And now for something more refined
Sometimes you get thrown off-schedule by long lines, late starts, transit problems, whatever, and you go for a wild card, or at least a name you recognize. I saw that Page Eight was directed by David Hare—who I temporarily forgot wrote The Reader, my most hated film since Signs, and The Vertical Hour, an overwrought,…
Elliot Brood are Coming
The direwolves of rock in Elliot Brood are coming across the narrow sea to the Seahorse to play a show for you and the realm on Friday November 25 at the Seahorse. Support TBA. The cost is but a paltry 15 of your gold coins. Winter is coming, so don’t tarry. Saddle your horse and…
Inside baseball with Brad Pitt
I really enjoy me a loose ensemble drama-comedy—they mostly come in teen-type films like Empire Records, Can’t Hardly Wait or American Pie, just a lot of promising actors pairing off in interesting combos with low stakes. I enjoy that. Ten Year follows a decent group of 28-year-olds hitting their 10-year high school reunion. It’s a…
Richard Butts joins the old boy network
Richard Butts, the top bureaucrat at Halifax City Hall, previously worked for the city of Toronto. When Halifax council hired him in March, it was widely hoped that his outsider perspective and big city professionalism would help cut through the traditional old boy network that so corrupts local politics, but just six months later Butts…
Where To Play: The Pavilion
Death From Above 1979, Pavilion, 2005 After a summer closure, the Pavilion (5816 Cogswell) will re-open this Friday at 7pm with a show featuring Black Moor, We’re Doomed, Severance and BC’s Ninjaspy. A couple of years ago, the team of volunteers who run the legendary all-ages venue decided to start closing it down in summertime…
More than a Good Fuck
I know this was supposed to be a casual thing, but I’m completely falling for you. You amaze me, inspire me, and make my head spin with your brilliance. Everything is better since I met you not so long ago. You cleaned the mess from my head. I don’t mind if we take our time.…
Name Change
It absolutely enrages me that Gloria McCluskey proposed a name change for HRM! Where does she get the idea that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to change all the stationery, cheques and everything else that has HRM printed on it, is worthwhile? My initial reaction to her: “Please submit your resignation within 24 hours,…
ATTENTION RED TRUCK OWNERS
It seems as though one RED TRUCK in particular doesn’t understand that if you sideswipe a bicyclist who’s riding in the bike lane, you owe it to her to check her pulse. You pull over and see if you just killed someone. Yeah. You had my friend in the hospital for three days. You just…
To my ‘Stewie’
I know you only left a couple of days ago but I miss you so much! As sad as I am to leave Halifax and all the great friends I have here, I can not wait until October to join you in our new home on the little red island. I love you babe! —’Stewie’s’…
Go Buy a Nespresso Machine You Impatient Asshole
To the gentleman who kindly let me know I took far too long to make his double cappuccino at a certain bustling coffee shop this morning: Thank you so much for your “constructive criticism”. I am so very sorry 8 people happened to walk in and order espresso drinks before you got your turn…oh wait…no…
Thoughtless Driver
Today a guy in a white pickup, was exiting the A&W at Bayers Lake, decided to pull out and block the entire driveway so that the traffic coming across the street from the Walmart filled up the intersection, leaving no room for the traffic to turn left onto Bayers Road. To the driver of that…
Matthew
Ring the alarms. We got a man on youlookfiiine. I know, I know, it’s been awhile. Dudes are tough, you know? So, without further ado, let me introduce you to Matthew. I ran down South Park Street after Matthew wanting to take his photograph. Let’s face it—who KNOWS the next time I’ll run into a…
A life-changer
Imagine making a movie that got some wrongfully convicted people out of prison, but not in enough time to fix the movie? That’s what happened to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, whose Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory was finished on August 15. Four days later, the three men they’ve been following for nearly twenty years who’d…
Leone Stars wins TIFF Pitch This competition
Congratulations to Halifax producer Walter Forsyth and directors Ngardy Conteh and Allan Tong for winning the Pitch This at the Toronto International Film Festival competition over five dramatic film ideas. A jury of film professionals listened to a six minute pitch and two minutes of questions and answers before awarding the $10,000 prize to Leone…
Free HPX Show: Stars, Plants & Animals
Stars The Halifax Pop Explosion has announced a free all-ages show with Stars, Plants & Animals, Carmen Townsend and Papermaps on Saturday October 22 beginning at 3pm in Grand Parade Square. Now you can save some of that concert money and spend it on tattoos, tequila and cheeseburgers. Thanks, HPX.
Why?
I was shopping at a popular electronics store in Cole harbour not too long ago and noticed that most of the computers and TVs were playing Transformers cartoons and when I asked why the manager said, “If you don’t like it get out of my store,” so I left and will never be back. Dude…
To My Redheaded Cubicle Neighbour
Thanks for keeping me entertained, talking sense in to me on occasion, making me feel guilty about getting cabs (cause let’s face it, I shouldn’t be getting them like I do), and being an awesome person in general. Keep up the good work and keep up the brownie baking. —The girl on Tip Toes on…
The Very Real Dream You Are
To T, last Saturday has me still smiling while I ring in customers at the grocery store. My face is aching from smiling so much actually, and that is because of you. I remember when we first met at CM, and being on the Dartmouth ferry and just thinking ‘wow…’. And now here we are,…
Grocery Store Kindness
To the sweetest employees ever at my favourite Queen street grocery store thanks again for being so lovely. #1 thanks to the employee who rescued me from my gorgonzola crisis in the deli section- I would have been there all day had you not intervened! And my to the lovely lady who rang through my…
Lazy Ass Roommate
Ok, I’ve been living with you since 2007. You haven’t had a job that whole time, I have to buy your food for you, you yell at me until I put your food in a bowl for you. Damn you even make me clean up your shit too! You leave hair all over the apartment.…
To the awesome mom with dreads on the bus…
To the mom on the #4 on September 12th around 4:30 pm, I just wanted to say you seem like a wonderful mother. You had two little boys around 3 and 6, and were patient, caring and took your time to explain the right way to do things, when they were doing wrong. You didn’t…
Go Home
To the jackass pack of students picking on the rose man at a pub on Spring Garden Road: What the fuck is your problem?? That man had a head injury which makes speech difficult but did you know that he’s AT LEAST as intelligent as all of you put together? He’s a serious chess player.…
Music Unappreciation
To everyone who uses the bus and enjoys listening to music: turn your music the fuck down to a reasonable volume! I should not be able to hear your music coming out of your head phones OVER the music that I am listening to, at a volume that will not make me deaf in 5…
To the Lovely Ladies Of Halifax
Keep on keepin’ on. I’ll continue to admire you from afar. —Nerdboy in the Black Fedora
Beardo Saxamaphonist
I love music. I even love the sax. You ain’t doin’ it, Beardo. Wandering a 10ft square, playing meaningless pentatonic licks, ad infinitum, without respect to key or song, is NOT *playing music*. and tacking on the same diminished arpeggio every 4 minutes isn’t “Jazzy”. You get ignored by the people who walk by because…
Full Moon Tonight!
And… I will be thinking of you! Baby I miss you… you know the rest! —Saltea
How Are You Still Alive?
To the ignorant bitch I had the pleasure of driving behind this morning: putting on your left turn signal seconds before our light turned green was rude enough, but whatever, I’ll deal. What I DO have a problem with is the fact that you drove straight through this intersection with your blinker still on, rather…
Tedium Personified
The councillors are debating such earth shattering matters as; code of conduct, dog by-laws and my favourite, put forth by Gloria, renaming HRM to possibly Greater Halifax. These folks make $76,000 and the current owner of the fancy chain makes $146,000. I think there are issues of far greater importance to the taxpayers than this.…
Jess
Jess. What can I say? How could I have walked past this gal without snapping her photograph? Jess is a musical theatre enthusiast and barista at Steve-o-Reno’s. I caught her after she got off what she described as a “bad shift.” Been there. I was intrigued with her style, asked if I could take her…
Billy Boyd and Kristin Kreuk to attend AFF
Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy, an adaptation of “The Undefeated”, one of the stories in Welsh’s Ecstasy, Three Tales of Chemical Romance, screens at the AFF at Park Lane 7, 9:25pm on Sunday, September 18. It’s being tipped as a sequel to Trainspotting, which may be a bit misleading, but in spirit it certainly swims in the…
Greta Gerwig + Jennifer Westfeldt FTW
Whit Stillman hasn’t made a movie since 1998—The Last Days of Disco with Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny—which I was able to see at Empire Bedford, that’s how long ago. He’s back now with Damsels in Distress, a quirky, mannered comedy about a quartet of girls (led by Greta Gerwig, The Future of American Acting…
Billion dollar Bayers Road/102 project will destroy Halifax transit forever
The widening of Bayers Road is not just a bad idea, it’s a horrific idea. Quite literally, if the Bayers Road/102 widening project moves forward, it will utterly destroy any hope that HRM will ever have an effective transit system. It will cost us about a billion dollars for construction, then untold billions more to…
Girl Talk Moves to the Forum
The Girl Talk frosh concert scheduled for this Thursday was originally supposed to be held at Alderney Landing, but it’s been moved to the Halifax Forum Multipurpose Room (2901 Windsor). So all you froshies can get nice and shweaty now. Doors are at 9pm and the show begins at 10pm. Facebook tells me Girl Talk…
I Just Called to Say
I love you. That’s all there is to it. I can’t wait for the day that you give me the chance to tell you. —I Miss the Hell Out of You
Common Decency
When I go out for a drink I want to be able to enjoy myself. Dear servers and bartenders at a cutlery joint on barrington: Dont talk so loudly about your issues. It ruins my attempt to relax when I hear about all your “boyfriend” issues or rather “happy lack of one”. —Need a Vacation
1434 from Me to You
In spite of the many kilometers that lie between you and I, you never cease to find ways to remind me just how much it’s possible to love another human being. This new pretty city is missing a quintessential aspect – namely, you. From three provinces away you still manage to make my snowglobe smile…
Indecisive Crosswalkers
Whenever I am approaching a crosswalk in my car and I notice that there is a pedestrian on the sidewalk close to the crosswalk I slow down and pay close attention to them. Because many times they will appear to have no intention of crossing the street, but then at the very last second, when…
It was Sept 11, 2001…
…I boarded the ferry in Dartmouth headed for, what on that day, seemed like a pointless job. I moved to the top level hoping to take in the view and appreciate that I still had a view TO appreciate. You were sitting alone. Your head was down, and I could see and hear the tears…
The Halifax Harbour Security Barrier
The government paid a lot of money to have the security net/barrier in the Halifax Harbour for around the military boats made. Yet it is always open? Not being utilized. Perhaps the government needs to take a look at how it is spending tax payers dollars….AGAIN! —Why Waste Money on Pretend Security?
Sick of the Stank
To the lovely couple I share an apartment with. You two have sex fairly often and I’ve heard you many times. That’s not the issue-you’re both pitching in on the rent and you do it in your room with the door shut. You have every right to have sex whenever you want. But after you…
Come Back Again?
You came to visit me for the weekend, and although nothing “happened” I still had an awesome time. I love that fact that you came all the way to Halifax to see me and I hope I don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving (or Christmas) to see you again. I wish I wasn’t so shy…
Thanks for Bein’ Friendly
You were two university students carrying a fridge down the street, we were 4 14-year-olds eating candy and waiting for a bus. Thanks for chatting with us and enjoy Halifax. —Junior High Kids with Nothing to Do
Tax Dollars at Work
A special fuck you to the program that’s supposed to take my kids sailing for free. They only get to go twice a year, it was a beautiful weekend yet you only took them out a total of three hours. You guys are pathetic. —Putting My Kids in Karate
To My Everluvin’ Hub-Unit
We’re celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary today and I just want to tell you that I love you as much as I did the day we hitched at the L’il Purple (now Green) Church on North Street – thank you for being my best friend, great husband and dad and no matter what we have…
All Fired Up
To the people who live above me in Fenwick Towers: I do not enjoy your homophobic chants or your off-key drunken butchery of the Rankin Family’s greatest hits. Please just go back to Cape Breton- people like you are the reason I left! —Former Caper
Dear Kid
Thank you for teaching me so much about myself. Thank you for being with me through the shitty Katima-times, my anxiety, the better Mazatlan times, introducing me to everyone I know, and being a great, understanding lover. If I hadn’t met you last fall I might not be here today. We supported each other through…
Wait a Minute Now
Just want to say to the absolutely ignorant douchebag students I spend my day at my call center job talking to: You too will find as much luck as I have with my honours degree and two majors as I have, don’t ever call me and question my education because I answer the phones, drive…
Customer Service and Patience
I’ve been going to this bar for about 5 years now for karaoke. Tonight we stopped in there after wrestling. After I grabbed the karaoke books and before I could sit down I was asked what I wanted, I said nothing yet. Then the Waitress told me I had to buy something to stay for…
Pink-Haired Woman…
…walking on North Street holding hands with your partner: stuck in slow bridge traffic, I saw the two of you walking along, and it made me wonder how or why you put that pink swath in your pretty white hair and, maybe, it’s just because you wanted to!! Thanks for being a free-thinking, creative woman…
Dessert Anyone?
Dear bartender on Barrington, leave your personal life at home. Or at least tell the truth about your cheating, lying personal life. Stop harassing innocent people or go back to Toronto. *Meow* —Tormented Girl’s Bitchy Friend
In Transition
Honey, we’re in limbo: You moved out of your little apartment downtown, our schedules are as different as can be, and we are both unsure of where we will be this time next year, but I don’t care. I have never been as happy or proud to be with someone as I am right now,…
Sick of Hearing About 9/11
I know this will get a lot of angry replies but seriously – I don’t give a shit about 9/11. Leave it alone. I hate seeing it rehashed year after year after year. “Where were you when it happened?” or “Harper’s thoughts on 9/11”. This shit is retarded. People die. It sucks, and it sucked…
What Goes Around Comes Around
Thanks to the jerks on Robie for ripping mirrors off parked cars, including my own (while I work a 12 hr nightshift at a children’s hospital). Hoping karma comes along to deliver you a nice hard kick in the ass someday. When you’re coming back from downtown, please just try to remember that you are…
Another Smoking Bitch
It just disgusts me when someone who is obviously pregnant comes into the store I work at and asks for cigarettes, I hate selling to them, they are harming their unborn child, and not to mention if they have any other children, I unfortunately have to sell them the cigarettes once I ask for ID…
Living La Vida Loco
Dancer guy, just for the record, I think you are having an affair. I’ve seen you with a short brunette that is not your girlfriend, acting suspiciously. Shame on you! Never in a million years would I have thought that you were a creep who cheats on his girlfriend. There was a time when you…
Terrible Drivers in NS
Would you stop driving on the highway so close to my butt? Just because you own a particular type of vehicle does not mean you are exempt from the MVA so slow the f— down and observe the speed limit. —Want to Go Home Safe
Final Day at The Fringe
The 21st Atlantic Fringe Festival is over, and it went out with music, laughter and dancing at Zuppa’s Karaokalypse. It was a marathon, but well worth it. I managed to take in all the shows, and I was truly blown away by how high the bar has been set. Here’s a brief run-down of what…
Help Me Feel Better About Clayton Park
Pretty annoyed that I can travel the world and go through some pretty risky scenarios and still feel like it’s manageable, but yet when I come home to Halifax (I recently moved back after 10 years away), I’m terrified of the unpredictability of Clayton Park. I’m pissed, I really want to be able to go…
Shitty Situation!
Luvvv so many of you are walking your dogs… but pleeeez pick up the crap… what are you thinking…”it’s not in my backyard”?! —Tired of Shit
Parking Lot Wipeout
Has anyone ever noticed how slippery parking lot paint is when wet?! Or am I the only one who notices?!?! I’m not sure if I am happy no one saw me fall flat on my back in between two cars yesterday or should I be scared that I could have just laid there until someone…
Texting Jerk
Oh, you self-absorbed twit, texting as you drive behind me as we both drive on North Street… my choice was to get where I was going on time and risk that you wouldn’t brake in time, or be stuck going slowly and making sure that speed wouldn’t add the impact of you driving into my…
Fringe – Day 10
With only one show on my schedule for Saturday, I managed to take a bit of rest. But what a show! I’ve started to think of George Dillon as kind of a theatrical surgeon. His acting is that precise. Every move, every gesture, every modulation of his voice is carefully chosen and exactly executed. And…
Binoche!
I’ve always appreciated Todd Solondz—I wouldn’t call myself a fan, exactly, because even I don’t hate people that much—but for a guy who riles up such rage, what he’s doing is always interesting, nothing more so than Palindromes, in which eight different actors, including a dude and Jennifer Jason Leigh, played the lead character. Dark…
That time I thought it was Ryan Gosling but it was Brian Austin Green
Always nice to start your festival with a clusterfuck—Alexander Payne’s much-anticipated George Clooney-starring Oscar bait The Descendants came at a very early-seeming 9am, until it didn’t start until 10am, meaning over 500 people, many with entitlement issues, were furiously Tweeting their outrage and, in the case of the British man next to me, calling his…
A Fringetastic Day 9
The intimate confines of Plutonium Playhouse are gloriously filled by actor Daniel Foley’s rich, mellifluous voice in Tiresias and The Player King. Foley is a classically-trained actor who has created a one-man show that tenuously joins story of Hamlet’s Player King with that of the blind Greek oracle Tiresias. Foley’s Player King is a memorable…
The Devil’s Double delay
When Coast reviewer Matthew Ritchie headed out to Bayers Lake this afternoon to see the new film The Devil’s Double, the film never started. Empire Bayers Lake employees informed him that it could take until Monday for the problem to be fixed. So, unless they move The Devil’s Double into another cinema, if you were…
Elephant & Castle closes its doors
The Feed has learned that due to a rent-owing situation with its landlord, the Elephant & Castle (5171 George Street) has closed its doors. Though word is the principles are negotiating (read: lawyers) the pub is closed until the situation is resolved.
Baby… Meet Me at the Beach!
I’m back!!! And I miss you and I can’t wait to see you again… it has been so long, too long! I love you, I miss you, I need you! —The Salty Air Awaits Us
Pretty Little Thing on the 41
I wasn’t having a great morning today – it was cloudy, rainy, I woke up late, I got my son to school late (by only five minutes, but still felt douchey about it) suffered through a slow traffic snarled cab ride to the bridge… ugh. So there I am on the 41, on my way…
Double Standards
I am a non smoker but this whole idea that a restaurant patron cannot have a smoke after dinner with a coffee or digestivo on the patio is utterly ridiculous. In Europe they got it right. Can’t smoke in a park? What! But it is okay to drive a car and idle in traffic? Get…
Sense of Entitlement
A few weeks ago I was working security at a popular spot here in Halifax. I am not one to overexert my authority and I am a strong believer in diplomacy and discretion. That being said, I came to the conclusion that a certain individual not be allowed re-entry into bar x as he was…
GET TO WORK, BITCH
You told me there were a lot of clothes to put away in fashion so you went to get them. I assumed that while I finished cleaning what I was assigned earlier, you would start doing the returns. But no, you decided to stand there fiddling your thumbs. So, when I found you standing next…
Extremely Rude
When I am paying $10 for my lunch, how dare you think it is appropriate to start angrily throwing the toppings on my pita when I *GASP* request two items (green pepper and touch of hummus) that deviate from the “chef inspired” creation you are making me. Then to grab my bank card out of…
Japandroids Come Back to Town
Leigh Righton Japandroids light my fire. Oh hai. In the afterglow of the Halifax Pop Explosion lineup announcement, we damn near forgot to mention that a band from the festival’s past is coming back to the city next week for a fun, hip pootie party. Japandroids return to Halifax for the first time since their…
A Certain Power Company
You are a privately owned entity, of an essential service. You have no competition, and repeatedly cry poor (despite posting record profits year after year) to justify rate increases. How about you stop raising the fucking rates every six months? Young people could use even a faint morsel of hope for their prosperity in Nova…
Ain’t No Flow to Go With
Dear Boss Of The Traffic Signal Programmers, please reinstate the monkeys. They were doing a much better job. —Exhausted
At the Fringe on Day 8
Jean, as written by Lee-Anne Poole and played by Stephanie MacDonald, is adorably forthright and self-aware. As Short Skirt Butch opens, she explains that she has gathered us together to apologize for behaving badly after a recent break-up. She assumes we have heard that she stalked her former lovers, stole their favourite sex toy and…
Day 7 at the Fringe
There was great news on Day 7 for The Fringe—-with four days still left in the festival, the box office had surpassed last year’s total! Kingdom and Fatherland: Homeland Insecurity, the autobiographical show by Pakistani-Norwegian Muslim comedienne (There’s a mouthful for you!) Shabana Rehman, certainly packed them in at The Bus Stop. Rehman is and…
Where To Play: Pro Skates
Chantal Routhier The Graboids at Proskates Skateboarding and good music go together like peas n’ carrots, and the people at Pro Skateboards and Snowboards (6451 Quinpool Road) are proving that the skate shop’s current space is an ideal spot for relaxed, entertaining all-ages shows. After the shop opened at its new location between Subway and…
Palooka’s to close
Shoptalk has learned that Palooka’s Gym (2110 Gottingen Street, 492-4269) will be closing on September 30 and that the owners plan to sell the space.
Bring on the Fall!
I totally love this weather and time of year! Thank you for being so beautiful Halifax! —Jumpin in Leaves
Come Back Soon
Sidney Crosby at 80 – 90% is better than most NHLers playing at 100%. I’m so not a hockey fan but he’s the type of player that made me want to watch – disciplined, committed, clean. Here’s hoping for a full recovery because you are so missed! —A Fan in the Making
El Barman
I’m going to miss dancing at a certain Cuban restaurant. I had such a fabulous summer of exhausting the last of my energy each Friday night dancing until my feet fell off. But most of all I’m going to miss that sweet bartender! With your smile and ponytail… has anyone ever told you that you…
BBE the GED
I am amazed that I seem to have finally found someone with the patience to deal with my mean exterior and chip away at its jaded underlay. Also someone that accepts ALL my weird and creepy quirks and actually enjoys them…. here I thought only my sister was capable of that! Just wanted to let…
Lazy Ass Coworkers
Don’t you just love how a small office has 5 employees. 3 do the work and the other 2 sit there, pick their nose and surf the net all day! Gotta love it! Ugh! —Too Much Work to Do and No Help
Forced Charity??
I recently was asked at a certain grocery store check out if I wanted to make a donation to the charity that they were sponsoring. Sure, I like karma. I found out after I made the small donation, that if the cashier forgets to ask someone to make a donation they get a free item,…
Bed Bugged
When we had asked your office about the claims of bedbugs in your building, you said the issue had been resolved and that there were no further complaints or evidence of bedbugs in the building in the past 6 months. When my boyfriend and I came and signed the lease, again we asked and you…
Extra Happy Ghost!!! haunts
Matthew Swann is sort of used to going at it alone. He usually records at home, without a schedule, on his own time. But for Extra Happy Ghost!!!’s most recent release and first full-length album, it was all about collaboration. Recorded in Chad VanGaalen’s Yoko Ono studios (“It’s like a crazy psychedelic hobbit chalet,” says…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! VIRGO (August 23-September 22) Wheel of Fortune is a TV game show in which players vie to guess a mystery phrase that is revealed letter by letter. On one episode not too long ago, a highly intuitive contestant solved the puzzle even though just one letter had been unveiled. The winning answer was…
The Whistleblower outrages (as it should)
Larysa Kondracki’s picture has all the passion of a first-time feature filmmaker and screenwriter. Based on actual events, it tells the tale of Kathy Bolkovac, a Nebraska law enforcer working for an American military contractor in Bosnia who uncovers sex trafficking rings, implicating many of the men with whom she works. As Bolkovac, Rachel Weisz…
Drinking with Kijiji
Drinking paraphernalia: Twenty-seven-piece double-shot checker set. On Monday, there were no fewer than four of these “shot glasses on checkerboard” games for sale locally. Price: $40 Worth the risk factor: +1 DIY alternative: You can get a checkerboard and shot glasses for five bucks at Goodwill, and avoid dealing with the Kijiji seller/poisoner. Sure, the…
Relentless Attack the Block
One of the most imaginative and energetic spins on the alien invasion genre in years comes from first-time feature director Joe Cornish and a gaggle of mostly unknown young actors. A group of slang-slinging boys in the London ‘hood, led by the charismatic Moses (John Boyega), square off against a posse of blind, gorilla-like aliens…
Borge again
When the brilliant Danish comedian and musician Victor Borge encountered people who were expecting to hear him play a program of classical music, he’d say something along the lines of: If you want to go to a concert, go to a concert, don’t come and see me. “Borge was all about the comedy of surprise,…
Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star is blindingly awful
While jerking off with a few friends to a vintage skin flick that turns out to star his parents, a buck-toothed, poorly-endowed hick with Anton Chigurh hair (Nick Swardson) is inspired to go to Los Angeles and get into the porn business. I am hardly patting myself on the back when I say that the…
Barchaeology
In times past, every bar worthy of the name had some sort of bar artifact —a bartifact—on the premises, a conversation piece, a nod to tradition, an indication that this particular bar is a drinking establishment, a timeless place tied to its unique iconography. Alas, today’s bars have mostly lost the habit, but in hopes…
Warrior cuts emotional chord, cheese
Warrior feels like a glorified commercial for Tapout. But like all good commercials, Warrior strikes an emotional chord, even if elements verge on a Bloodsport level of cheesiness. Two estranged brothers (Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy) are brought back into the world of mixed martial arts when a multi-million dollars championship (surprisingly, hosted by Tapout) is…
Queen Butch
The genesis of Lee-Anne Poole’s fringe offering was actually its catchy title. “Short skirt butch,” says Poole, rolling the words off her tongue. “It seemed like a good beginning, and the story just flowed from there.” Short Skirt Butch is structured as a direct address from Jean (played by Stephanie MacDonald, who also starred in…
Island of Wings
The beginning of Island of Wings may seem like a cross between a Harlequin romance and Hitchcock’s The Birds. However, once over the minor speed bump, readers experience Karin Altenberg’s beautifully raw voice. Her poetic prose describes the Scottish archipelago St. Kilda, a treeless land where natives live communally in thatch-covered tunnels and survive off…
Back from the Fringe of failure
Stewart Legere was blissed out, listening to Fleet Foxes in Steve-O-Reno’s. On his table was a double skim latte and one of those thick oatcakes starving artists eat for fibre. The date on the Chronicle-Herald was April 12, 2011. When he read the news, Legere’s wide smile failed him. Next came a text: Would he…
Outside art
As Halifax gets ready for Hopscotch, visiting artist Aaron Li-Hill disagrees with HRM councillor Linda Mosher that graffiti has no place at the annual hip-hop showcase. “I find it funny she’s saying that,” says Li-Hill. “What’s being painted at the festival is not illegal. Even if it’s in that style.” Toronto-based Li-Hill, one of three…
Dartmouth High School surrounded by construction
Students returning to Dartmouth High School Tuesday found the school to be a construction zone, with a gaping hole in the building, one entrance completely blocked off by a fence and piles of building materials and the other two entrances flanked by machinery and debris. Doug Hadley, a spokesperson for the school district, says the…
Halifax now recycles most plastics
There’s an exciting change coming to a blue bag near you: HRM Recycling now accepts *all* plastic containers in blue bags. No more checking on the bottom of containers for numbers (formerly, HRM accepted only #1 and #2 plastics). The change will make recycling easier and increase the amount of waste diverted from the landfill. Although…
Micah Lexier and Kelly Mark go Head-to-Head
It seems Micah Lexier and Kelly Mark are cut from the same cloth. Over the years the two artists have been drawn to similar materials and processes, have shared similar inspirations, like counting and text, but somehow, had never shared a gallery space. “We both seem to make work that is somewhat related —in some…
Colin
Running through the yellow light on Spring Garden to catch Colin this morning was totally worth it. I’m like a dog chasing after a car when I see a man in a solid pair of cords. Who’s with me? Once I caught my breath and explained why I had stopped him the real fun began!…
Drawing praise
When I ascend the staircase from The Henry House to The Drawing Room on the top floor, I can’t believe this little gem exists. It’s dripping in luxury: the walls are covered in a rich chocolate brown paneling and the room is awash with the glow of candles. Groups sit on leather benches and velvet-covered…
Viva Italia on Agricola
Okay, close your eyes and picture north end Halifax as Italy. You’re drinking a bottle of Chianti, walking the narrow cobblestone streets, the smell of fresh focaccia wafting through the air…alright, so it’s a stretch. This weekend, though, is the closest Halifax gets to being Italy. The annual Italian Weekend (put on by the Italian…
The power of many
In the wake of Jack Layton’s death, our harmful obsession with individualism and saviours can be our undoing. How will the NDP move on from the loss of their charismatic leader?” the pundits ask. “Who will speak for the underdog? The environment?” I’m not worried. No more than usual. I’m sad, mind you. I met…
The Whistleblower and Larysa Kondracki
Eastern Europe isn’t a place that just breeds sick people,” muses Larysa Kondracki. She’s on the phone from Los Angeles, discussing her first feature, The Whistleblower. “There was this sudden collapse, inflation went up and there was this survival of the fittest. You have to sell what you can.” She’s talking about organizations that sell…
Contagion both creepy and remote
Steven Soderbergh’s thriller about a killer virus that spreads death, terror and chaos around the world is chilling in more ways than one. It elicits a spinal shiver, to be sure, to contemplate the fragility of both human bodies and societal structures, and Soderbergh’s economical, frill-free approach to the story makes the escalating panic feel…
Getting off while being the boss
Dear readers: I’m on vacation. The questions and answers in this week’s column are recent installments of the Savage Love Letter of the Day, which folks with the SLAPP —the Savage Love app for iPhone or Android —receive daily via the miracle of modern technology. If you have the SLAPP, you’ve already read these questions and second-guessed…
What’s brewing for fall
You can feel it in the air: after a short summer, all of a sudden fall is upon us. The leaves are turning, pumpkins ripening and the hop fields are ready to be harvested. Summer makes for a busy patio season, when crisp and cold are the main attributes people look for in their beer…
Quaker Parents understand
We’ve had hilarious questions about that, ‘Are you Quakers?'” says Mark Grundy of his band’s name. The name was chosen for its aesthetic value for the Hot Money Monday singles, a series of 52 singles released every week for a year by various artists in the Hot Money Records Collective including The Handcar Race, York…
Snow day
You get the feeling that playwright and actor Michael McPhee might be being modest when he describes the scares in his new horror play Whiteout as “pretty good.” “Oh, there are moments in this play when I feel scared,” says Annie Valentina, one of the five actors in the play. “Not my character,” she adds…
Dawning of The Space Age
After playing together with The Holiday Snaps in the ’90s, Andy Patil and Greg Fry had been itching to collaborate again, but given they were both busy playing in other bands they just had to wait until the time was right. Then Patil retired his post as longtime bassist for Matt Mays and El Torpedo…
Hit play
Quick, use the word “diegetic” in a sentence. Can’t do it? Well, local playwright Rebecca Schneidereit can in a heartbeat. “There are two kinds of music in film,” she explains. “Diegetic and non-diegetic. Non-diegetic sound is sound the audience hears, but the characters don’t, because it takes place outside of the narrative—for instance, sappy, romantic…
Halifax Drum Festival is back with a bang
From 1999 to 2006, the Halifax Drum Festival was a successful event that showcased some of the best drumming, music and dance Nova Scotia has to offer. When the festival’s founder, pianist and percussionist Matthieu Keijser, passed away, a hole was left in the community. Keijser’s friend Chris Kennedy, owner of Goatworks African Drums, decided…
Halifax by night
MONDAY The kind bar owners of Halifax have made it quite easy to drink away your case of the Mondays. While the week looks long, the drinks are fancy, sweet, plentiful and cheap. Take two Advil and then hit this circuit. Start at Mexicali Rosa’s (5472 Spring Garden Road, 422-7672) and sip on a $6…
