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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
Today you said my voice was distinct, yet I’d been thinking the same thing about your smile since the first time you handed me my large with half a milk. Though we meet regularly on Main, could we sometime meet to hike and hang? —Caffeinated and swooning
Last December, two journalists in Myanmar, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were invited to dinner by police officers to discuss their research into war crimes carried out by the military. The officers handed them some documents, then immediately arrested them under the country’s Official Secrets Act for possessing the classified material. As absurd as…
Nova Scotia loves to get on the bandwagon a few months or years after a trend has hit its saturation point everywhere else. It’s a few years late, but we’re still all in on hamburgers, re-opening coal mines and building failing convention centres. The latest cool thing from last year is enlisting to fight in…
Never underestimate a small pair of hands. Claire Gallant certainly doesn’t. The longtime chef—she cooked in Toronto and at Halifax’s Fid before its closure—keyed into her own kids’ keenness in the kitchen and grew it into something special, launching Bite-Sized Kitchen a year ago. “Even at 18 months old they could stand on the stool…
“My agricultural background is planting peas and stealing peas from my grandfather’s garden growing up,” says Phil Hatcher with a laugh. After 18 years in the film industry, he’s switching gears and getting back to the land. Sort of. This summer Hatcher will launch Very Local Greens, a farm that lives inside a repurposed shipping…
You won’t have to look hard for much longer, Zakka Mart (2180 Robie Street) will only be a hidden gem for a little while. Taking up a vacancy on the corner of Robie and Cunard Streets, the inconspicuous storefront has no identifying signage other than the small “open” one that hangs on the door. The…
On March 31, an underwater pipeline carrying oil to a refinery in Balikpapan, Indonesia, broke, spreading crude over 20,000 hectares of Balikpapan Bay. Some of it ignited, killing five fishermen. Area residents experienced health problems including nausea, vomiting and respiratory difficulties, and marine life and mangroves were also devastated. In mid-January, an Iranian tanker carrying…
Another Update: Adams has also now apologized for her remarks, writing on Facebook that she travelled to a tiny village in Africa on a medical mission and is “so sorry I generalized the state of their industry.” Smith-McCrossin has also expanded on her original apology: “I am not as knowledgeable about racism as I should…
You come in to my store to shop. Why in the hell do you need to destroy shit? You rip the package open just to get a look at the item, even though there is one on display right at eye level. Then, IF you decide to put it back in the box, you jam…
Maybe it’s because I’m educated, professionally employed or maybe, it’s because I’ve been smoking pot for 40 years…but does anyone else find that the hype building up to the legalization of recreational cannabis equates to a chicken just had its head cut off? It seems to play into a scene out of Reefer Madness. Any…
This month Eyelevel christens its new gallery space with a member’s show by Danika Vandersteen. Shifting from landscape paintings to cartoons, from the decorative arts to quirky assemblages, Vandersteen’s paintings, sculptures and buttery leather goods show an eye for detail and a goofy sense of luxury. In her paintings lanky, cartoonish figures with oblong googly…
The Sobey Art Award, which doles out $240,000 to Canadian artists including 100K to the winner, has announced its 2018 longlist. The Atlantic region finalists are Haligonians Lisa Lipton and Lou Sheppard plus Jordan Bennett, Jerry Ropson and D’Arcy Wilson. The shortlist will be announced May 29, with the winner crowned November 14 at the National Gallery…
I work at a very small and very popular food establishment in central Halifax. Today someone decided to leave a very long and very crummy note in our suggestion box, shaming us for the clothes we wear and our overall appearance. I’m sorry the two inches of our server’s midsection was so offensive that you…
There’s little question Halifax Regional Police need a new base of operations, but where it’ll be located and how much it’ll cost are questions still being worked out. An update on HRP’s new facilities plan was presented to the Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday afternoon, detailing options for consolidating and improving the department’s undersized,…
Mamma Mia is a 1999 ABBA jukebox musical. The plot follows Sophie (Cynthia Smithers), on the eve of her wedding to Sky (Jahlen Barnes), as she brings together the three men who could be her biological father, unbeknownst to her mother, Donna (Julie Martell). Smithers brings a beautiful voice to her portrayal of Sophie, although…
I took a few days off at the unbelievable rarity that is Arcosanti, a futuristic utopian community designed by artist Paolo Soleri. Looking like something out of a ’70s science-fiction, it was a great place to stay and write as I had access to their wonderful grand piano. …
From pipelines to airstrikes, Justin Trudeau will arrive in Halifax later this week still dealing with the fallout from a week of controversial political decisions. The prime minister will join hundreds of other Party faithful attending the Liberal’s national convention, which takes place Thursday through Saturday at the newly opened and already burdensome Halifax Convention Centre. Trudeau…
How fucking dare you! You, sir, are a real piece of fucking work. Wait, did I say “work,” I meant SHIT! When you asked me for money this morning I had no cash on me (otherwise I would have given you some, but now I’m glad THAT didn’t happen). So I responded kindly with a…
The government’s cozy and “highly-dependent” relationship with systems service provider Unisys opened up some big holes in Nova Scotia’s IT security. So says a damning auditor general report from 2016 conducted on the same database system used for Nova Scotia’s recently breached Freedom of Information web portal. The purpose of the audit was to investigate…
Two drivers I passed last night on the highway proceeded to speed up, tail gate and turn their high beams on to try to annoy me in some sort of road rage revenge. It’s a new car with bright white lights but I wasn’t tail gating or using the high beams when I was behind…
Closing arguments have finished and the jury now deliberates in a first-degree murder trial where witness credibility has become a central issue. The Crown began its closing argument against Randy Riley on Thursday by telling jury members that one key witness, Paul Smith, told them “everything you need to know.” Riley, 27, is charged with…
“It’s just one of those days where you don’t want to wake up. Everything is fucked and everybody sucks.” Fred Durst said it first in 1999, but in 2018 those words are still relevant as all get out. And Terry LeBlanc seems to agree. He’s the manager of the soon-to-be mother of all stress relievers,…
Shine on this weekend as Stars arrives at The Marquee with its best album in years, The Villain’s Theatre talks climate change with a feminist play, a lipstick-inspired art show opens at the Corridor Gallery, Cory Bowles curates a screening of Black shorts and more! Black on Both Sides Thursday Actor/director Cory Bowles (whose excellent Black Cop wowed at FIN…
Diane Kruger puts in a largely overlooked career-best performance in In the Fade, the 2017 thriller from Fatih Akin that won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Picture and wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar. Kruger, acting in her native German, is Katja, whose Kurdish husband Nuri (Numan Acar) and young son are killed…
Kelly Carrington’s black dreadlocks curtain over big, broad shoulders. They make the 38-year-old look younger than his age, but his beard gives him away. Curly white hairs sprout like weeds along his jawline. He’s built like a Ford—tough. He’s loud. He’s sarcastic. If he didn’t quit football after high school, Carrington says he would have…
Agricola, North, Barrington and Cogswell Streets were my old boundaries—my safe place, my sanctuary, my community, my hood. Now it seems as though it belongs to someone else. Its gradual transformation from a historic Black community to a trendy place to live and be entertained has rendered unfamiliar, uncomfortable and unaffordable spaces for many of…
Stars w/Jenn Grant Friday, April 13, 9pm The Marquee Ballroom 2037 Gottingen Street $38-$43 sonicconcerts.com There’s a moment in “We Called It Love,” track six on Stars’ latest sad-and-synthy LP There Is No Love In Fluorescent Light, where it becomes imminently clear the band is returning to form. Frontpeople Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan softly…
Cinema 902 Saturdays on Eastlink TV, 11pm repeating Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday Often you have to wait for a film festival or one-off screening to catch locally made movies, but Cinema 902’s been offering up a slate of Halifax-created features since January. And beginning at the top of this month, the program—airing on Eastlink TV at…
The Splendour of Venice Sunday, April 15, 4pm Cathedral Church of All Saints 1330 Cathedral Lane $15-$100 tickethalifax.com Hoping to switch up your Sunday devotionals this weekend? Well, the University of King’s College Chapel Choir is answering your prayers with The Splendour of Venice: Music For San Marco. Following a sold-out performance of Italian composer…
1. With Canada’s Cannabis Act, Bill C-45, passing its second senate reading, recreational legalization is middling toward reality across the country. As the provinces scramble to prepare for the unknown date, New Brunswick is notably on the ball when it comes to cannabis industry development. The province’s 2016 Economic Growth Plan naming cannabis as a…
The “toke and soak” is just right. Smoking weed increases the desire for things that engage all the senses. We pot-smokers want a full-body, immersive experience to really elevate that high, so there is a natural jump from smoking a joint to relaxing in a warm bath. And, like the theme of the If you…
“What would you do-o-o for a Klondike Bar?” sings the commercial, a nod to the epic discovery of gold in the Yukon in 1896. In the ensuing gold rush, after news of the Klondike’s riches reached the outside world, tens of thousands of would-be gold-diggers giddy’d up and headed for Canada’s north. News of Justin…
Annie MacEachern is an advocate using her voice to help get medical weed patients heard in the din of recreational pot legalization. But she’s also an experienced cannabis user herself, and when we chatted about the medical cannabis fight she had some great tips for pot newbies. Here’s MacEachern’s advice on where to start, and…
WWhen she was 19, Annie MacEachern moved from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, where—of course—she discovered the joys of cannabis. She remained a recreational weed user when she came back east to get her public relations degree at Mount Saint Vincent University, during work stints in the Alberta oil patch and through her eventual…
Legalization is going to mean a lot more people casually smoking up together, but with weed sometimes it’s nice to just go solo. Here are five high-elevating things you can do to have the time of your life without leaving home. One of these suggestions is bound to tickle your fancy. 1Masturbate Speaking of tickling…
Fancy Lebanese Bakery 2573 Agricola Street Who she is Mary Laba, owner of the Fancy Lebanese Bakery, couldn’t fry an egg when she moved to Canada from Lebanon. Now, she can quickly troubleshoot the bakery’s pita dough. Less salt. More yeast. “She could tell me if there wasn’t enough water just by the sound the…
Q I’m a 36-year-old straight woman. I was sexually and physically abused as a kid, and raped in my early 20s. I have been seeing a great therapist for the last five years, and I am processing things and feeling better than I ever have. I was in a long-term relationship that ended about two…
A report retort I write in response to “Liberals pay lip service to feminism while failing survivors on campus, again,” the opinion piece submitted by Aidan McNally, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students—Nova Scotia, which appeared in The Coast’s Voice of the City section on March 15. McNally’s commentary on the development and implementation…
Nadine LaRoche still laughs when she remembers moving into her condo eight-and-a-half years ago, during a particularly sweltering August. The property—part of an old estate in the city’s south end—wasn’t what she had planned. Her real estate agent told her “he had this little condo he wanted to show me. I didn’t really believe in…
Robyn Manning is always thinking big picture. With a background in fine art, textiles and furniture, the principal designer behind Bricks & Birches—a design and consultation firm she founded in 2016—has her mind on sightlines, proportions and connections. It’s all about the collective concept, not just beautiful bits and pieces. Her latest feat of design…
“This is the trendy stuff today,” says Jafar Tabrizi, gesturing to a grey and white rug in his shop, Tabrizi Rugs, on the Bedford Highway. “This is silky material—look at that. Feel it.” It’s one of many hanging up on the walls, while plenty more are stacked on the floor. Some are machine-made, others are…
1. Spice up the ceiling Coloured ceilings work particularly well in homes with high ceilings (nine feet or more), says designer Sappho Griffin. “The fifth wall, as I call it, has been ignored for so long. It’s always sort of been ceiling paint: white.” A bold or dark colour on the ceiling works makes a…
The story The green bathroom was a pretty big eyesore, it probably deterred a lot of people from buying the house—a lot of people looked at it and it was on the market for a really long time. It had this custom green square tub, which was really bizarre, a shower and this thick tile…
It’s all about the light: Huge amounts pour in through skylights, tumble over window ledges and bathe the home Jennifer Lee (an occasional Coast contributor) and Robyn Ingraham share. Split into two flats, the sunny house was perfect for the close friends when they decided to become neighbours about five months ago. “Lucking out on…
“My friends call me Lindsay Kijiji because I’m so good at it.” They’re not wrong. Lindsay McMullen’s sunny one-bedroom flat off Rocky Lake Drive wouldn’t have its distinctively Home-Polish-esque pop if it weren’t for her second-hand finds. She scored the city-meets-burbs spot after watching her friends—the house’s owners—completely gut the one-time man cave (complete with…
Our health, well-being, food security, energy and economic progress depend on healthy, diverse nature. Clean water and air are essential to human life and health. Nutrient-rich soils are necessary to grow food. Diversity makes the ecosystems on which human life depends resilient. But, as more than 550 experts from over 100 countries recently warned, “Biodiversity—the…
