All That Legal Mumble Jumble…
Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! As exciting as the prelude to your wedding may be, do not forget about the official marriage documents you need to obtain. Make sure that the following important legal matters are included on your wedding planning to-do list. You need to obtain a Nova Scotia Marriage License in person. In…
Venue Jumping on Day 6
After two jam-packed days of theatre, it was a lovely break to have a day with only two shows to see. I chose wisely, too. The heavy, but masterfully-delivered subject matter of Spitting in the Face of the Devil balanced beautifully with the short, light-as-a-soap-bubble Naked. “Naked” would be another excellent title for Spitting in…
Music Nova Scotia Music and Industry Nominations Announced
Congrats to all. Not to brag but we’d like to point out that the Coast’s Sue Carter Flinn has been nominated for Media Professional of the World. I mean, year. Woot woot Suzay. Complete list of nominees below. Awards will be presented during Nova Scotia Music Week. Bell Aliant Entertainer of the Year — Public…
Tiger, Champ… whatever
Your friendship has been one of the things that has helped me stay sane recently (even if its mostly conducted in FB chats), so thanks. You are very special in ways that I’m only just discovering; very smart, funny, occasionally adorable, with great taste in beer. Thank you for listening. Congrats on the new digs…
I’m sorry too
It all ended so badly, we were so in love and it ended as a mess. For a long time I hated you but I realize now that we were both wrong. I don’t think my heart will ever heal properly, but I just wanted to let you know that I am doing well in…
Props!
When I came in at 10:58, you could have refused to serve me, I only had debit and you just turned off your machine… To the girl worker who offered to pay for my order in cash, thank you so much – I enjoyed that beer a lot and had a great night! —Silly crazy…
365 BT
Pop by the restaurant again sometime, you just might catch me there. Forget the lassi, let’s go for a beer. —If you know this is for you, then you know who it is. 🙂
Thank You
Just wanted to show many thanks to the Police officer who assisted us when we got lost last weekend at 2am trying to find the emergency vet hospital in Burnside, our 10 month old husky puppy was real sick and with your help we got him to the hospital asap. He made a full recovery…
Lovely Coffee Shop Workers!
This is a GREAT HUGE AMOUNT of love to the one coffee shop we found open at 8pm on Saturday night. We were walking around downtown and found you open on Barrington. THANK YOU. You all had a great amount of cool although you were surely over-worked, over-stressed and probably wishing all of us customers…
To The Boy Who’s Been My Bestie For 10+
You’ll never know I sent this but I love you more than words, cake, and cats, and I appreciate every Sunday morning that I wake up to you clanging around the kitchen. Keep making me laugh Bis. —Mac
Thanks for saving my life, litterly blue beard
Yes you did save my life, as I was at the bus stop in Dartmouth at the bridge, a bee landed on me and I freaked out. I must of looked crazy like a loony patient, I even hyperventilated… No one offered to help or speak to me I must of looked crazy, but a…
Swarming Little Bastards
So there’s a bunch of little shits out there intent on pounding on individuals… What has this crap-hole city become? #8 in the country for violence, that’s what. These fucking kids should be rounded up and made to wear signs that read ‘I’m a stupid little cocksucker who thinks I can terrorize people in a…
Specal delvery for the networking tool
Okay, you know what? I don’t know you. I’ve never, ever, met you. I don’t care how many people you know. I don’t care if you lie awake at night measuring your self-worth by the number of bullshit emails you push. What I do care about is having you steal (and I know you stole…
You ain’t gettin no more of my business!
To the restaurants that decided to stay closed after the hurricane on Saturday even after the power came back on: fuck you. You’ve got the most lazy employees working! I went around the city looking for restaurants that were open. I found ones that were in areas that had power (the traffic lights and everything…
Plant thief
To the jerk-face who dug our hydrangea from our front garden and made off with it, you’ve got a face like a jerk. —Hole in our garden and in our hearts
All we hear is radio blah blah
When there’s a storm coming, the EMO tells us to include batteries in our emergency kits. One assumes this is to power a portable radio. What for? It’s not like we have many, if any, radio stations that have live DJs these days. Caught a little bit on one station, but they were just getting…
How about you go jump in a lake, instead?
It has become a yearly occurrence… “The water is so safe now,: they say, “that you can swim in it again!” It’s a great show for the politicians. A look-how-much-we’ve-done spectacle that, one way or another, gets people talking. The problem is that, without fail, the newly swimmable beaches close within a day or two.…
Walking home from the bars
The next time you’re walking home from the bars at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., look around you at the houses. This is not an abandoned ghost town you’re walking through. It’s a neighbourhood. Behind those windows are people sleeping – or at least people who WERE sleeping before you walked by, yelling your fool heads…
DONT DRINK AND DRIVE OR TAKE THE BUS FUCKTARDED STUDENTS…
You see those stupid fucking drinking and driving commercials saying take a cab, have a designated driver or take the bus – fuck that ya drunks, why should people paying for the bus have to listen to your drunk asses singing and telling us how drunk you are? Why the fuck the bus drivers let…
MNS Next Big Thing
three sheet throw down tonight Tonight marks the first preliminary round of Battle of the Bands: HMV Next Big Thing. Tonight No Flyers Please, Three Sheet, Glory Glory Man United, Kristina Trites and Keith Mullins will punch each other with chords and dancing and raps and beatboxing. Whoever is left standing will join the winners…
Day 5 at DANspace
Oh, how I suffer for my art. I spent a most gloriously sunny and temperate Labour Day in the sauna-like confines of DANspace, reviewing not one or two, but FIVE Fringe offerings, Fortunately, the fact that there wasn’t a dog in the lot coupled with the opportunity to sit outside on Argyle Street and enjoy…
Enchanted Forest opens
Now online at enchanted-forest.ca is Enchanted Forest (104 Diana Grace Avenue, 405-6901) a store that provides environmentally-friendly, organic, and natural baby products. The business describes itself as “proudly Canadian” and eco-friendly and offers exclusively made-in-Canada items. It specializes in cloth diapers and natural baby products but is currently expanding to offer environmentally sensitive household products.…
SaintOnge for charity
Meet Pinky. He’s a 24″x36″ pigment screenprint on canvas. Starting bid is $50 If you’ve been coveting one of Michelle SaintOnge’s colourful animal prints, including the “Exotica” collection (perhaps you’ve seen the menagerie at Morris East) or the Martha Stewart-loving “Private Lives of Cats and Dogs,” or her fun bags, pillows and jewellery, now’s your…
Thank You for the assistance!!
I was driving from Truro to HRM today and went by a large convoy of NB Power trucks headed to HRM to help out. Just wanted to send some love out to them and give everyone else a heads up!!! Thanks —HRM Frequent Visitor
To the workers restoring electricity tonight
Thank you for working throughout the night to restore power to us after Earl. You said it might be tomorrow morning we get our power back, but we got it back tonight. I know you have more work to do because I see half of Halifax in the dark, and I hope you will all…
Nice People
I showed up at a tailor to pick up my Bridesmaid dress. It was there for 7 days. I had went in on my lunch around 1:30pm to pick it up earlier in the day and it wasn’t ready… the lady working said the dress would be ready at 4:00pm (already making one trip upon…
For the love of the old
To the elderly couple walking down the street: You both had canes, hearing aids, and thick glasses. But you also had enormous smiles and were holding hands. Thank-you for the reminder of everyday romance and the timelessness of love. —In with the old
Lets Grow Together
I am so happy and grateful for everyone who comes out to the drum circles every Sunday, enjoying the tranquility of the days, the magic of the evenings, and the intensity of the nights… Thank you so much for keeping Halifax a beautiful and free place. You are all so beautiful, inside and out, and…
Thanks for the Coffee and Donut
To the person in the silver malibu who paid for my coffee this morning at the Tim Horton’s Wyse Rd: you made my day and I want to say thanks 🙂 I did sleep well, got up late and started the day off bad and you turned that around for me. Have a great weekend.…
The Sunday Hippies
I must say, I really love the hippies who get together on Sundays. Every time I walk past you all on my way to and from work, it really makes me smile. You all are so happy to be around each other, I always see you hugging and laughing and just enjoying life. Playing your…
Great people on a hot day
To the nice couple that picked me up on Couburg after I missed my bus running to catch it on the hottest day of the year: I didn’t get to thank you properly when I jumped out to get on at the next stop. I hope karma sent you a tub of ice filled with…
There are some good people on the road
Today my friend was dropping me off to meet my mother, someone VERY nice let us through into the chicken burger parking lot. After I was picked up. My mother had to make another left leaving chicken burger, and not one, or two, but THREE people stopped in rush hour traffic to let us through.…
Hit and Run- Sept 2nd
I am hoping that by posting this, I will be either shaming the person responsible into coming forward, or will locate a witness who can help: On Thursday, Sept 2nd at around 9:30 am, my mother was driving on the #7 highway, from Sackville toward Dartmouth, about 3 km from Sackville and about 1km away…
Okay Gen Y, I submit already!!!
I’ll do ANYTHING you ask, just stop with this hideous 80s revival! The tacky aspects of 80s sucked the first time around, but have been made much worse by this completely non-ironic resurgence. People didn’t know better back then, but you have no excuse! I promise that in just a few years, you will all…
What the hell?
To the rage-a-holic who blared her horn and screamed at me out her open car windows on Almon St today: what the hell? Yes, I’m on a bike. Yes, I am as far to the right as I can get without being clotheslined by the side mirrors of the parked cars along the street. Yes,…
Earl’s Aftermath
I hate my clumsiness. Made it through Earl fine, walked up to a friend’s wedding reception at the Armories and of course I tripped over a down tree branch and hurt my knee. —Sore and Bruised
Earl – Don’t Believe The Hype
The media blows everything out of perspective… and here they go this time with Hurricane Earl. It’s not the end of the world out there. It’s not Armageddon. You don’t need to stock up on water, food, radios, batteries, update your will, and prepare for a holocaust. It’s wind… some gusts… it’s rain… nothing we’re…
Flagged
Watch what you say to your doctors and or mental health councilors. The new computerized way the Health Department keeps our records, is so open that any doctor, any receptionist, any Capital Health employee with your health card number can call up your private health file, write anything (including lies) about you. —Call me Moon,…
A Coffee Shop That Could Care Less About its Customers.
I was told to leave because, I was the customer that had the guts the finally speak out about the poor treatment and lack of respect the employees and the owner, showed us the customers. When I complained to you, I did not receive an apology. You said you would take my complaints and put…
WTF!
To the over-aged frat- boy wannabe at the HFX shopping center: You bodily shoved your way through a group of special-needs adults on the stairs, then proceeded to call them all ‘idiots’ before storming off. Are you kidding me?! Did you think they don’t have feelings? Or do you just think they’re beneath you? If…
School System FAIL
My little sibling went to register for the first day of grade 11 yesterday. In order to get their schedule and pay school fees, the students were sent through either the MALE door or the FEMALE door. Because why organize something alphabetically or by grade when you can force kids to make pointless distinctions in…
Welcome back
Had a thing for you right away, but kept it hidden for professional reasons. You left. It became clear, maybe you had a thing for me. Now you’re back, and I can’t get you out of my head… Don’t know what to do with you. —Mrfitness
Family reunions? Not twice.
So we get together in Halifax for a family reunion. First time we’ve been together in 12 years … since dad died. Great, hello & how are you. Do we know each other, etc. Brother returns a tool set to me. I put the set inside the family house, safe & sound with the rest…
ARE YOU THAT LAZY?
It really GRINDS MY GEARS when I am driving and I get cut off by some idiot who forgets the POINT of a blinker/signal light. Is it really that hard to tap your wrist up or down on a thing to turn on your blinker so the people BEHIND you know what you’re doing? ALSO…
Big Brother
There are too many security cameras downtown everywhere and it really makes it hard to smoke pot at ease. I had to smoke hidden by a church and I am now worried that God hates me. He has pretty high standards you know. Let me smoke in peace! —stpaul
Attention, Some Certain HRM Employers:
Your numerous administrative positions (that I see advertised online every day) will never be filled unless you’re willing to pay more than $10-12/hour and/or are NOT asking for applicants to have 4-5 years experience! I have news for you: those candidates with the experience you ask for will not apply at your company for that…
The city of Solipsism
For the cute little girl who asked me to shut of my engine in the drive thru the other night… what are you fighting for? 6 days ago my old car broke down on the Bedford Highway at 4:30 a.m. Trying to push it onto the curb before rush hour by myself should have prompted…
Shitty neighbours
Throwing your bag of dog poo in our green bin just after it has been emptied in the middle of a heat wave – whoever you are, that was a jerk move. Thanks for making my week smelly as well as sweaty, and for reminding me that there are awful people in Halifax after all.…
5:15am Construction!!! What The Hell!?
I can understand that construction workers have to start early so that they can finish earlier and beat the heat, and so on. I usually get woken from construction around 7am or a little earlier, which is generally when construction starts, I believe… But recently, they seem to start earlier and earlier. This morning, we…
A full Day of Fringe on Day 4
I’ve experienced a “Fringe” benefit from having so many plays to see: I’m feeling pretty good about my job as a reviewer, and about the theatre scene in Halifax. I’ve not only survived 12 plays in four days, but the quality of this year’s Fringe offerings means I feel privileged to have seen the majority…
Club Soda pops
If you’ve been downtown the past few weeks you’ll have noticed that the new Club Soda (5287 Prince Street, 407-8994) has become very popular in a very short time. Though they only opened August 12, manager Mike Hawkins, who runs the place with Mike Conforti, says the weekend crowds have filled the place. It’s quite…
Two Plays, Two Winners on Day 3 of the Fringe
Good old Hurricane Earl forced the closure of all but two plays yesterday, but as luck would have, it they were both winners! Back in 1916, a New York newspaper columnist named Don Marquis introduced Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the free-spirited cat to the world. Archy, who claimed to be a reincarnated poet and…
Keeping Cool on Day 2 of the Fringe
With temperatures soaring as Hurricane Earl (Hot Juan??) lumbered towards the city, the air conditioned splendor of Plutonium Playhouse offered sweet relief as well as a mixed bag of Fringey entertainment… The first show, Black Jack Justice, proved to be the best of the evening. Set in a radio studio during the recording of a…
Hurricane Earl prefers Nova Scotia after all
There’s a good news/bad news thing happening with the Earl forecasts. Friday night at CBC, he he was a hurricane on track to cruise up the Bay of Fundy and hit New Brunswick. Saturday morning, he’s been downgraded to a tropical storm, but his projected track has moved smack dab over Nova Scotia. According to…
Ripsters opens in Bayers Lake
It’s early September. You know what that means? Only eight weeks until Halloween. You’d best start thinking of a costume right now, that’s not a lot of time to plan something awesome. Thank all the gods—even the evil, stinky ones—that Ripsters Halloween Shop (102 Chain Lake Drive, 450-4747) is here to help. With thousands of…
Hobo With A Shotgun -New Trailer, New Review!
I wonder if you, like me, saw the original Hobo With A Shotgun entry into the faux-exploitation trailer contest in anticipation of 2007’s Grindhouse and declared the competition to be over before it started? From the sublimely evocative concept to the vivid yet gritty circus of violence (not to mention David Brunt’s honest and bona…
Day 1 of the Fringe Odyssey
Okay, the marathon has begun. Last night marked the beginning of an 11-day Fringe odyssey where this intrepid reviewer will attempt to view —-and coherently review—-all 30 theatre offerings. Will the heat drive her mad? Will she over-dose on one man shows? Stay tuned to find out… First on the list is the short and…
Mesrine Wants Your Metalface
mesrine’s hurricane kicks Oh metal folks, I feel you: With Hatebreed, GWAR and the Children of Bodom/Clutch/Black Label Society shows looming ever closer, I imagine your black, charred hearts are getting a little antsy. This weekend has offerings that may briefly sate you—-Montreal grind godfathers Mesrine play two shows this Saturday to support their new…
Halifax Farmers’ Market open today, 4-8pm
Today, the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market will be open from 4-8pm, so stock up now. But if you really enjoy buying your veggies in a storm, the Market will be open again tomorrow, regular time and apparently most vendors will be there.
Hobo with a Shotgun trailer
NSFQ (not safe for the queasy): Related Stories
Emergency cupcake kits from Gateaux Rose
Gateaux Rose wants you to be prepared for Earl. Their Emergency Cupcake Kits include: “three slender pocket sized travel birthday candles; five safety matches; one package of emergency raisins; nine compact (mini) emergency cupcakes in high energy producing chocolate flavored cupcakes with red cross topper or blueberry storm cupcakes with life vessel topper.” Cupcake Kits…
Students find Alternative Orientation at back-to-school
This school year will mark the fifth annual Alternative Orientation Series for new and returning Dalhousie students. ALT 101 is an opportunity to “introduce and expose the student population to the diversity of communities in Halifax,” says Sébastien Labelle, a member of the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG) Board of Directors. The ALT…
Adventure Travel Company stakes out new location
For 10 years they’ve been the Adventure Travel Company and Travel Cuts at 1589 Barrington, but now they’re a new addition to the north end. As of September 7 it’ll be simply known as the Adventure Travel Company and will be found in the Hydrostone Market, at 5552 Kaye Street. (Travel Cuts still has a location…
To the lady who bought my couch off of Kijiji this Summer:
I paid an insane amount of cash for that couch less than a year ago; but when you said you were a single mom… nostalgic thoughts of my single-father-dad and his forever recycled furniture told me to give you the couch for next to nothing. You were so happy to get it, and that gave…
My favourite neighbour
Dearest Lizzy, You are one beautiful cat and I loved how you would run up to me whenever you were outside. Sure, you loved a lot of people on Pepperell St., but you showed so much love as to follow my roommate and I as we moved our stuff out and into cars. I will…
Blizzard to Go
To whoever decided to stick gum on my motorcycle seat, and dump a strawberry blizzard all over it by the corner of Dresden Row and Artillery Place: Thanks. If your goal was to make me never want to bring my bike downtown to visit a friend again… Mission accomplished. What is up with you piece…
Whole new kind of low….
Two parents abandon their 14-month old baby in a stroller in a parking lot by itself? That’s some amazingly horrible parenting. What’s going on up there in Cape Breton? In my opinion, I hope Child Services removes the child from these people… the child deserves a better life. —Responsible_Parent
I believe in yesterday…
We nerds love you. You’ve always made us feel right at home. Except lately all of your new staff are more into flirting with the latest piece of meat that walks into the store than paying any attention whatsoever to the rest of us less-than-model customers. What’s up with that? Your veteran staff members are…
Retail appreciates nice customers
To all of you customers who take the time to ask the employees how their day has been, or make casual small talk or who are even just polite and use please, thank you etc: WE APPRECIATE YOU. I’m being 100% honest when I say that when a customer tells me to have a good…
Shoo, Fly
A persistent fly that must be swatted away again and again shouldn’t detract from a beautiful day. The fly doesn’t matter. You do. We do. Lets focus on the sunshine again. We’d be crazy to ignore something wonderful because of a bug. —XO
I could write a biography about you by now
To the lady who always comes into my store and talks for at least 15 minutes about the following: your divorce, your latest flings, your insecurities, the good day you had yesterday, the awful day you’ve been having today… NONE OF US CARE! I’m all for small talk, but when it gets to the point…
Show Some Respect . . .
. . . for BOOKs ya fookin’ asshats! The dump looks like a fookin’ ‘urricane as been at ‘er! As long as you keep leavin’ BOOKS layin’ around in piles all willy-nilly like, I’ll be nippin’ in to rearrange your fookin’ stacks as I see fit. If ya read ’em, ya might not treat ’em…
“Security Guards” …?
I don’t know why you hire a security guard when they’re not going to do their job. While shopping there tonight I saw two young teenagers walking around the store with filthy bikes, and nothing was being done about it!! Since when are you allowed to ever bring a bike into a store/mall let alone…
Let Us Hail Our DFO Overlords
You carry a sign that tells us that a $2 million snow crab license was “ignored” by the DFO office because of “political influence”. That’s it? No website? No contact info? No info on who in the DFO people can bitch to? Just a man and his sign hanging out on street corners. I call…
Neither of us Bite
I hope someday you pull over and say Hi. —Not Usually Shy
North End Crooner…
Sometimes in the North End there’s this fucker with a karaoke machine who decides to grace us all with his voice. When he decides to “entertain” the neighborhood he sounds like a dying moose or, at the very least, somebody with rocks in their mouth. You can’t sing buddy so shut the fuck up!!!! We…
Anti-Social Bike Buddies
Hey you. Yeah. All you Harley riders. Stop being so anti-social. Riding motorcycles is a fraternity and a brotherhood. Not an elitist snobby ivy league cult. I ride a Supersport R6. It is my bike of choice. I like it because it looks nice, handles great, and has lots of power. I’m sure you like…
Will a new convention centre hotel kill the Halifax hotel market?
Say what you will about the Save the View group, which was formed in opposition to the proposed convention centre in Halifax, but there’s no denying that they are dogged, and determined to bring real analysis to figures that are seemingly randomly generated by Trade Centre Limited and other pro-convention centre groups. Today, Save the…
5 Questions With Ann Denny
rescue me Delightful local musician/comedienne Ann Denny/Anna Danova makes the leap to the Plutonium Playhouse starting tomorrow with her band, the Rescuers, in the Fringe show Emotional Condom. The show features Danova’s original music (including the title song.) We asked her a bunch of questions about it, and she graciously replied between rehearsals via email.…
Off-campus living: A Primer
LANDLORDS AND RENTAL ISSUES One of the joys of university can be living on your own, but if you sign a lease without asking questions, it might be a very long year. “You need to read that lease,” says Lori Errington, a spokesperson for Service Nova Scotia. SNS is the provincial department under which the Residential…
International Relations
For the student suffering acute big-wide-world curiousity, a passport is the most useful tool to carry into this school year. Earth Sciences your thing? Why not travel to the Bering Sea to study its subduction zones? Want to know more about living under communism in Latin America? There’s a Cuba program for that. Still not…
Halifax Caught in the Web
Acadian Bus Lines acadianbus.com Alcoholics Anonymous aahalifax.org Bin Doctor bindoctor.com Clean Nova Scotia clean.ns.ca The Coast thecoast.ca Crime Stoppers <a href=http://www.halifax.ca/police/crcp/crimestoppers.html Dalhousie Student Union dsu.ca Ecology Action Centre ecologyaction.ca Environment Canada Weather weatheroffice.gc.ca Responsible Gambling Resource Centre rgrc.ns.ca Feed Nova Scotia feednovascotia.ca Halifax Match tinyurl.com/halifaxmatch Halifax Public Libraries halifaxpubliclibraries.ca Halifax Stanfield International Airport hiaa.ca Halifax…
Meat Curtains/Pompoir
A split between two bands taking their names from semi-gross sexual references, Halifax’s Meat Curtains and Vancouver’s Pompoir, this tape keeps the lyrics and sound dirty with sludgy punk rock. The Meat Curtains side features grungy guitars with a post-punk ethos. “Dream Pig” has all the brashness of Hole’s first album, and the scratchy vocals…
How to be Halifamous
Haliwood celebrities are your baristas by day, musicians by night. Due to an overwhelming urge to celebrate our community, Haligonians crown any talented about-town figure “Halifamous”, unnecessarily defined by Urban Dictionary as “a person who is considered famous within Halifax.” Plenty of the Halifamous aren’t even from here. If you’re creative but lack the posse,…
Chinese puzzle
China’s not known as green, but a Canadian expert on Chinese renewable energy says we should watch and learn. It seemed safe to say China has a bad reputation on environment. It has 20 of the world’s most polluted cities. It’s crowded. There was an 11-day traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway. Eleven days! (And…
Watching You Think
The Mideastern beauty who is Leonard Cohen’s companion steps forward. Cohen helps out with production and illustration. Her singing style is somewhat talky, dramatic in the manner of early Springsteen. The songs are all her own, save “Romeo and Juliet” by Mark Knopfler. Mixed clearly above her band, Neema is not above adapting nursery rhymes.…
Like Superman, he wears tights
Q I love women. I love the way they look, I love the way they move, I love the way they sound. I like to see them naked. But the idea of actually interacting with women—trying to engage them in intelligent conversation without coming off as absolutely leotarded—absolutely fucking terrifies me. I’m a virgin at…
Blood Like Lemonade
Original vocalist Skye Edwards rejoins the Godfrey brothers (Paul providing beats and turntablism, Ross playing trippy, soulful riffs) for Morcheeba’s seventh proper studio album. Edwards is still a sleepyheaded singer and the Godfreys don’t want to disturb her. Their playing sounds like an attempt to remember a dream. Often they haunt these songs and it…
Making a Rotten Bet
When Don Connolly sat down last Wednesday to play on-air poker with NS Finance Minister Graham Steele, the veteran CBC Information Morning host was holding a royal flush. That winning hand had been dealt to him two days earlier by gambling expert John McMullan. The Saint Mary’s prof told Connolly that the real reason provincial…
Middle of Nowhere
“Virtue is its own punishment,” says Anton Yelchin’s Dorian. He’s an enterprising pot dealer who reels in his waterpark co-worker Grace (Eva Amurri) into being his driver, promising big bucks. She needs 12 grand to go to university in the fall and get out of the credit hole her free-spending mother, Rhonda (Susan Sarandon, also…
The Modern Men keep it real
“It’s been a time of birthing, so we’ve been birthing CDs and we’ve been birthing babies,” says Seth Bernstein, one of the three men that make up synth-pop group The Modern Men, when asked what he and his bandmates have been focusing on the past few years. Fionn Chin-Yee and Seth’s brother, Jonah, make up…
Get Outta Town!
Herring Cove If you’re looking for a rural area without getting too far out of the city, the 20 Herring Cove bus will take you from downtown to just far enough to feel like you’re on the coast, but can still get home for dinner. Get off by the end of the line and walk…
Cemetery Junction
Perhaps the biggest problem with Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais’ lukewarm 1970s coming-of-age tale is the anticipation of satirical bite. After all, this is the team reponsible for The Office and Extras. But the only teeth in the screenplay is given to Gervais, underused as a crusty father with a lifetime of factory work behind…
College comedies
A Chump At Oxford (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, 1940) The classic comedy duo play a couple of deadbeat ninnies so down-and-out they resort to temping as street cleaners. Fortuitously, they foil a bank robber by neglecting to pick up banana peel. The grateful banker then fulfills their dreams of getting an education, but before they…
Harder, better, faster, stronger
It’s time to face it: We’re never going to see the day when French DJ duo Daft Punk flies around the world to land in Halifax. Luckily, Humber musicians Michael Carrillo (drums), Liam Morin (bass), Michael Eckert (guitar/funktronics), Matthew Giffin (keyboards), Nevin Dunn (tenor sax/EWI), La-Nai Gabriel (alto sax/vocals), James Ervin (robot/trumpet/tambourine/EWI), Joanna Mohammed (vocals)…
Rock Island Bistro is all new
It was once a place that offered a variation on Caribbean cuisine, but since a change in management (which Shoptalk reported on earlier this summer) much has changed at the Rock Island (6293 Quinpool Road, 406-4387). “The restaurant is no longer a Bermuda restaurant but serves Canadian and international food in a casual atmosphere with…
Sweet Tooth Vol. 1: Out of the Woods
Gus is a young boy with deer ears and antlers. He’s a hybrid—a child born with animal features after a great plague killed most of humanity. When Gus’ father dies, Gus ventures out into the world in search of a fabled haven for hybrids called “The Preserve.” What makes Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods…
Dating wisdom
“Don’t go after the first opportunity that’s given to you…Or how ‘bout, don’t be so naïve about everything, about guys who are trying to mislead you. Don’t be easily persuaded.” Sarah Delaney Mount Saint Vincent University, 3rd year Arts “I would say don’t go after the athletes and if you go to a small university…
Layering on the Urban Sprawl
New Brunswick artist Jack Bishop is back at Gallery Page and Strange for his second solo show, and his paintings are just as gorgeous and haunting as the first. Bishop continues to play with the theme of consumerism, this time painting landscapes of business parks and sprawled areas that you’d likely recognize from your own…
Prank Town
Now kids, college is not all about schtupping and perfecting your recipes for bathtub gin. When you arrive at your noble institution this year and start unfurling your Bob Marley and Magic Eye posters, don’t forget the third and crucial element that makes up your university experience: a good ol’ fashioned pranking. Our universities aren’t…
Swimming Ginger
In this suite of narrative poems published by Goose Lane, award-winning British Columbia poet Gary Geddes adds a dimension (of voice) to the Qingming Shanghe Tu scroll, an expansive and highly detailed 12th-century painting thought to be produced by Zhang Zeduan of Bianliang. The painting reproduced over several middle pages in the (8” x 5.5”)…
Where in Halifax to find the famous and Halifamous
The Wooden Monkey 1707 Grafton Street, 444-3844 A former resident of the north end of Halifax, Inception star Elliot Page has gone on record as being a fan of the Monkey’s organic and local fare, with dishes for vegetarians and carnivores alike. (He also likes Heartwood and the the Trident on Hollis Street.) FRED. Beauty…
Location is Everything
Trailer Park Boys For seven seasons a crew followed those dope-addled boys (and girls) around Dartmouth, making fans of the show unofficial regional topographers. But if you didn’t know, for seasons five, six and seven, the Sunnyvale Trailer Park set was behind the fences at the Halifax County Regional Rehabilitation Centre on Bissett Road, just…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
VIRGO(August 23 – September 22) (August 23-September 22) I’ve been playing with a fun hypothesis lately: that absolutely everyone in the world has the power to heal someone else. At one end of the spectrum are the doctors and shamans and therapists who can summon the means to cure lots of people. At the other…
Hip-hop games
This year has featured the slow revival of Halifax’s historic hip-hop tradition, in a city that has known the likes of Skratch Bastid, Classified, Ghettosocks, Josh Martinez, Sixtoo and Buck 65. The problem is getting big often means leaving, leaving the scene to pick up the pieces. The DJ Olympics and Hopscotch Festival are going…
Dorm Room Recipes
It’s an unfortunate fact that many a university student has a diet that is basically a salty, flash-frozen echo of a Jim Gaffigan Hot Pocket joke. The dorms at Dalhousie, St. Mary’s and Mount Saint Vincent all deem the presence of heating element strictly verboten, meaning the only cooking appliances allowed in dorm rooms are…
Halifax Mixtape
How many bands can come from a single town in 20 years? A thousand? Seems like a low estimate, somehow. This storied burg has a musical history deep enough to drive a ferry through every half-hour—about the amount of time it takes for some kids on Agricola to put up a new Bandcamp page. Because…
Sunny Summer
On Friday afternoons, there is a scrappy little farmers’ market—only seven or eight booths—tucked into a lot at the end of the downtown-style rows of boutique stores at Dartmouth Crossing. Far from the shadows of towering mega-mart signs and football field sized box stores, small tents filled with seasonal fruits and vegetables, fresh sausages, local…
Organic Meet
Residence Your tiny dorm room can serve a multitude of uses. I’ve known students who’ve held seances, brewed vodka from old potatoes, recorded albums, shot short films, launched opera-singing careers and made sun-dried tomatoes all from their dorm rooms. If your room is an inviting hub of activity, potential lovers will be more likely to…
The Student Body
Devin, a recent Dalhousie graduate, sometimes earns over $1,000 in a single day. She vacations in Europe, has a house cleaner and enjoys frequent shopping sprees at Betsey Johnson. The key to this psychology major’s uncharacteristic financial security? Sex work and lots of it. Like it or not, plenty of students find the best way…
Contemporary Verse 2‘s Travelling 35th anniversary bash
Quarterly magazine Contemporary Verse 2 is celebrating its 35th anniversary with a coast-to-coast tour, and it’s pulling up to the Halifax stop Sunday for an evening of readings from local poets Matt Robinson, Jeanette Lynes, Miki Fukuda and Sue Goyette. “I jumped at the chance,” says Robinson, explaining that CV2 contacted him as a former…
Firefighter Blair Cromwell fired
The city has fired Blair Cromwell, a firefighter who is part of a human rights complaint against the city. The human rights complaint alleges racial discrimination, while the city fired Cromwell for insubordination. Cromwell has been a firefighter with the city since 1988, and has been battling what he calls racist attitudes among management for…
Halifax After Dark
MONDAY Monday is the night to head out with your ladies and get that martini craving filled. Hit The Fireside (1500 Brunswick Street, 423-5995) for $5 martinis, or head over to The Bitter End (1572 Argyle Street, 425-3039) where you can enjoy one for $6.25. Both classy venues have such an array of mixes to…
Bus hell hits Halifax
Growing pains are hitting Metro Transit hard this week. Thanks to the recent opening of the new Ragged Lake Transit Centre—a bus barn that expands service capabilities beyond the old barn in Burnside—Metro Transit has been able to bring 15 new 60-foot low floor articulated buses on line, while retiring five of the old ones.…
The American is subtle but satisfying
One’s enjoyment of The American depends on one’s feelings about George Clooney. Director Anton Corbijn is clearly a fan, having placed almost the entire weight of his movie on the actor’s immaculately dressed shoulders. Clooney plays a professional killer hiding out in small-town Italy following the tragic conclusion of his previous job. He divides his…
Public Publication EP
Rich Aucoin aims to destroy dance music’s greatest irony: that its communal audience experience is built on songs often recorded in isolation by studio auteurs. In contrast, over 500 musicians from across Canada contributed to this EP—a companion piece to his forthcoming full-length—and you can hear their weight behind every electro beat and singalong. The…
Meet Learn Run
During frosh week you can douse your body in flour and egg yolk, drink enough beers until you ride your bike home but find out in the morning you actually rode a goat, or get a ticket for jaywalking. During such a majestic week of wonder when anything seems possible, one might develop the sense…
Know what you missed this summer
THE QUEEN One of the biggest events of summer 2010 to rouse people’s interest (at least on a superficial level) was Queen Elizabeth’s visit to our fair little port city. Whether folks were excited about her arrival, annoyed at the pomp surrounding her short visit and the resulting traffic delays or decidedly indifferent to her…
Year of the Carnivore
Forget that this record is a soundtrack because it isn’t—at least not in the traditional sense (ie glorified mixes of classic rock or otherwise well-trodden material). The lone pre-released track is Buck 65’s “Girls with Boyfriends,” which can only be found on an obscure tour compilation that sold out a few years ago. But that…
Kick Procrastination’s Ass — right after you’ve read these tips
OK, I’ll admit it: I’m a procrastinator. When I’ve got work to do, I like nothing more than imagining its potential brilliance in my mind for days on end. Of course, by the time I actually have to sit down and get something done, I’m not only strapped for time (having left everything to the…
On the Fringe
The Fringe Festival descends this week, and while the plays you choose to see can be a coin’s toss away from confusing or brilliant there’s no need to take chances with your meal and drink choices. Keep yourself well-fed by checking out one of these four places, all surrounding the festival’s venues. –Holly Gordon The…
Freaks and geeks: How to find your peeps
Skaters According to knowledgeable Pro Skateboards sales associate Nick Hanlon, skaters hang out at the skate park (the Halifax Common). It’s a concrete jungle gym for those who associate their feet with rolling and their elbows, knees and faces with bloody gashes. When casts and scabs call for some local anesthetic, suggest to your new…
The truth about your T.A.
The first time I saw someone actually write down something I said in class, I nearly laughed out loud. “No no no,” I wanted to say, watching a student dutifully record something I’d spit out unthinkingly from my post at the front of the room, “I’m just your T.A. I don’t actually KNOW anything.” Which,…
The big C on small stages
It’s often said that cancer touches all of us, so it’s not surprising that two plays at this year’s Atlantic Fringe Festival, Ed’s Story: The Dragon Chronicles and Vanishing Twins, centre on the disease. Both works make use of the inspiring, healing and teaching power of theatre to explore the effects of cancer on the…
Aucoin’s thrill ride
“Oh man, can you hear them screaming in the background?” It seems fitting that when I reach Rich Aucoin by phone, the day before a show in Toronto, he’s waiting in line for the Behemoth rollercoaster at Canada’s Wonderland. “Pretty much every time I’m playing a show that’s somewhere close to an amusement park, I…
Outstanding in Their Fieldwork
Glen Hougan Design, NSCAD “I’m not just in making stuff, I’m interested in making stuff happen,” says Hougan, over the phone from Michigan, where he’s both on vacation at a cottage and working with furniture design companies. Hougan has done work with design for senior citizens and is probably best known for his “Empathy Suit,” a…
