Sounds great
For 10 years Halifax Car Audio (6021 Young Street, 455-4510) has been bringing high end quality sound systems to Halifax vehicles. “We only do a high end product,” says owner Fadil Shabiu. “Any car, any model.” If you take a gander at their website (halifaxcaraudio.com) you’ll see that they feature photos of a few high…
Medieval times
Open since late 2008, Alberto Lorenzo Décor (Dartmouth Crossing, 29 LogieAlmond Close, 481-9030) is owned by Pascal Osti, who moved to Halifax after having run an internet café in Victoria, BC. “I wanted to try something new,” he says, and it’s hard to imagine a business idea more different from digital communication in the information…
HPX Tix for pix and quips review section
The Coast’s HPX Free Ticket Giveaway Single tickets will be given to those contributors who have sent in the best quality contributions. Winning entries will be picked daily and you can collect your tickets at our office between 9am-5pm. Here are the tickets up for Grabs: Herman Dune with Julie Doiron, October 22 – 2…
The Kindness of Halifax Parkers
To the guy who parked on Ahern Avenue behind Citadel High School. You waved me down and told me you were moving so I could take your spot. Thank you for giving me your parking spot, you probably saved me a parking ticket I can barely afford.—Almost Broke Student
Hit and Run
Last night my fiance and I were at the bank finalizing financing for my new car, and while we were there, someone put a basketball sized dent in our other car’s bumper, left us lots of nice scuffs and scratches to go with it, and then didn’t bother to leave a note or wait for…
Green, my arse!
When are the environmentally aware folks of Nova Scotia, and the rest of Canada, going to rise up and speak out against the ridiculous and archaic laws forbidding the riding of small non-licensed electric and gas-powered scooters and two-wheeled “bicycles” on the streets, just like any other bicycle? On one hand, I am continually reading…
There are some parents out there should need a license to have children
I do believe that there are some parents out there should need a license to have children. Especially, if the parents have been in trouble with abuse and neglect before in the past whether it was with children or adults. I mean think about what all we do have to have license for now…. #1…
The deposit, the whole deposit, and nothing but the deposit
I buy a 12 pack of water on sale for $2 at a big grocery store. It costs $3.20 because I have to pay the 10 cent bottle deposit on each bottle. Then, when I go to the recycle place, they give me 60 cents for my 12 bottles – that’s HALF of what I…
Anybody listening?
This is for all you rude bitches that talk and do homework during O’Canada and for all those whiney bastards who complain about having to stand or even sing O’Canada every day at school. seriously grow up you whiney fuckers. Yes there is all that stuff about veterans dying for our nation and for our…
I NEED YOUR HELP!
Hello Everybody I need your help. I am English and I’m so taken with your beautiful province that I’m seriously thinking of selling up and moving to Halifax. Of course this is a massive undertaking which is why I need to do some research, which is where you come in. Please could you good people…
pretty boys at tea time
dear all the pretty boys at Just Us Cafe house on Spring Garden Road…there are many reason to love Just Us; the lovely atmosphere, the groovy tunes, the fair trade philosophy, the organic goodness, but thank you thank you thank you for all the the pretty, pretty boys that work behind your counter and frequent…
the thinker
to the business lady who was on hollis today at lunch time in the three inch heels, on crutches that were too short, having a cigarette: well done.—practical
dumb waiters
dear people who are waiting to get on the elevator; why must you stand in the middle of the door, making it impossible for me to get off the elevator. you have all of that room outside the little hanging box, an entire floor at your disposal, in which you can wait to be shuttled…
Ugh
Dear 1st trimester, Please hurry up and be over. I want to eat something other than crackers.—5 more weeks to go…
When Are People Going To Toss Religion On Its Self-righteous Ass??
With all the kid-diddling bishops, evangelical perverts and self-righteous holy cunts who hold a little dog at ransom, isn’t it time people clued in and realized that all religion is EVIL, full of hypocrites and liars???—Get Real
HPX Tuesday: Paragon of noise and tequila
Crystal Antlers, Red Mass, Dinosaur Bones and A History Of got the crowds revved up for the 2009 Pop Explosion at the Paragon Tuesday night
HPX: Night One
Architects Blood, bruises and broken bikes headlined my first night of Pop Exploding. My bicycle, Old Blue, couldn’t make it through even half of night one. Jaunting from seeing Pig at Gus’ to see Red Mass at the Paragon, my rear fender came loose and got mangled in my rear wheel throwing me ass of…
Bust a move: flash mob in the Halifax Shopping Centre
So I’ve been begging people to start a Michael Jackson flash mob, but I guess Young MC is sort of close enough, and this is definitely for a good cause. A group of ladies on a mission interrupted the stone cold munchin’ at the Halifax Shopping Centre today, as a sneak preview of an upcoming…
Joker’s comedy club finally opens
A new era in Halifax comedy has begun, with the launch of Joker’s (5680 Spring Garden Road, 421-5653). After a false start or two it opened last week, and local comedy giants Picnicface have already played a show. Check Joker’s out on Facebook for more information on upcoming shows, or just keep an eye on…
HPX: jitters&junk
My broke-ass Velo Sport, Old Blue, I’ll be using to jump form venue to venue this Hpx. Check out the missing right hand brake and Via Rail taped-on fender. Rock and Roll! Eee! After missing Hpx for the past two years, I’m back in town and quaking with excitement. But with 25 bands scheduled to…
I miss the music.
Dear Halifax, I miss you. I knew I would, but I didn’t understand the many different ways. The ocean, of course, and Point Pleasent, and the Public Gardens, not to mention my dear friends. But do you want to know what I miss most? Your music scene. Yes, I miss the ability to walk out…
It’s Mine, Not Your’s.
I know, I know. It is my own responsibility if I happen to lose something. Personally, I hate the idea of having a cell phone but it seems to be a nescessity these days. I am pissed off because somehow my phone got lost on a Metro Transit bus and the next day I get…
Thanks for calling an ambulance from this bicyclist
To the person who around 3pm, on Sunday October 11th on George Street (b/n Barrington & Hollis Sts) called an ambulance for me after I crashed my bicycle, thank you! I’m not exactly sure what happened to cause the crash but you being a kind samaritan and calling an ambulance is appreciated more than I…
wrote animal abuse hanging over my head
to recap, i found a kitten at my door in shock from so many fleas biting it, it was becoming anemic and had pss running out of its eyes, the people it belonged to live above me, they also have a dog they are starving, i took the kitten and picked all the fleas of…
Fake Tans, Hair, Nails, Eyes, etc etc etc
To all the slutty girls I see downtown: I know I don’t know you. I’m sure you’re all very intelligent, kind and generous people. But why, why, WHY do you insist on tanning yourselves orange, dying your hair until it’s scraggly and black, gluing fake talons to your fingers and wearing contacts in colours that…
Love your smile
to the CBC reporter, who with a big smile, told me that private banks are getting 8-33% MORE in bonuses this year. FUCK YOU and your smile. you tell me that Canada’s economy is better, but for who? OVER 357,000 Canadian’s have lost their jobs this year, and those assholes want more money?!?! why don’t…
Qualified, Schmalified, gimme a damn job!
I signed up with a temp agenecy because I need money. I went through the interview process, they have my resume, and they have what hours I am available. They tell me they have “all kinds of stuff” they can post me on. I say “Awesome”because I have bills to pay and kids to feed”.…
Nocturne: méchanique de nuit
dear heavy meadows I absolutely loved your performance on the Nocturne Bus (B)! Kudos on using battery powered amps to rock out…it was SO fun! Your music was energetic and just what i need – you guys made my night!—new found fan
Bully vs Underdog
Next time I’ll put your ass directly in JAIL where you belong! I’ve been regretting not calling the cops on you and submitting the surveillance tape of your heckling, which earned you a good ass kicking right up until some guy jumped in. Obviously you didn’t learn the first time. You want to “go” again.…
Scotia Square Elevators.
Can I please get OUT of the fucking elevator because you come pushing and shoving your way in………this is directed to about 80% of the the people using them in that building. You’re all crazy. I just want to walk off the elevator without fear of being cloths lined or shanked for the next good…
MacIvor’s Confession an absolute must-go
It’s something of a Daniel MacIvor bonanza in Halifax this week, with both A Beautiful View and Confession (albeit for one night only) playing. How interesting it is to see the two plays back to back, and to pick out themes—truth, death, chairs (okay, that’s not a theme)—shared by both. Confession is the story of…
Sound Market Studio A café and all ages shows a go
Starting this weekend along with the Halifax Pop Explosion, Sound Market Studios (6208 Quinpool Road, 492-4408) is opening a new performance space/café. Well, the café is still a little ways into the future, it probably won’t open with regular hours until closer to the new year. But the performance space is a go, with all-ages…
Webb to make play Wake into short film
More short films going to camera in Halifax: From October 23 through 25, 2009 Merritt award-winning actor Jeremy Webb will be stepping behind the camera for the first time, directing the short Wake. It’s based on the Jessica Marsh play Maelstrom, a dark comedy about a young man returning to Halifax to attend his uncle’s…
Halifax Pop Explosion: one overambitious itinerary
The Pop Explosion starts tomorrow. You can’t see everything, so get planning.
Local TV Must be Saved So It Can Be Destroyed
Local TV hates cable, cable hates local TV, that’s what I get from all these ads running from both sides on every channel around here. I go to Ottawa for a week, and it’s all over radio too. No canadian can escape it. When I saw an ad today featuring a certain musician with a…
I’m no longer a Virgin Coaster
Sup guys… Man what a great paper… I’m a student here in Halifax and I can definitely see the coast being my ultimate resource for the next four years… I love the set up and I love how you guys cover everything! Don’t ever stop covering everything! From big ticket to little ticket and from…
Guns N’ Roses in Halifax on February 4 at the Metro Centre
Guns N’ Roses come back to Halifax to promote Chinese Democracy on February 4 and now I’m feeling extra glad I learned solo two from November Rain, because you never know. Tickets on sale Saturday, October 24 at 9am, $54.50/$69.50 available at the Ticket Alantic Box Office in the Halifax Metro Centre and at all…
Street Bummms
listen up you asshole 20 something year old “bums” begging change on the street . Thou your signs are hilarious like 1:to dumb to steal 2:to ugly to prostitute – you dummies forgot number three – to fuckin lazy to work be real and put that up on there . I’m tired of working 12…
Can’t choose you family
Sometimes I wish that we were able to choose our family. I am so tired of waiting for my sister to grow up and act her age. Mid twenties is enough time to learn that the world does not revolve around her. Seriously, I thought that as you got older you also became more wise…
Sour Dough
To the server at a well known Halifax Bakery: look , I know it sucks. We all had to take these underpaid Joe jobs at some point in our lives. But, it is not my fault that you can’t find decent work with your sociology/costume design/psychology/whatever degree. Why the fuck then do I have to…
Gallery etiquette, or lack thereof…
Nocturne was great, but as I trudged up Spring Garden Road on my way home, I found myself speculating on how no one has any fucking manners in galleries. I’m no gallery snob, by any means, but when people run into you, step on you, or shut the door on you, I think it’s time…
FUCKING STROLLERS.
Yesterday I get on a bus and had to squeeze between 2 strollers that were side by side and while I am trying to get by the bus driver hits the gas hard enough for me to fall and the 2 two dumb ass parents with the strollers sit there with smirks on their faces.…
Some welcome wagon!
Dear Gormless Wonder, When I took my newly-arrived Asian classmate to Nocturne tonight on a mini-tour of Halifax, I highly doubt he expected to have some moron make squint-eyes at him, say “Me sillee Chineesee,” and then laugh at his confusion before they slithered away. Thanks for representing your city/country so dazzingly well, asshole.—Admiring the…
Citnalta Erotsrepus
seems to dump A LOT of foods, including the organic produce and ready-to-go meals in a daily basis. They don’t seem to donate them to the shelters and places such as The Hope Cottage and The Salvation Army. Is that true? Anyone works there? Some insiders insight? I’m curious, how can this happen when so…
Swim team father: thanks!
I work at 6am at a sports facility, on a Saturday (tough, I know) I have to watch all the swim team kids go in for their practices, while I wait at the desk, do some work, and make the morning pass by. Here is to the lovely swim team father, who’s name I don’t…
One Man Show
To the man playing the sax outside the Farmers’ Market, AND THEN broke out in a rendition of “Get Up Offa That Thing”: Thank you. That made my day. Hope to see you next week!—All Smiles
nose rubbing buggers.
why is it that every time I go into a place to order food the cashiers and food service workers can’t seem to keep their hands off their eyes, nose, face, hair,out of their mouth or all of the above. makes a bad impression on customers. I’ve actually walked away a few times.–l.m.
WTF is wrong with me?
This bitch is directed at myself for being such a fucking doormat. It’s cool you found someone, he seems like a nice dude. It’s just that it seems it was only a few weeks ago that we used to link arms everywhere we went, hang out all the time, text eachother for no reason, and…
You can all just kiss my Canadian —
How I love you, public radio station that brings me good local and national news at 3pm when I am trapped in my car on the way to pick up my children. But why must you keep hurting me? Haven’t we all suffered that moronic intro to the next show for long enough?—local arts supporter…
Loving the Fudge
To the girl with brown hair and a brown headband at the Pete’s fudge counter downtown. I was having a terrible day and your smile and fudge sample made my day. You said to come back and I sure will.—couldnt be happier
1053
You were my 4th bus of the day. I had a shitty day. Your cuteness, and your polite hello and smile made me realize that today was just one of those days, and they always turn around in the end.—<3s friendly busdrivers
PRUDES
Get over yourselves already. Don’t think you’re better than everybody else because you don’t talk about having sex or how much you do or don’t enjoy it. You’re all down and dirty like the rest of us.—pleased daily
Video highlights: Nocturne sights and sounds
Related Stories
Slideshow of Nocturne Group Photopool
Created with flickr slideshow. Related Stories
Blonde at Rogers
Thanks to the gal with glasses who works at Rogers Video, you’re super friendly, help me every time and have never steered me wrong. You’re awesome!!— lucky customer
Dear Halifax
I came from the west coast to the east coast and have now (temporarily) returned west for the winter, but damn, do I ever miss Halifax right now. I miss it all, bus drivers, cheap pints, easy livin’, the beautiful north end, my radical roommates, especially Gus’ sleazy pub. I will be back to make…
Nice bus drivers
Thank you the Metro Transit bus driver who was so nice the other day. You saw me running to the stop but pulled up beside me so I didn’t have to. You did it for three other people in that short route and I thought it was so kind of you. Thanks!—Girl with the groceries
THANK YOU KATEY!
It was sooo nice of you to help me, a stranger, carry that huge printer all the way home! I was having a really bad day, and a REALLY hard time carrying it. Your kindness turned my whole week around for the better! You reminded me why I love this city so much.–Another Happy Northender!
Parking
Hey Ticket Givers, Want to clean up? the take a stroll down Dresden by park lane. I hate parking enforcement as much as anyone, but these fuckers are clogging up the street all the time and not a ticket giver in sight, EVER!—Justice!
Bathroom Ettiquitte
To the ladies in the office across the way: Please stop leaving treats in the shared toilets on our floor. I have twice this week gone to use the washroom, only to be greeted by your poop. You leave the lid down as if by doing so, you will make it go away. Please flush…
Trident multi tasker
thanks fot your lovely smile and conversation but shouldn’t you be looking on the job page! not square with long hair x—English Hippy
terribly sorry im not a lawyer like you are.
NOT!! ok first of all, you dont know me from a hole in the ground. you are not my grand father, nor are you my father, uncle.. you are NOTHING TO ME BUT A CUSTOMER- so what do you think gives you the right to come into my work place EVERYDAY and go on to…
Haliween ’09 with DJ Jazzy Jeff and Skratch Bastid
From Press Release HQ: “The party is poised to be one of the largest Halloween parties to be held in Halifax since the banning of alcohol effectively put an end to the Argyle Street Mardi Gras in 1990. The 3000 person capacity event venue anticipates to be close to capacity this Hallow’s Eve and expects…
Photos: ArtRising takes off
Last night, after the Sobey Art Award, the party moved onto ArtRising, a fundraiser for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Hosted in the gutted Dooly’s space in the Roy Building on Barrington, the industrial feel—the peeling walls, the concrete floor—made you feel as if you were transported to another place (or decade, actually, minus…
David Altmejd wins the Sobey Award
The white wine was flowing as hundreds of artists, politicians, men in suits and other well-wishers crowded into a large tent, in the courtyard of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia last night for the Sobey Art Award reception. Hosted by Seamus O’Regan, wearing his arty face, and Laura Regan (which had Mad Men fans…
Scotia Square Mens Bathroom
A guy turned towards me and showed me his hardon in there yesterday. He was an old perv looking kind of guy. I felt bad for the guy…the only thing he has going for him is he is hung like a horse.—flash victim
Is it all bun and no burger?
So you’ve got a great ass. Or even a not so great ass, whatever. Regardless of your ass-status, its time to start covering it up again. You’ve all gotten the maximum mileage out of the super tight yoga pants trend and it was quite novel there for a while, but now I’m on ass overload.…
Fuck you, newspaper
I don’t understand what you are doing, but you are fucking sure trying to encourage an already dumb ass prejudice people have about Black people. On yesterday’s paper you can see pictures of all the BLACK people who commit crimes…and stupid crime at that: a stupid sherif presumably selling dope, a fucked up guy shooting…
Tenant vs Landlord
This is both a bitch and a plea for helpful advice… Recently, my girlfriend and I split up and we are stuck with 10 more months to our lease. We advertised the apartment as a sublet and had many interested potential renters, including one pair who had already looked at an apartment in our building.…
Hope you don’t have kids.
To the red/black-haired girl walking her dog on Spring Garden last Thursday. You are a piece of shit. Your dog was clearly nervous being walked on a crowded street. You weren’t helping by swearing loudly at her every time she got distracted or strayed from a straight line. But your verbal abuse didn’t end with…
Student Loans are Useless…don’t apply for them if you can avoid it
Here is my frustration. This year I was organized, I contacted the federal and provincial loan offices as I was heading into repayment. I found out what my options were. My best option was apply for re-payment assistance. Once I get the the paperwork from the federal office, I fill out all the papers in…
Part times a bitch!
To the asshole at work who stole my job – thank you. because of you, i now have to find some mind numbing second job to help pay for life necessities. I hope those financial institutions you are scamming get a hold of you soon!—bitter & Unemployed!
Love G n R
Thanks a million to a certain radio station for playing so much GnR lately!!!!!!!!!! Gotta love that!!! Makes my day every time!!—Q lover
a little means a lot
so i spent the better part of the last 15 minutes holding back tears infront of my prof. … i get out of her office and i decide to buy myself a cookie cuz i feel shitty. well if it ain’t Murhpy’s Law I can’t find ma’ damn money. This is a huge thanks to…
Fellowship Offer
Doorbell rings. Two young men are standing there smiling. I know right away what they want. To save us all some time, I say, Sorry, boys, I’m gay. Their smiles falter, but the youngest one regroups quickly saying, We can help you with that. The other one backs him up with an uncertain smile. (Now…
Finally, Halifax adults can hear their alternative tunes
HFX Broadcasting Inc./Z103.5 FM were approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to operate a new English-language commercial FM radio station, this one with a focus on the adult alternative. Z103.5 has 24 months to get the station on the air, and they plan to have it running in about a year. Okay, so…
Give us your favourite Halifax song
In celebration of Halifax Pop Explosion, which starts next Tuesday, give us your favourite all-time Halifax song. What is the best track to come out of the city? Is it Buck 65’s “Wicked & Weird”? Sloan’s “Underwhelmed”? Piggy’s “Homeless Song”? Dog Day’s “Lydia”? C’mon, we know you have an opinion… Give us your favourites in…
Review: The Fairy of the Lake
The DalTheatre production of John Thelwall’s The Fairy of the Lake faced at least two very large challenges. The first was to make a century-old play (written in verse, to boot) interesting and entertaining to a modern audience. The second was to stage it in the insanely difficult confines of Dal’s David Mack. Murray Theatre.…
Getting Tired of DDoS attacks…
Hey little punk ass children, how about you stop fucking with my companies servers? I’m very sorry you got cut from the fucking chess team you little prick, how about you find something better to do with your time than fuck up a small company’s day. Your brain obviously hasn’t fully formed yet, because you…
Stop ignoring the problem!
How was ignoring the problem going to be the way to solve things?! How was thinking about only yourself going to let your “partner” understand?! Facebook status’s and note’s are not the answer! Bitching at everyone else BUT the person you’re having an issue with! How exactly does that solve anything? Why are you doing…
Love those night shift people!
To all the people who work the night shift: cleaners, guards, healthcare and emergency personnel, 24-hour store (and Tim’s) clerks, night stockers, call-centre agents and the rest of you: thank you for keeping us clean, healthy, safe, and well-fed and keeping the world turning while we (mostly) sleep….you all rock!!!!—hootenany helen
Cold wet nights
Thank you Metro Transit for your warm foggy buses on cold wet nights, windshield wipers tap, tap, tapping against the rain….mmmmm….almost as good as hot chocolate.—hootenany phil
Tough guy
Scene : A huge line up at Sobey’s North street. Scenario : Some issue with the cashier’s computer causing a SNAFU. A loud, condescending baby-boomer starts mouthing off, getting personal with his comments about the kid at the cash and this infects a few of the other retirees in the line-up and they start in.…
Victoria Day
Teenaged hockey hopeful Ben Spektor has a lot going on: his team’s playoff run, the Oilers’ Stanley Cup final against the Bruins on TV, the Bob Dylan show at Ontario Place and finals at school. It’s the Victoria Day weekend, 1988. David Bezmogis, the acclaimed author of Natasha and Other Stories, turns to film and…
Overfeeding your desires
Q I’m a 25-year-old girl dating a 26-year-old guy. My boyfriend identifies as sexually submissive. He likes to be tied up, put in women’s underwear and locked in a chastity device. He has a strong urge to please. I hate the term, but I suppose you could call me a “feeder.” I am turned on…
More (White)Cowbell!
Last October, White Cowbell Oklahoma covered Halifax in pumpkin guts sprayed from a whirring chainsaw. This year, they’re back to serenade you with songs from their third album, Bombardero, and celebrate a whopping 10 years as a band. Only time will tell if Tuesday’s show with Iron Giant at the Seahorse will be as wild…
Nocturne by sight
Sense it Saturday night: This year Nocturne offers even more public art happenings: from six to midnight, with 30 galleries and 34 special projects, the streets of Halifax will be overflowing with images, performance and energy. To help get your night started, we’ve mapped out two routes. Follow the visual arts trail.
D-Sisive moment
Everywhere Toronto-based rapper D-Sisive goes, Orville Knoblich follows.”That character plays a major part as far as the visuals are concerned,” says D-Sisive, otherwise known as Derek Christoff. So, musically, he’s D-Sisive. But visually, he’s Orville Knoblich, decked out in tuxedo, bowler and ostrich mask. Think of the figure, who appears onstage and on album covers,…
The sounds of Nocturne
Sense it Saturday night: This year Nocturne offers even more public art happenings: from six to midnight, with 30 galleries and 34 special projects, the streets of Halifax will be overflowing with images, performance and energy. To help get your night started, we’ve mapped out two routes. Choose the audio trail.
Law Abiding Citizen
No as bad as you might think, but not as good as you deserve, slot Law Abiding Citizen into the pleasantly forgettable end of the vigilante-justice fantasy genre. Gerard Butler doesn’t have the acting skills to convincingly convey the many facets of Clyde Shelton, a committed family man who has the employment credentials of both…
Bruce Peninsula’s gone big time
“We’re hell-bent on making new music,” says Bruce Peninsula’s singer-guitarist Neil Haverty. Although still riding the success of its Polaris Prize-nominated debut album, A Mountain is a Mouth, the Toronto band has postponed tours next year to start writing again. What form those new tracks will take is anyone’s guess. But for a band that…
Checking into Cairo Time
Juliette Grant (Patricia Clarkson) travels to Cairo to visit with her UN-employed and absent husband. There, she is escorted around by his former colleague (Alexander Siddig), and the two feel a slight romantic spark as they wander about Cairo’s attractions. This is an unhurried drama about two people who are happy to bask in their…
Yo La Tengo
On the cheekily titled Popular Songs, the trio from Hoboken, celebrating 25 years, offers its career’s quilt-like album. All the pieces and patterns are sewn together into a beautiful, unified piece of work: spacey jam (the opener “Here to Fall”), twangy pop (“Avalon or Someone Very Similar”), spooky ballad (“By Two’s”), garage super-freakout (“Nothing To…
Couples Retreat: typical gender-role comedy
Four couples head to French Polynesia (Eden, in the film) to rediscover and reaffirm their love and desire for one another. Reductive “guys hate feelings/girls hate being ignoredâ€� comedy ensues and yet, I didn’t hate it. Couples Retreat, with stars Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Kristen Bell, has plenty wrong with it, including director Peter…
Q-Tip
Recorded in 2001 but shelved because there were no “hits,” Kamaal the Abstract is a great leap for Q-Tip, expanding and delivering on everything to which A Tribe Called Quest aspired. True to its title, the album is predominantly a meditation on free jazz forms, funk and hip-hop, with many long improvised passages. Q-Tip’s signature…
Nocturne’s building inspection
For Nocturne, people aren’t just invited to look at art, but to look at architecture through art. Some of this year’s artists will insert their work into vacant spaces. Others will fill in the void left by demolition (or the memory before massive renovation). And still others will project onto and into buildings currently in…
Where the Wild Things Are almost a hit, but not quite
The understated beauty and the elegant alchemy of CGI, live action and vocal performance in the titular wild things goes a long way to make up for Wild Things’ not quite fatal, but certainly inescapable flaw. It takes far too long for the film’s subtle plot–Max (Max Records, in a debut performance that is a…
Bousquet did a great job on Darwin article
Congratulations to Tim Bousquet for “Doolittle, Darwin and the ‘deeply dumb'” (October 8). What beautifully clear and understandable writing on a complex subject. Anyone who denies the fact that all plants and animals alive today, including ourselves, evolved from other forms of life over hundreds of millions of years, please read Jerry Coyne’s book Why…
Lillian the Legend, Kerry Byrne (Conundrum)
Following in the footsteps of Chester Brown’s Louis Riel biography, NSCAD alum Kerry Byrne tells the story of Lillian Alling, a young Russian immigrant seamstress living in New York who decides to return to Russia by walking across the Bering Strait. Alling’s story is captivating and beautifully retold by Byrne. Her journey begins in the…
Pissed Jeans
I know I should’ve reviewed this when it first came out, but I needed time to let my gushing fanboy-ness settle a bit. Like, could there be a more personally relatable album released this year? Apathy, listlessness, workplace drudgery, male pattern baldness, the uneasy acceptance of adulthood, the need for a good massage—real talk, yo.…
East Coast doesn’t do enough for ocean life
On October 6, a dead Minke whale washed ashore on Martinique Beach. This followed close on the heels of the discovery of a dead fin whale in New Brunswick. In other countries, such a discovery would prompt authorities to conduct an investigation to determine, among other things, cause of death. A notification would be sent…
Holding Still For As Long As Possible, Zoe Whittall (Anansi)
Zoe Whittall is a championing voice of outsiders and outcasts, of surviving your 20s and all their hangovers, in a polyamorous-leaning generation unencumbered by traditional gender labels. Whereas her first novel Bottle Rocket Hearts updated Mordecai’s Montreal, Holding Still stars contemporary Toronto: first kisses on Now newspaper boxes, gentrifying Parkdale, parties at the Gladstone. Mortality…
Reverend Horton Heat
Guys have their foolish moments, what with fantasy sports and beer hats and all, but the caricatures needn’t lack empathy. Take this song “Beer Holder.” Nobody addled enough to admire his expanding belly’s utility as a coaster would think to write a song about it. That’s where Reverend Horton Heat comes in: white trash wit…
Gerald Ferguson’s legacy
New York-based conceptual painter and sculptor Rachel Beach manages to get one sentence in before choking up. “In terms of being influential on students that then go out into the world and have a certain idea about how art gets made,” she says, “there’s no other influence that’s had any single larger effect than the…
Paramore
“The truth never set me free, so I did it myself,” declares Hayley Williams off the top of the outfit’s third LP, a chronicle of its near-breakup last year. Tough and catchy, Brand New Eyes finds emo’s most important band expanding on the hook-laden Riot!, packing in stops and starts, thunderous drumming and ba-ba-bas around…
Homeless report issued
Fifty-three percent of Halifax’s homeless population has been diagnosed with at least one form of clinical mental illness. Seventy-two percent have dealt with serious depression or anxiety, and 48 percent have seriously considered taking their own lives.Those are the findings catalogued in a report issued Tuesday by the Community Action on Homelessness. The findings are…
Construction of affordable housing on Gottingen a go
Gottingen Terrace, the affordable housing project planned for the old Sobeys site on Gottingen Street, across from the North Branch Library, is alive and well, says Grant Wanzell, president of the Creighton/Gerrish Development Association, the non-profit organization behind the development. The recession has slowed the housing industry everywhere, “but we’re doing much better than the…
Nova Scotia Food Summit pushes local food
This week marks the first Nova Scotia Food Summit. Event organizers say the summit responds to a mounting need to overhaul our “broken” food system—paying homage to local food and wrangling some much needed support for an agriculture sector in crisis. From Sunday through Tuesday, supporters, thinkers and curious folk alike will congregate at the…
Medjuck discusses plans for discovery centre
Responding to a story that ran on this page, developer Frank Medjuck says plans for the building at 1539 Barrington Street are more nuanced than I’ve let on. Often, when historic or interesting buildings are redeveloped, the facades are left and the rest of the building is torn down, with an entirely new building going…
Patricia Clarkson steps into leading light
The leading lady’s got it all. There’s brains, beauty and backstory all balled up into one towering film figure. But first, consider her other onscreen presence, one of a smaller scale: the female character actor has long played a sort of handmaid to the leading lady—the best friend, sister, mother or lover who brings nuance…
Seven Sparks’ program heals with sweat
Complete blackness envelops me. The chanting and heavy breathing of everyone else rings loudly, like thoughts in my own head. I retreat under my towel from a blast of cedar smoke and scorchingly hot steam. This is hopefully the closest sensation to burning alive that I’ll ever feel. Finally, I murmur the sacred words and…
The Informers
There’s something both compelling and ghoulish about The Informers. Set in the vacant world of ultra-rich Los Angeles circa 1983, we follow an ensemble of desperate, damaged souls swimming in sex and drugs, going nowhere. With Bret Easton Ellis adapting his own novel, the film convincingly recreates the sheen of 1980s Hollywood product, but it’s…
Obama’s no prize as peacemaker
He’s not known as Barack O’Bomber for nothing. Even as the bellicose US president snagged the Nobel Peace Prize last week, American military forces under his command were pounding Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. More than a million civilians have died and millions more have been forced to flee because of these senseless wars. Yet O’Bomber…
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 4
“Come one come all to a beautiful show. It’s going to be awesome and…some other stuff,” announces Charlie (Charlie Day) about his musical, The Nightman Cometh. But that’s the fourth season too—awesome plagued with just some other stuff. Highlights involve the hilarious pairing of Charlie and Sweet Dee (as cannibals, for example), but episodes suffer…
Tree hugger power
At the Nova Scotia Environment Network’s annual gathering last week, in a discussion on working with the new government, some expressed hope, but most were disappointed. Longtime NDP MLA and environmentalist Howard Epstein was passed over for a cabinet post, and there has been no progress on key NDP issues, like a permanent uranium mining…
Flaccid fountain display
What’s wrong? Flaccid fountain display. Who’s responsible? Peter Bigelow, HRM’s property manager, 490-6047. REMARKS A reader complains that the fountain in the Common no longer provides the vigourous and sustained performance that so thrilled her over the summer. “She’s right,” says Bigelow, who explains that as the autumn winds kick up, people using the nearby…
Second Serena Ryder show added November 28 at St. Matt’s
2009 JUNO Award-winner Serena Ryder will return to Halifax in support of her latest release is it o.k.. Due to popular demand, a second show has been added at St. Matthew’s Church on Saturday, November 28 at 8pm in addition to the show on Friday, November 27 at 8pm. Ryder has racked up the impressive…
