant? I’d like to see mayor Peter Kelly and my councillor…
Live shot: Kestrels
Saturday, February 14, 12:26am at Coconut Grove.
Stroller Swipers
To the assholes that stole my friends stroller right out of the apartment building on Lynnett Road, you will get yours!! how about heading to a building that actually can afford to buy a new stroller and do your shopping there next time?? or how about not spending your welfare cheque on dope and liquor…
Will someone please explain the rules of forming a line at the automated check-outs at the mega grpcery store?
It seems like I am always stepping into line or otherwise being rude. There’s a check-out on the left and one on the right- what is needed is a separator…..but noooooo we have to nearly get into fisticuffs because the cows are too dumb to figure things out. — and the sheep looked up
Neil Young. Buy hundreds of tickets now.
Ol’ crazy eyes Young He just couldn’t stay away. Halifax plays host again to the best guest appearance on Last Waltz (at least the one with the most coke on his face), Mr. Neil Young. After completing shows in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year, music icon Neil Young comes home to Canada to…
Waking Up The Neighbors
To the owners of the new restaurant. It’d be nice if you offered a free Dinner to everyone who lives on the third floor of the apt. building since all of us have been subjected to jackhammers, saws and drills since September.To wake up hours before you need to every morning to someone hammering below…
Go fuck yourself with something hard and sandpappery
Way to cheat on me with a 44 year old single mom! You’re 29. She could be your mother. So I dated you for about a month- we met at a party, you were nice, all over me, really attentive..and then….you got all hot and cold, blaming it on being sick and really busy at…
Fuck you, you broke my heart
And I repeat: Fuck you. I’ve never heard so many cliches. “I want to see other people” “You’ll always have a special place in my heart” “” Five years of my goddamn life. And now all three of my favourite cartoons have turned against me: First it’s The Simpsons breakup episode, then King of the…
Surf Movies to Raise Funds
Spring’s Freakin’ Coming is the optimistic title of the movie night extravaganza Dacane Surf Shop (5239 Blowers Street, 431-7873) is hosting at nearby Coconut Grove (1567 Grafton, 444-0887), starting at 7:30pm, Friday, February 27. The movie night is a fundraiser for junior development of surfing through the Nova Scotia Surfriders Association, which promotes all aspects…
What IS LOVE?
I don’t understand why everybody is into LOVE. You get all sappy and tears fall down your cheek. ME, I have never been in LOVE with somebody I have chosen or chased. I have loved family but outside of that my feeling is nil and experience nil. LOVE has not found me in any of…
Lovin Every Minute Of It
Just want to remind everyone that we are very privileged to live here. Even though life is challenging sometime where ever you live and whatever your life is like try and remember the blessings or things you are thankful for. Write them down so you that you always remember. We live in a country that…
Queen’s Choice opens on Portland
Now open at the what was once the somewhat punningly named Queen of Cups, Too location at 55 Portland in Dartmouth is a new eatery called Queen’s Choice Beans Coffee House. Shoptalk has learned that it is a cafe/restaurant, serving Canadian and Chinese fare with Japanese food to be added to menu in the coming…
Fid and Dharma close for renos in March
March is on our doorstep and two classic standby restaurants in town are closing for major renovations. A few regulars have told me that Dharma Sushi was closed for renovations. I couldn’t get ahold of anyone at the restaurant, but I see from their website that they will be closed from February 15 to March…
Just tryin’ to get through the day without being creamed
One thing that’s really starting to piss me off is how bicyclers always bitch about the road and how they have a right to the road just as much as vehicles blahblah, yet I see TONS of them on the sidewalks. Kinda hypocritical, isn’t it? They’re bitching at cars for not following the rules, yet…
To my favourite couple
Sure, sometimes I feel raw and sprinkled with a little bit of bitterness because I don’t see either of you as much anymore… But then see you both and remember how beautiful you two are together and how I use your relationship as an example of what love is. You give me hope
Dog love
I visited the city this weekend for a “Doggie Excursion” with my sister and her new puppy. We were thrilled to find out that Spring Garden Place Mall is dog-friendly. My sister was waiting outside with two freezing dogs, and a gentleman leaving the mall told her to go right on in. When I caught…
Pushers!
Thank you to the people who stopped to help me push my little red car up my driveway in Cole Harbour. I appreciate your help more than I can say! It is stuff like this that makes me love the fact I live in Canada, but in particular, Nova Scotia… the people are amazing. Thought…
You, in the Great White North
You probably won’t ever see this, but thanks for being my best friend all these years. Wish I could do more for you. Love you like a sister! Me, far away
Sendin’ out some love to the bitchers…
I’d just like to send out some love and a HUGE thank you to all the posters in the bitch forum who gave me some really great suggestions when I bitched about trying to lose weight and not being able. Well, after the past two weeks of really working at it and following their great…
HRM Employee of the Day
I was walking up Queen Street near Morris and this guy had gotten out of his Bobcat and was actually shoveling the slush off the corner where you cross the street. So nice to see someone taking pride and making a difference in everyone’s day. Thanks! Brent
The 52
To the lady with those beautiful sad blue eyes (short red hair, light blue coat) who rides the 52 almost everyday… Smile sweetie, there are a lot of wonderful things in the world. You might just make someone’s day, namely, mine. The guy who gets on before the bridge…
hygene
to all buss travellers who dont use proper hygene.I try to ignor your stench,but those days when im not feeling well and look forward to getting home..i always find one of you,you stinking lazy rotten rude dorks(men AND WOMEN!!!!)take a shower!!!! —gaggingman
to the owners
yes congratulations, your business has survived opening,and surpassed the projected profit margin.you have a kitchen full of hard working dedicated cooks.and the front of the house is doing the best to make you the best. NOW leave us the hell alone to do the work. omg what the hell are you smoking comming into the…
Educated and Jobless
I moved here (Halifax) after graduating university (B.Sc.) and expected to easily find work. It’s been a month now and I’ve papered the entire city with my resumes and cover-letters, and I haven’t heard a thing – whats the deal with this place? Even when I apply for low-wage work, I get turned down because…
downtown rents
I don’t understand the crazy rents of downtown. I don’t know who made these rat holes and labeled them apartments. You’re telling me somebody naming him/herself an architect has DESIGNED these holes? Don’t even think about the bachelor. The 1 bdr? Put a partition in the bachelor and there you go, oh, and 200$ more.…
What is wrong with people?
To the asshole yesterday evening around 8pm on the Bihi who almost caused me to total my car with my 4 year old in the backseat – FUCK YOU! First you slam your brakes on on the highway by Dunbrack and come to a complete stop, even though I was at least 2 car lengths…
Say Something!
Every time I read this bitch section, I notice that almost half of these bitches should have been said out loud at the time it happened, instead of writing about them. I think the world would be a way better place if we started speaking our minds and tried being more honest…instead of beating around…
THIEVES — Charles Street specific!!!!
To the assholes who love breaking the car windows of my friends while they’re momentarily parked on Charles Street. FUCK YOU. You don’t have anything, so you break they’re windows? Guess what? Jokes on you?! We don’t have anything either. There’s nothing like swiping a minimum wage uniform to really make breaking and entering a…
Trivial bitch but this annoys me
Why is it that when I put my belongings on my lap on the bus for to make room for someone to sit next to me(ie. in one of those two-seaters in the back), NO ONE SITS WITH ME????? People will insist on standing even though I made room for them! Yet when I don’t…
I don’t know!
Why do you customers insist on asking ME, a regular lower-level employee, a non-manager, why the price of our food is so expensive?!!! What the fuck do you want me to tell you, really? I don’t set the fucking prices! Our supervisors or general manager don’t even make those decisions! No, we are NOT a…
Mobile speed bumb rotary inbound.
Excuse me Sir. I understand you are concerned with motorists who drive way to fast through your neighbourhood. However; the speed limit is 80 kilometres and hour, not 40. You are entitled to drive the speed limit to prevent speeding. Driving to slow (half of limit) is also illegal. It is especially aggravating during rush…
Choose your fave for ECMAs
Is it pewter? Speaking of the ECMA Fan Choice Award (were we?), feel free to fritter away an afternoon perusing the list of possibles and choosing wisely. After you have completed their very simple voting process (seriously, kudos), you may return to work. This award was open to all artists that applied and were eligible…
Be Healthy Elsewhere
A note to all you joggers/runners/dog walkers out there; get off the fucking road and onto the sidewalk where you belong! Now, I’ll admit, not all of you are bad, but there have been many many of you fuckers in the middle of the goddamned road as I’m driving down it and you’re too full…
gtfo, kids.
Hey there, Armbrae Academy. You should consider getting a coffee shop or cafe in your school. I assume it will do well, since all of your students are in line at Dalhousie’s, being generally irritating and travelling in groups of 10 in the line-up, because the one girl getting an iced cappuccino needs all those…
Niceness is Dead In The Afternoon
To the 185 Link Riders… What changes so much during your day that you feel the need to push people to get on the bus heading home to Sackville? In the mornings at the Sackville terminal you’re all so kind enough to line up single file and get on the bus in that fashion until…
Why Ginger’s and the Granite Brewery closed
The rumours are true: After this Sunday, Ginger’s and The Granite Brewery will close for good. After 34 years of running a bar downtown, Kevin Keefe is getting out of the entertainment and bar business in Halifax, but his brand of beer will live on. He’s moving his brewing operations to Stairs Street in the…
Last Sunday to open 27 Drawers
This Sunday is the last chance to see 27 Drawers, at the Roberts Street Social Centre (5684 Roberts), a tiny exhibition with big ideas, co-curated by Rob Shedden & Lisa Lipton. The idea for the exhibition initiated with one of Shedden’s basement treasures—an old filing cabinet. The curators wrote me an email to explain a…
Open letter to a bunch of losers.
Obamania. Say it with me….Oba-Mania. It sounds real stupid doesn’t it? It looks stupid too. You know what I see when I see “Obamania”? Stephen Harper’s tiny, sweaty, mishapen penis. You have penis envy, Canada. You picked a dud and now you have to live with it. You have to live with the reality of…
Get A Job
To the arseholes on Barrington who feel the need to harrass myself and co-workers while we’re out on our break for change for a “coffee” or “bus fare” or “a bite to eat”… go get a job! You’re nothing but a bunch of liars anyway. Want to know why we never give you anything? Because…
Give it a rest!
To all the whiners who work with me: Fuck off already!
I Win.. You Lose
To the girl who thought that giving my boyfriend a gift that I would never be able to afford might possibly win him back, or at least make him want you again… screw you, you lose! Just because you gave him some material possession that he might care about for a week or so doesn’t…
You’ve Got To Be kidding Me!
To the asshole on the 82 yesterday who felt the need to open the window ’cause he was too warm… fuck you! I take the bus to work so that I can be comfortable. If I wanted to be cold, I’d fucking walk! And it’s not like it’s just me on the bus either. Everyone…
its right there for you to read.
I know there are many retail beefs on here and low and behold this is another one. If our return policy states you must have a receipt to return an item that means YOU MUST HAVE A RECIPT. Yelling, screaming and threats and about legal action will make me laugh on the inside and depending…
push comes to shove.
Why every morning do you feel the need to push past me onto the bus? It is never full and there are always many, many seats available. The next time you attempt to muscle your way past me I am going to forget I am a grown woman with morals and values and push you…
push comes to shove.
Why every morning do you feel the need to push past me onto the bus? It is never full and there are always many, many seats available. The next time you attempt to muscle your way past me I am going to forget I am a grown woman with morals and values and push you…
Icy Streets = Broken Tailbones
Dear Halifax, My Tailbone thanks you for not salting the sidewalks. You have not only ruined my night, but most likely a week of what would have been filled with skiing. Get your shit together and make it safe for people to walk by clearing and salting the streets and sidewalks in a timely manner.…
Here’s a Newsflash for Sidewalk Hogs
For those groups of two or more peds that can’t yield nary a sliver of sidewalk to oncoming or passing foot traffic, or the Crackberry addicts that can’t look up, here’s a suggestion – don’t get all hateful when you can’t absorb the hip check tackle on impact. Seriously, if being in a back rank…
Deteoriating Downtown
Don’t get me wrong, Downtown Halifax is awesome as long as you don’t leave Spring Garden. Or, you know, at least try to avoid most of Barrington. Sunday is the last day of Gingers tavern existence leaving yet another boarded up building front on that block. How many businesses have crumbled there in recent memory?…
What is wrong the Public transportation in HRM
How come every time we get a small Canadian storm the buses stop running? People still need to get home don’t they? The world doesn’t stop when buses stop. People still need to get around, especially when there is a storm. —Not from around here.
To the most inept accountant I’ve ever met…
So we’re not paid on time again? Really? Even after you shifted our pay period permanently to a DAY EARLIER? Why is it every fucking time there’s a holiday, here or elsewhere(this time around is apparently the fault of the “Family Day” in Ontario), do we get fucking screwed, usually without notice. I spent all…
Pathetic Company
To the company I work fo…how pathetic are you guys? no matter how bad the weather is outside you will not close! seriously, it’s a fucking snowstorm…do you not care how your employees get to and from work? …we all know the answer is no…we don’t get off until after the buses are off the…
Your weekly reading list
Beatrice MacNeil reads from her book Where White Horses Gallop, 2pm at Frog Hollow. Then on February 25, take your free body over to the regional finals for CBC’s Poetry Face-Off, 7pm at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s Windsor Theatre. This year’s contenders include Joi N. Payne, David Rimmington, Asna Adhami and two poets…
PechaKucha is still on, despite the storm
Despite the storm, PechaKucha Halifax Vol.1 is still on for tonight! In case you haven’t heard, it’s a visual presentation of designers, artists, filmmakers, etc. who will each talk to 20 images x 20 seconds. Here are the facts. Guest Hosted by:Lucy deCoutere Presenters:Doug Bamford (baker of things)Dave Clark (media artist)Mimi Fautley (impulsive researcher)Evan Kelly…
Abort anti-abortionists
To hear that my institution of higher learning allowed Jojo Ruba, from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, to speak further alienated me from the community of SMU.
Smarten up
To a certain employer, you’re a fucking scumbag. You treat your employees like shit, you fuck around our hours and pretend it’s our fault for your own sick enjoyment. I don’t know if your stupid or just too coked up to understand how to run a buisness and treat your employees. Anyways, thanks for promising…
ESP/SOS Telepathic Help Indeed.
Swingers. Show me a sexy swinger and I’ll join! If what you had on “display” at the Sex Show was an example of sexy than you’re confused. Your table stood out, but not for attractiveness. The guy stalking every sexy woman that walked by looked like a sleazy 1970’s car salesman. UGH! Who finds that…
Hope you like dark roast
Hey Assclown in the silver Jetta, ya you. Thanks for blowing through the crosswalk at Quinpool and Robie this morning. The little white dude in the traffic light means it’s my turn to go. Anyhoo, in honour of you getting to the lights @ Robie/Jubilee 4.7 seconds faster please understand that I thoroughly enjoyed the…
Hates seeing successful douches
I notice Sylvia Browne is coming to Halifax in March. Why do people pay to see this fraud? $150 a ticket?!?! She’s been cancelling a bunch of these things, presumably because of bad ticket sales. I hope the people of Halifax will have the good sense to eschew this douche. There’s plenty of crazy on…
move it!
To the MAN parked in the mother to be/newborn parking spot.. oh sir.. when are you due? get the hell out of that spot and let someone who needs it, use it! They are there for a reason and i can assure you its not for you alone in a car talking on your cellphone!…
Bitch sale
I’ve had a rotten day, so I’m offering four bitches in one. To the bastard who stole my laptop, camera, teaching notes and class records from my locked classroom: I call down upon you a pox in the form of a leisurely but excruciating, disfiguring and ultimately lethal cancer. To the police who took my…
I’m glad you are perfect!
Why is it that ALMOST every body who posts here has this amazing right to being perfect I wish I was that perfect(Note Sarcasm) you all might think that you are perfect and that you are the best thing since the money shot but you can all go get fucked by what ever you wish….…
BYOW: a year later
When Nova Scotia changed its liquor laws to allow Bring Your Own Wine (BYOW) last year, I imagined people would come out in droves—a legion of oenophiles, bottle in hand, enjoying fine dining with a wine they chose themselves. Not so fast, buddy. The impact of BYOW regulations on dining habits is virtually nil. Consumers…
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Scandal- and tragedy-plagued director Roman Polanski is an ideal documentary subject: He’s a Holocaust survivor; his actress wife was killed in the Manson Family massacre; he directed Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown; and he won an Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist. Oh, and he couldn’t accept that Oscar in person, because he pled guilty to…
Print, cut, SaintOnge screen
You either love her or hate her, with that all-knowing smile and those practical Oxford shirts. But Martha Stewart is the most powerful domestic icon in the world, and she has the TV show, magazines and product lines to prove it. There aren’t any other celebrities who can survive a five-month prison term, and still…
Friday the 13th
A director of photography named Daniel C. Pearl is credited immediately following a beheading in Friday the 13th. Either the editor of this sequence is clueless about historical events and Angelina Jolie movies, or he’s making an inappropriate joke. But to get worked up about this revamping of the Friday the 13th franchise isn’t easy.…
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Give Confessions of a Shopaholic points for being upfront. The flack that “women’s movies” take for promoting consumerism—marry rich, fight for your dream wedding and shop your blues away—is here made front and centre. The adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s popular novel is sound because it’s willing to look at material excess as its subject. It’s…
Mongrel king of klezmer
Vancouverite Geoff Berner is touring his whiskey-soaked klezmer music to various watering holes across Canada. On February 20, he’ll drain liquor bottles and toast “mazel tov!” with The Whiskey Kisses and IDOW darling Amy Honey at Gus’ Pub to celebrate his latest album, Klezmer Mongrels. “The album is about the value of a good bar…
Benefits package
If you’re a musician in this town, then you’ve either been asked to play a benefit show or you’re about to be. Musicians and bands were contributing their talents to causes long before Bob Geldof globalized the practice in the mid-’80s. But in a city bursting with events and causes, how do musicians decide where…
Metro Transit’s polluting buses
Seven buses sit parked with their engines running on Trollope Street in front of Citadel High School. They’re on layover. They’re not done their shift, but they’re not picking up passengers either. Some have 10-minute layovers, but others idle for up to half an hour. And the problem isn’t just on Trollope Streeet. Beverly Miller,…
Buy local by all means
When Barack Obama says “Buy American,” countries that want to sell to America freak out. This week, between Obama signing his $787 billion (US) stimulus plan into law and his trip to Canada, media in our country have talked of little else besides how Buy American provisions of the stimulus might hurt us. But as…
I’m Sorry
To the girl we met on Quinpool the other night – I’m sorry we couldn’t help you. I’m sorry we didn’t know anywhere you could stay for the night. I’m sorry that my friend and I were just broke students who didn’t have enough money on us to give to you so you could pay…
Tracking our eco-footprints
Environmentalism is commonly criticized for replacing an overly human-centred worldview with one that ignores, even alienates, people. The ecological mindset is pie-in-the-sky long-term soothsaying at the expense of our immediate needs, critics say. Speaking with Daniel Rainham, an environmental science professor at Dalhousie University, it becomes apparent how wrong those critics are. Rainham is at…
Native Song: Poetry & Paintings
With this second edition of Native Song, Halifax author and painter David Woods goes all in and the result doesn’t show in his favour. Too often this finished book reads like a notebook (though it’s not identified as such), full of unfinished, unformed ideas—beginnings of larger ideas or expanded forms. For example, while the section…
Savage Love: live on tour
I dropped by four large universities last week—University of Lethbridge, State University of New York-Albany, University of Maryland and University of Alaska-Anchorage—to do “Savage Love Live,” the college-speaking-gig version of my sex-advice column. I enjoyed visiting all four campuses and, as ever, learned a few things out on the road. (Brinking? Who knew?) People submit…
Halifax Dance’s 35th anniversary
Dreaming, desperate, devoted: Thirty-five years since the start of Halifax Dance, the challenges of making it here are pushing local dancers in all kinds of new directions.
The International
It’s the tact of movies like The International that they take work to follow. It’s meant as an engrossing technique, allowing viewers to feel like insiders for keeping track of covert malpractice operations, and differentiating between a multiplicity of referenced people whose names all start with Cs, Ss, and Ws. When director Tom Tykwer wants…
Upstairs Bachelor party
Walking down Agricola on a cold January night, you might think the crowd of people and clouds of smoke behind the Halifax Coalition Against Poverty’s office is just those HCAP kids up to something again. But this crowd has come for the bachelor apartment above the office—home of the Upstairs Apartment Gallery, a monthly one-night…
Push
A scene early in Push got my hopes up. Nick (Chris Evans) and Cassie (Dakota Fanning, looking tough with Avril Lavigne hair) are being chased through a Hong Kong fish market. Their pursuers are able to scream at such a pitch that it makes ears bleed and windows shatter. As the chase continues, there are…
Charge Card Cop-out
I just got back from the airport, where I was attempting to purchase a roundtrip ticket to visit my sister in Ottawa. I went directly to the airport because I don’t use credit cards. Ever. To book online with any of the companies that use the airport, you need to have a credit card number.…
Highway Assholes!
It never fails. Everytime I drive the 101 through the valley, some cock tries to be the speed queen and pass everyone in sight in an unsafe fashion. This evening was no different. It doesn’t matter that we’re driving along at just over 100, with a line of 5 trucks in front of us, here…
BMW driving jack ass on oxford at 7:15
hey asshole thanks for scaring the shit out of my mother and I on oxford street tonight. First of all at Almond and Oxford when I stopped for a yellow light you nearly rear ended me and was almost touching my bumper. Then past Soccor Pro I had let a bus go because their are…
JCVD
If Mickey Rourke can get an Oscar in 2009, then Jean-Claude Van Damme can be lauded for his acting abilities for the first time in his long, largely artless career. JCVD is an intriguing meta experiment by 30-year-old French director Mabrouk El Mechri: After losing custody of his daughter, a misunderstanding leads the locals to…
Frog love
The windows at Frog Hollow Books (Park Lane) are emblazed with dozens of fire red hearts, part of an on-going “show the love for Frog Hollow” campaign. “I don’t usually do anything special for Valentine’s Day,” says owner Heidi Hallett, “but as I was thinking about it, I came up with this as a way…
