Quinpool Road Cruise’s green shift
The chrome-laden behemoths of the golden age of automobiles always make for impressive viewing. This year you can look into the future as well as basking in nostalgia at the Quinpool road cruise, known as the Show and Shine, taking place this Sunday, July 19. The Quinpool Road Mainstreet District Association is working with CrestHalifax.org…
Tall Ships are here!
“All we do is plan,” says Salty’s (1869 Upper Water, 423-6818) general manager Patti Robertson on what the popular eatery do to accommodate the sudden rush of ship gawkers. “We have lots of everything, lots of staff working, lots of food. We’ve been through the tall ships before so we know what to expect. We’re…
Scratch Bastard
To the freak in the cubicle beside me, stop scratching your fucking head; I can see your goddamn dandruff flying everywhere. Fuck, you’re going to dig out your fucking brain! And what’s with that pen tapping? Sweet merciful God! —Burning eyes
I Don’t Want To Smell Your Rancid Anus
Stop farting in the aisles of department stores, supermarkets, etc. After you drop your guts and run away, people like me unknowingly walk through the miasmic cloud and almost vomit from the stench of your colon. Worse still, other people come by and glare at ME, thinking I’m the one who churned out that putrid…
To one of the women on this floor
At first, I thought you might have accidently missed the garbage can with your used paper towel. Then I thought that maybe you thought the paper towel had gone in, when it fell back out, because your used ball of paper towel was on the floor, below the garbage can, every day. As the weeks…
Violinist Samantha Li killed in a car accident
Sad news for the classical music community, as we learned today that a young violinist was killed on Saturday. According to News 95.7, “24 year old Samantha Li was one of three passengers in a westbound car that crashed near the New Glasgow exit around 9:40 pm. Police say Li was in the back of…
Billy Bragg at The Rebecca Cohn, November 15
Mr. Bragg Internationally acclaimed folk/pop/punk singer-songwriter Billy Bragg returns to Halifax to perform in support of his latest (and eleventh) release Mr. Love & Justice (Cooking Vinyl), at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, on Sunday, November 15 at 8pm. He’ll have you eating out of his hand, FYI. Tickets are $37.50 for P1 seating and $32.50…
The Canadian Songbook opens the pages at the Rebecca Cohn
Catherine MacLellan. Photo by Patrick Nichols. The Canadian Songbook is coming to the Rebecca Cohn on October 20 (call 494-3820 for tickets). The show features Catherine MacLellan, Barney Bentall, Nathan Rogers and Murray McLachlan performing courtesy of True North Concerts.
Twee Spree
I am so sick of ubiquitous Pitchfork Media, American Apparel-type nerdy hipness. Is this what the internet hath wrought on our culture–homogenous “quirk”–with its global reach? —someone break the internet for a few days please.
Jazz Fest review: Spontaneous Combustion Orchestra
Music scholars have concluded that The Beatles were greater than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately, last night’s Spontaneous Combustion Orchestra proved that the parts were greater than the whole. One musician seated nearby commented, “It’s trolling for moments.” As a presentation argument for spontaneously improvising chamber orchestras, the concept has encumbrances. And as the…
Don’t kid yourself and don’t bs us
A certain store is patting itself on the back for its great marketing scheme, Lets sell plastic bags and tell ourselves we are being enviro friendly. You are not being altruistic, you are being greedy. When you encouraged folks to buy your decent reusable black bags and not use the plastic, that was good. When…
Goodbye Madrigal
We have sad news to report for fans of quality music: The Madrigal (5640 Spring Garden, in Spring Garden Place), the independent music outlet specializing in classical, jazz and blues, has closed.
New Owners of Utility
Former owner of Utility Gallery (5224 Blowers, 420-1348) Stuart Rae has sold the business to the people who spend most of their time there, tattoo and visual artist Lydia Klenck, manager and gallery curator Ami Goto and Best of Halifax-winning tattoo artist Andy Ferrier.
FRED (the bus) is back
The popular bus service Free Rides Everywhere Downtown—best known by its acronym FRED—started up again this week and runs until October 23, offering transportation seven-days-a-week from 10:30am to 5:30pm for locals and tourists courtesy of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission and Metro Transit. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but wouldn’t it…
Seaport Farmers’ Market ceremony delayed
With construction having already begun on the new Seaport Farmers’ Market, the next big event at the Marginal Road site will be the official groundbreaking. A ceremony was in the works for Thursday, July 9, but it’s been postponed due to difficulties coordinating all the dignitaries’ summer schedules. The farmers are aiming to have the…
Curry Village moves.
Getting away from the enormous hole in the ground/future condo development adjacent to its former location on Brenton, Curry Village Indian Restaurant can now be found at 1569 Dresden Row on the second floor. You can reach them at 429-5010.
Traffic Cones Don’t Have Little Rocket Motors
Not really a bitch…I’m just baffled. Why is it that folks who fire down a lane of traffic at 60 kmh in a 50 zone with feet to spare on either side suddenly slow down to 30 or 35 when they encounter traffic cones carefully strung out on the painted lines? Are the cones powerful…
Bus Bitchers…
I’m getting really tired of all these people pissin and moaning about Metro Transit… Each person who does this should set up their own complaint line and see how that goes, just tattoo the # to your forehead for the publics convienience. —L0GiC
Dude on Hollis St. With Gray Shirt
You asked if I was passing out resumes and told me that a certain grill was hiring. I was looking for daytime work, but I still appreciated you taking the time to help out someone in need. —Job Searcher
Beware of Idlers –
That’s the latest new ad on the back of Metro Transit buses, showing noxious gases spewing from a tailpipe. Not sure if this irony was intentional, but Transit buses are the worst offenders. I wrote Transit about their incessant idling at terminals (even in summer when we don’t need any more heat at terminals) and…
Yeah, I know, another bus bitch
When the ambulance with all lights and sirens going is waiting for you to cross the street so it can make a turn, now would probably be the time to GET THE FUCK MOVING instead of continuing to meander slowly across the street, staring dumbfounded at the ambulance as if you’d never seen one before.…
Fuckers.
Whilst riding my bike on a busy main road, a few asshole teenagers suddenly drive up next to me, two feet from my wheels, lean out the window and SCREEAM some inexplicable phrase to me nearly a foot from my ear, then proceed to beep their horn as LOUD AS POSSIBLE!! THAT WAS SOOO COOL!!!…
Parents and children v dogs.
If I Take my two dogs to an offleash park section please do not take offence if you have stupidly decided that it would be a great place to hold a toddlers tea party. Do not freak out if the dog comes near your babies as it is A DOG AREA! DO You really think…
Coffee Addicts
Ok, so I know I’m outnumbered here, because so many people drink coffee, but I have to say this. I can’t stand all you coffee addicts who act like you’re drinking gold everytime you get a cup. I don’t want to hear about how cranky you are in the morning before you get a cup…
“OPTICIAN” / CASHIER
Thanks very much to the awesomely kind blonde haired cashier that went way out of her way to try to fix my glasses a couple weeks ago… The lens fell out of my glasses and you kindly offered, and then attempted to repair my glasses so I could actually see.You are an awesome human being…
Halifax drivers are so kind – even in ontario
I’m home from school (dal)For the summer in Ontario. Drivers here are lunatics. I’m Always telling my friends how amaziny kind haligonians are and talk about it like it’s my place of birth. I love it. My friend was up at his cottage and was walking across a deserted walmart parking lot in the middle…
Treevenge is now online
Log some time with Sundance fave Treevenge, now online here!
Atwood’s army comes to Halifax
Margaret Atwood is coming to Halifax’s Word On The Street on September 27. Well, not exactly. Atwood’s LongPen will be here, but she’ll physically be at WOTS in Toronto, signing copies of her new novel, The Year of the Flood, for fans in Halifax and Vancouver with the use of her trusty robotic Bic. Maybe…
Leave my blue bag alone!
To the men and women who rumble and jangle down my street every Monday night collecting bottles and cans: I respect the patience and industriousness that it takes to make a buck in your line of work. That is why I separate my redeemables and put them in their own bag on the curb, so…
cigarettes at 19 years old?
I am not sure if you have to be 18 or 19 to buy smokes. I do know that you have to be 19 to buy booze and to work in the liquor store. So……. how can stores that sell cigarettes have a 16 year old working in the smoke shop? I am really pissed…
Flogging Molly’s Irish punk crashes into the Palace
Celtic punks Flogging Molly are coming to the Palace on October 14 (with guests Inward Eye. 8pm, $42 advance, $45 door, tickets online at ticketpro.ca). You like the Pogues, fiddle and banjo, Ireland and enthusiastic performances? Good, so do they.
Jazz Fest review: John Abercrombie Quartet
John Abercrombie found himself announced last night as a “living legend.” This vexed him. Made it sound as if he was near “off to higher gigging service in a tony celestial supper club.” Surely not. Then again, when he, a square-bodied, stiff-jointed, stiff-necked, grandpa-esque guy, shuffled on stage with his bandmates–to a man, seasoned veterans…
Children of Eve bring the positivity to the Common
Give Children of Eve a hand, why don’t you? Children of Eve get the enviable slot of opening for KISS this Saturday on the Halifax Common. The group competed in a battle of the bands to decide the winner and Joel Upshall (Children of Eve) is looking forward to the show. “We’re super excited, it’s…
Jazz Fest review: V16
Stylishly boho in a loose-fitting dark, patterned shirt and soigne red scarf, Mister V16 himself stood behind a drum kit to address an anticipatory audience thronging the Festival Tent last night. Said Jerry Granelli, “We’re gonna play some music off our new CD (V16:Vancouver ’08)–a beat- and music we haven’t heard either.” Big laugh. Brandishing…
Food findings
Last week we reported that Persian food restaurant Eat & Fit had closed. In its place is a new sushi joint, the playfully named but grammatically puzzling The B-Well Sushi and Café (6184 Quinpool, 428-4019), offering “fine sushi, authentic Japanese food, organic coffee and a cozy space,” according to the helpful website (thebwell.com). They deliver…
Foodie Roof
We’ve known for awhile the benefits of green roofs. In Germany there’s an industry based around it, where a portion of all new development is required to have some sort of plant life or garden on the rooftops. The investment makes economic sense (savings in energy bills for the building below) and environmental sense (more…
Green Halifax???
The Coast is great, but the Green cuide is a bit of a joke. Pretty much the only business in Halifax NOT on the list is Wal-Mart. That should be reviewed and taken a little more seriously. —WalMart
Why bother visiting me?
I know this seems anal but I need to get it off my chest. I’m a graduate student here and have found it difficult to make close friends with the exception of a select few whose kindness and generocity have overwhelmed me. So I’ve been bugging my friends and family to come and visit since…
McNasty
Wearing the loudest ugliest jacket you can find does not give you a personality. It may look like a good idea in front of the mirror in your parents’ basement but it’s not. Go get a big-boy haircut and some glasses that aren’t a tired cliche. Ironic might be the new cool but stupid is…
Bouncer at the Marquee
I know you deal with lots of drunk idiots in your line of work – sorry for being one of them on Friday night. I was the chick who had no idea I sliced my foot open on the dance floor until the end of the night – I just wanted to say thanks for…
Aweome
Soooo how about that Paul McCartney concert? —Hippie Fest!
See you in September, Pavilion
A Sight for Sewn Eyes. Photo by Cory Jacob Veino So long for now, ol’ Pavilion. “Over the past few years, things slowed down considerably during the summer months … there don’t appear to be large touring bands coming through. I thought it would be best to close for the summer and start back up…
No More “No Shows”
So my wife works in a salon, and like most hairstylists in the city, gets paid mainly on commission. Lately she has been noticing a lot more “no shows”(someone who books an appointment and doesn’t show)Some of these people book 2 or 3 hour sessions with her and then just decide to not show up…
Jazz Fest review: Felix Stussi 5 with Ray Anderson
Swiss-born composer/bandleader/pianist Felix Stussi took the Delta Halifax’s Baronet Ballroom bandstand last night accompanied by a crack cadre of exceptional young Quebec musicians: Alexandre Cote and Bruno Lamarche on saxes, Clinton Ryder on double bass and drummer Isaiah Ceccarelli. Slide trombonist Ray Anderson was in from NYC. In a quote, Stussi said: “I have always…
Halifax West Vacant Lot/Space
Wouldn’t it be lovely if agro-anarchists were to take it upon themselves and plant gardens/trees there? Is it against the law to plant a tree in a vacant lot? Whoops a bird musta pooped the seed…..make empty space-green space. —make empty space-green space
Joel Plaskett Emergency at the Commons
While Paul MacCartney was without a doubt the best musical act to ever grace the shores of this backwater burg, the JPE was likewise the worst possible choice to open for him. Yes I know, he was chosen by Paul, but hey, someone should have just said no. And what was the point of the…
Concert Etiquette
I know its a concert but not everyone can stand front stage center! I do not stand for 4 hours to have you (a drunken fool) come and wiggle your way in front of me and block my view! Have some respect and claim a spot and stick to it, If you go take a…
Atlantica Hotel replaces Holiday Inn Select
When you next fly into Halifax and ride the Airporter into town, if you want to get off at the hotel at Robie and Quinpool, don’t ask for the Holiday Inn Select. The towering hotel with 232 rooms and suites is now known as the Atlantica Hotel Halifax (1980 Robie, 423-1161) and is owned by…
Hair in place
Shoptalk recently reported that Vittorio’s Barber Shop was moving from Queen to Almon. We’ve since learned that on Almon it will be Vittorio and Sherry’s Barber Shop (6034 Almon, 423-4858), with Vittorio still working at the shop a couple of hours a day, but the place will be run by Sherry Thomson, who has worked…
Charles & Vern’s Flower Salon closes
“I’ve been here since day one,” says Rosalind Hardiman, owner of Charles & Vern’s Flower Salon (6172 Quinpool, 423-7746) of the shop started on Quinpool Road by her parents in April 1966. “I was in high school.” Saturday, July 18 is the final day for the store as Hardiman has sold the building. Her husband…
Hypocritical Environmentalists
Well we had Sir Paul here. A self-proclaimed environmentalist. In the short time he was here, he arrived via a private jet, ran around in a large SUV (complete with police escort), and the power needed to run the sound system and lights probably could have powered an average house for a year. Then there’s…
Stupid Bitch at the McCartney Concert
I had got my disabled spouse to the top of the hill for the concert. He brought his video camera and while he was shooting, this bunch of loud, fucking assholes stood right behind us, started yakking (or screaming) at each other. One of them was this little bitch who asked us if we had…
Learn to yield in the rotary!!!
To the woman in the PT Cruiser Thanks for the heart attack you almost gave me early Sunday afternoon at the Rotary. I was already in the rotary, yet for some unknown reason you still decided driving right in front of me was a good idea. Luckily I saw you, slammed on my breaks and…
Too Friggin’ Loud
There is an old adage that if it’s too loud, you’re too old. Well I guess I am officially too old considering I live about 5 km away from the Common and I could sing along to Paul McCartney as my windows rattled, my kids were kept awake, and I dreaded getting up at 5am…
Buses.
Love the wrap around adds on buses. The colors are awesome! —Love the colors.
thanks for ruining it
so i live near the commons, but couldn’t afford to pay to see mccartney. no biggie. out of all of the hassles that come with it, about the biggest benefit to living this close to the show’s venue itself is that you don’t need a ticket to hear the music. lots of people in the…
You Took My Cab Asshole
When the cab driver says MY name, you’re supposed to politely step back and let me take the cab I CALLED….I would have assumed it was a mistake except for the guilty look you gave me as you got in -real nice. I had an emergency at work and a child home alone, I was…
McCartney review: making ladies cry and dudes dance
What a night. The layout inside the Common was a confusing maze of sights and smells—-even Steve Murphy was asking security questions. The biggest problem was folding-chair town, which stretched on for rows and rows, with no visible end in sight. And as an ATM truck tried to back up, people just picked up their…
Jazz Fest review: Spontaneous Combustion: strings
Imagine, if just for a moment, how difficult it must be. Sure. You know you’re a hot, go-to musician. Heck, you’ve been matched up with three other hotshot players by one of the very best himself, Jerry Granelli. You’ve chatted with the other guys. Good guys. Ya instantly liked them. The potential’s there for a…
Thanks Paul!
You really put your heart and soul into it. Even those of us in the cheap (free) seats on the other side of the fence had a great view and acoustics. There must have been as many outside the fence as inside. Took me back to that Monday morning after the first Ed Sullivan show,…
Jazz Fest review: Spontaneous Combustion: guitars geeks assemble!
Dashed from Kenny Garrett at the Festival Tent to 1313 Hollis Street to catch what I could of Spontaneous Combustion: guitars. Wonderfully, as I slipped in admidst performance, another full-house. Fleshing out the wrapt audience, a lot of “guitar geeks” in the “house”, as Jeff Torbert later informed me. You couldn’t help noticing them. Young.…
Kenny Garrett wows opening night Jazz Fest crowd
OK. Fooled me. Who’d have thunk it? An all-ages full-house (from my unofficial estimate), at the conclusion of last night’s Jazz Festival opener, jumping up and down. Pogo dancing. Bouncing their bonces. Hand-clapping. Hand-jiving. Pushing voices raw, bellowing in sing-along fashion an insidiously catchy Calypso-esque melody. All merrily exorted on by no other than the…
Wayfarers
I bought my first pair of RayBan Wayfarers in 2001 while still in highschool. Such a unique design, I thought, and incredibly comfortable to boot. In addition, I was a huge fan of both ‘Risky Business”, and “The Blues Brothers”, so the glasses held a certain sentimental value, as well. It just splits my heart…
Trying not to catch H1N1 or whatever the fuck else you have.
For fuck sakes if you cough or sneeze in public COVER YOUR MOUTH. I’m not trying to catch your shit you ignorant and disgusting fucks.—Grossed out
Another Boring McCartney Bitch
To all of you online scalpers who are going to be stuck with oodles of tickets this weekend. Good for you! I hope you lose money so bad you have to sell your house. To all of the legit people that can’t sell your tickets due to unforeseen circumstances, life’s a bitch but you should…
Growth is a Source spot
When you go see Paul McCartney July 11 and KISS July 18, and you press up against a few burly security personnel outside the VIP section in order to get a glimpse of your idols, those biceps and pecs protecting the visiting rock stars will be in the employ of Source Security and Investigations (5982…
Sendin some love from Florida
Planning an awesome camper van trip of your fine land! Will be there the first week in August and can’t wait. Love The Coast too! I will be easy to recognize, hot red head with an even hotter firefighter with a smokin bod on my arm. We plan on learning how to party the Halifax…
kindness around the corner
a few weeks ago i hauled a pile of old paint cans to the bin doctor recycling centre on clifton. the weather was awful and i had an infant in the car. as i got out a man came over and offered to help. he unloaded the car with me, and then took my stuff…
Drunk screamers
I have put up with drunk bar-goers almost every night of the week for all summer. Doesn’t matter what day, someone is always stumbling home and yelling under my window, which is not cool when you work and get up in the mornings. If you’re going to be an ass, fine, I can’t stop you.…
Video: McCartney set-up on the Common
It’s a “circus comes to town” atmosphere at the Common this afternoon. Like a few people I spoke to who heard a little “Let it Be” piano, I went for a quick peek. No Paulie, but there are tons of people on the Common, soaking up sun, lounging in lawnchairs, snapping photos and playing frisbee.…
Queer and Rebel days starts this weekend
If you identify as queer and/or a rebel, I know where you’ll be this week. There’s a lot going on at Roberts Street Social Centre, so don’t miss out. 1. Kebob kick-off party (Queer and Rebel days)- Friday, July 10, 7pmmeet some folks and discuss, among other things, the importance of challenging consumerism and assimilation…
Dave Carroll pwns United and now they want to talk to him on the phone
If you weren’t one of the 500,000 people (at time of writing) who have viewed Dave “Sons of Maxwell” Carroll’s YouTube video, “United Breaks Guitars,” have a look. CNN and the LA Times liked it. United say they “loved” it. But somehow I don’t really believe them.
To the library – I love you!
I love the Halifax library system and all its branches. So many books, magazines – all free – and excellent online functions for putting things on hold. I’ve enjoyed so much reading and learning over the years and for someone who can’t stand to own a whole bunch of stuff, reading your books and watching…
Apply for Nova Scotia Music Week! You have a few hours left!
Music Nova Scotia wants to say: Now in its 13th year, Nova Scotia Music Week brings together the music industry and the public for four jam-packed days of performances, educational workshops and awards. Music Nova Scotia is proud to present Nova Scotia Music Week 2009 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia from November 5-8. Nova Scotia Music…
ADHD
I fucked up in my youth. I swore, smoked a little weed, drank way too young and got in too many fights. I grew up and still make a few mistakes. But what pisses me off is that when some kid does something these days, the so-called experts say the kid must have ADHD and…
Good customers
Thanks, guys, for all the tips you give me when I serve you. Because of you, I’ve been using my debit less and having more money all together.—Hard working server
Spring Garden Street love
I love working on Spring Garden Road and observing the gorgeous and interesting looking people walking by on my lunch break. You’re all so addicting, and make my break more enjoyable. Thank you.—Beezneez
Supermarket Speds
What is with people at the grocery store? We are all standing in line. You breathing down the back of my fucking neck or trying to shove your loaf of bread onto the mat doesn’t make the line go any fuckin faster. For all the rest of you that fuckin hate these fuckers too, ask…
Loose Cannon opens
On Friday, July 3, Shoptalk found Mike Leigh of popular Argyle Street spot Bitter End (1572 Argyle) busily preparing for the 5pm the opening of his new endeavour, Loose Cannon. At 1566 Argyle, it’s right next door to Bitter End in the former home of Fizz Champagne Bar. Leigh says diners will find a “real…
Cash(ew) in on an amazing vegi-burger
The best vegi-burger in the whole city is Dofsky’s Cashew burger, this delicious burger was once found at the former Libertine Bistro, and is now available again. And I say: thank god! This city was hurting for a different, and delicious vegetarian option for a home-made burger, and after a long wait it’s back. Try…
Purcell’s Cove Road Rage
Fuck you, you cocksuckers in the Shitbox Civic or whatever it was on Purcells Cove Road. My girlfriend and I were having an awesome bicycle ride out there and then you under-20 year olds showed up in your 2000 pound $800 toy. You yell at us going by. You turn around up ahead and yell…
Dear City of Halifax/Concert Promoters/Sir Paul McCartney
Fuck you, I want my Commons back.—Public Space?
I Don’t Want My Tomato Garden To Be A Litterbox!!!
Despite trying everything possible to deter the trespassing felines from the neighbour’s uncontrolled ‘herd’ of 30 or so (and still breeding), my tomato garden is still a targeted area for litterbox activities!!! This has got to stop! What gives people the right to allow their animals to totally destroy neighbouring properties??? Why would anyone even…
Paul McCartney, without the Wings
I can’t afford to see Paul McCartney. That’s my bitch… SO, anyone know of any handy spots near the commons where one can chill with a lady friend and swoon to live Beatles tunes, free of charge?—longtimefan..firsttimebitch
Purcells Cove Road/Ketch Harbour Road Cyclists
I know this subject has been beaten to death but Wake up guys People fly up and down those roads in their cars. I personally drive the speed limit or If I’m feeling brave 55km/h Anyway Cycling in a 80/km zone such as Ketch Harbour Road on the middle of the road is not a…
To the ex
I think it’s amazing how you can live in complete ignorance of the things I had told you during our relationship. Now that we’ve broken up you seem to be doing everything/everyone you knew I didn’t like. You say that I started it by hooking up with your friend but that was a while after…
C’mon yellow orb, it’s Poetry in the Park on Sunday
This Sunday is the first Poetry in the Park, 2:30-4pm at Point Pleasant Park. Bring a blanket and some poems to the open event, held along the water at the trees on the hilly area, between the end of Sailor’s Memorial Way, near the gazebo (closer to the gazebo and the mouth of the northwest…
Halifax Pop Explosion acts announced
My brother and I tried to start a Japanther-influenced band but ended up just getting high and watching Super Mario cheats on Youtube instead. Thank got the real Japanther didn’t waste their time similarly HPX, voted by you, dear readers as the best music festival for the eighth year in a row, has announced some…
Sappyfest line up for you to dream about and drool over
Check it out! There’s so many good bands! Lookie.
Vote Let’s Get Baked as your favourite vegans in the world
Not above bribes in exchange for votes Local syndicated vegan/rock and roll baking show Let’s Get Baked has been nominated as the “Favourite Podcast” in VegNews Magazine’s annual Veggie Awards. Every voter gets entered into a draw for some sweet prizes, so it’s highly worth your while. Vote here.
I am walking. You are driving me crazy.
So, to clarify I want to bitch about drivers who jammmmm on the brakes when I the pedestrian am NOT at a cross walk or raising my hand to cross or even standing like I am crossing the street. It is like driver’s in Halifax are extra courteous…beyond the law. That is the bittersweet part.…
Whirling Ball of Shit
End of the world, you say? Bring it on, I say.—Cap’n Nihilism
Road Hogs
To anyone who loves tailgating my ass: I’m a new driver. Like got-my-beginner’s-last-week new. The reason I’m not gunning it is because I’m trying to be cautious while YOU are riding my bumper and freaking me out. I can’t go higher than the posted speed limit, okay? And neither can you. This shit is scary…
PSST, I have a question…
I’m posting this here so people can leave comments: are there any successful (or horrendous?) PSST stories out there? Like, has anyone read them, recognized themselves as the subject, and actually responded and met with the person secretly in love with them? Curiosity is getting the best of me :)—Love the Way We PSST
Band-made celluloid: rock film clips
In amongst his 244 soundtrack appearances, Paul McCartney has 23 official credits as an actor, mostly voiceovers and Wings DVD compilations. Of course, he did appear as himself in the Beatles movies of the ’60s, including A Hard Day’s Night, Help and Magical Mystery Tour. And in 1978, McCartney appeared in an uncredited cameo in…
Burning questions for Granelli about Spontaneous Combustion
Last October, a reed-thin, restlessly imaginative, master percussionist approached the Atlantic Jazz Festival’s new artistic director Lulu Healy with a concept for a scintillating festival event. He proposed matching up musicians—all renowned for their musical jouissance (over-the-top enjoyment and pleasure), whiz-bang inventiveness and a no-self-doubt command of their instruments—to create music without preordained strictures. In…
Wilco
“Wilco will love you, baby,” claims Jeff Tweedy on the opening track, “Wilco (the song).” But know the band will love you in the way it wants. Mainly, this means Tweedy maintains his character as collapsed-man. Even when the lyrics (printed on the liner) add up to what seems like optimism, the delivery is still…
Bell Orchestre says it out loud and clear
Though quantifiable or measurable, loudness isn’t a skill used rightly or wrongly, nor a right held by some and not by others. Really, all music can be, and perhaps should be, played loud. True, when KISS alights on the Common next week they may try to light up the crowd with “Shout it out Loud”…
Telfer
Telfer, I’m down with this funky sound. You had me at “we’re synching,” the harmonious call-and-answer of track one, “Sync This Rock.” These four local fellas have got a fresh ska-blues sound that will have beds bouncing as far away as Bedford. The debut album’s highlight is anthem “Claws in Deep,” an intense and sexy…
Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1
Michael Kupperman’s Tales Designed to Thrizzle comics are some of the most insane, laugh-out-loud hilarious things I have ever read. The New York-based cartoonist was recently praised by Conan O’Brien for having “one of the best comedy brains on the planet” in an Entertainment Weekly list of the talk-show host’s favourite things. Kupperman is not…
Who got the meat?
To the editor, Stephen Kimber’s question, “What now?” (June 11, Upfront), about how the new NDP government will operate, recalls a conference on poverty I attended years ago. A participant told me of social workers teaching poor people how to make soup from bones. One of them asked: “Who got the meat?” The new NDP…
Franz Ferdinand
Blood: Franz Ferdinand, a compilation of dub versions of songs from the Scots’ Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, was originally packaged up as part of a two-disc, European limited-edition release back in January. This disc, mixed by producer Dan Carey, was finally unleashed on North American audiences as a stand-alone release in early June. As a companion…
Angela Carlsen captures buildings’ sleeping beauty
Angela Carlsen is wearing a hardhat, bodysuit and steel-toed boots, preparing for a moment she’s been anticipating for months. Entering the abandoned Halifax Infirmary has become an unshakeable obsession of hers. She’s stared longingly at the infirmary for days, while working at her day job at Atlantic News. She pleaded with the head of the…
Idle cars, idle dollars
Dear Metro Transit, As I write, there is an HRM vehicle (car, not bus) sitting outside my office window that has been idling for 10 minutes. Inside which there is a uniformed Metro Transit employee eating his lunch. Quoting your own Policies & Guidelines: “As it currently stands, after three minutes, Metro Transit operators are…
Tara Jane O’Neil
The supremely talented musician and visual artist Tara Jane O’Neil has given us yet another stunning album. Ways Away (her eighth solo disc and a fitting successor to 2006’s In Circles) is built mostly on vamping motifs, echoing guitar phrases and faint percussive elements, with a languid tranquility that hovers over each of its songs.…
Regina Specktor
Russian piano-pounder Regina Spektor continues to dig her own path and finds, on Far, the middle ground between the twitchy Soviet Kitsch and 2006’s pop crossover Begin to Hope. The irony generation’s Tori Amos has a better sense of humour than her colleague—Tori might commune with the earth, but she would never imitate dolphins, as…
Atlantic Jazz Festival Shortlist
Valery Gore is not a pseudonym. At 26, the Fort Erie native strives for creative purity and truth. But it wasn’t always this way. “Coming from where I was at when I went to school, I was classically trained and I didn’t know anything about jazz,” she says, calling from her home in Toronto. “Maybe…
Whatever: Allen’s fllm doesn’t work.
Sometimes, positive rapport with a filmmaker’s work can dissolve into the feeling of a kick in the crotch, thanks to a particularly insulting offering. Woody Allen wrote the script for Whatever Works in the 1970s for Zero Mostel (the lead is now played by Larry David), but it’s an affront in any decade. Woody has…
Moon rivets
Great sci-fi rivets those who aren’t inclined to watch it; in fact, great films invade and conquer audiences from anywhere. So yes, Duncan Jones’ Moon-set mystery-of-existence does rely on the silly sci-fi assumption that zero gravity is no matter in the indeterminate future, but Jones seeks to tell a claustrophobic and paranoid tale of a…
Public Enemies sometimes dangerous
Having a positive view of Michael Mann’s previous films, I’m tempted not to dwell on what stuck in my craw about Public Enemies. The film intermittently reaches dizzying heights of tone, tension, performance and presentation, but not often enough and never all at the same time. Great sequences like John Dillinger’s escape from an Indiana…
Fashion designers compete in Off the Cuff competition
All of a sudden the race is on. A palpitation-inducing jazz beat provided by St. Germain’s album Tourist echoes off the squash-court-sized ceilings of Argyle Fine Art. With nervous giggles, seven amateur fashion designers rush to their stations, marked by modestly wrapped supplies on white pedestals. Each must make the perfect little black dress using…
Bogs and frogs lose as suburbia expands
In HRM’s vanishing wildlands, excavators rumble relentlessly across scarred landscapes. The destruction of natural habitat in and around HRM’s sprawling suburbs is so routine it’s rarely even newsworthy. Yet once in a blue moon, a determined citizen can make a big difference. On the weekend of June 6, Sackville resident Marilyn Challis spotted one of…
Building the little green schoolhouse
Last century I studied some environmental education at York. My professors walked the walk, and inspired us the way they would have us inspire our students. You need inspiration to make change. A decade later, I sometimes lose hope that we’ll change, and I have to think a long way back to find that inspiration.…
Beatles memorabilia: Here, there and everywhere
You don’t have to look hard to see Mike Spurr’s obsession. The police sergeant stands on his Waverley porch wearing a Yellow Submarine t-shirt. Three Beatles-related prints line a wall in his family’s living room, including a limited-edition photo by Astrid Kirchherr of a young John Lennon, George Harrison and early member Stu Sutcliffe, sporting…
I’m going to France!
Q: Here’s a hypothetical for you: You’ve been corresponding with a young man who lives in Paris. You know him through a friend in France, and your friend has vetted him. He has offered to pay more than half of your airfare so that you can visit him in Paris. You’ve spoken to him on…
Into the trees at the Rich Forest Cafe
If you’ve walked down Bloomfield Street lately, you might have noticed the nondescript signs on the former union clubhouse advertising the recently opened Rich Forest Cafe. The words “where friends meet,” printed beneath the restaurant’s name, reveal little about the pleasant surprise that awaits you in this windowless basement. The Rich Forest Cafe is a…
Concerts rouse a city on the Common
They sacrificed a VirginFest last Saturday. When The Tragically Hip pulled out of the outdoor music festival due to a family crisis, concert promoters offered a free show instead. In a summer conspicuous for its abundance of both rain and big concerts, the free-ticket offering seemed sure to at least guarantee a full house. But…
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
You won’t make it through Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father without crying. Sure, director Kurt Kuenne’s tribute to his murdered friend, Andrew, has its flaws. Kuenne uses some cheap editing cuts and lobs Michael Moore-esque vitriol at public officials who mishandled the case of Shirley Turner, Andrew’s spurned ex and…
Five vegetarian places where Paul McCartney should eat
1) Heartwood (6250 Quinpool, 425-2808) Probably the top fresh and local paradise for vegetarians and vegans in Halifax. Plus, it’s full of musicians working behind the counter. Heartwood specials for the week-end include the Lonely Hearts Club Sandwich, with soyanaise and smoked tofu, the Macca-roni, vegan-style with tahini, nutritional yeast, garlic and broccoli and some…
Khyber building unavailable for rentals
Some of the best events I’ve been to in the last couple months have happened in the Khyber building—like the Obey Convention and the Totally Wicked Music Festival. Well kids, just when you think that things are finally getting settled under that old turret, last week we heard from Steven James May, one of the…
