Re-do you
After spending a few days eating, drinking and carving out a you-sized dent in the couch doesn’t a Rejuvenation Workshop sound like a good idea? Studio in Essence (1717 Barrington Street, 405-550 invites you to take part in a little post-Holiday body reinvigoration this Sunday (December 30) from 12 until 2pm. Christy Sanford will get…
The disinformed
every year the government releases a volumn of all the social resource programs that are avilable to the public. And every year it is published internally! So how the fuck does that work? The answer is, it doesn’t. How does one get their hands on this vital, and helpful info? The truth can be told…
How come you only deleted me?
We knew each other for years and worked together. Then one day I went to your profile to ask how you’re doing and what do I see? The add-as-friend button by you! Then I looked at your friends list and see that it doesn’t look any shorter and you still had all of our mutual…
Letting your dog piss on people’s garbage?
So I’m driving in Halifax and every garbage day I see people walking their dogs and letting them piss on garbage bags! You stupid idiots, it’s someone’s job to HANDLE THOSE BAGS! Could you just think even a little bit about the city workers who have to do this thankless job? They wear gloves but…
Turn your headlights on it’s dark!
How many times have you driven in Halifax at night and there’s like dozens of cars with daytime running lights on and no taillights! Lots right! You flick yer high beams and they just don’t frigging clue in! Next time you get in your car and it’s dark TURN ON YOUR LIGHTS MAKE IT A…
Bleaching the bathroom
There’s little I hate more than cleaning the bathroom. It’s a haven for dust, mold, splatters from washing hands and brushing teeth, and the steam from mine (even with a fan) adds to the trouble! The dust and mold really get to me, as it’s a never ending battle and the mold requires stronger cleaning…
Stop wasting our tax dollars!
Why did the province outbid a private developer for the Bloomfield school 2 to 1? 15 million dollars for an abandoned school on Agricola? 15 million taxpayer dollars? When the NSHDC submitted a shoddy application scored at 22/50 points and the best private bid had 44/50? Why is the province competing with private business with…
The cause
I love pretty much all of the awesome smelly stuff at a certain store. While shopping there today I was presented with a comment postcard I could sign in protest of Canada Goose’s fur usage. I have since read more information from its website. I am concerned because the post cards presented in the store…
Billie Dre & The Poor Boys are so darned Christmassy
Jeff Miller directed this little Christmas miracle from Billie Dre & The Poor Boys, have a peek and get into the holiday spirit. Related Stories
Memories
While we were all away one weekend, my very good friend asked me to go for a walk and cautioned me about you and our relationship. She raised many questions but my only answer was “some people make your laugh a little louder, your smile a little brighter and your life a little better. They’re…
Bitch mama who rules her world of two
How lovely that you treat your “house husband” with your hysterical screams and outrageous, anal demands. He looks like he wants to take a gun to his head because of your non-stop bile. And grabbing a cigarette out of your teenage daughter’s (late teens) mouth in front of her friends. When you were her age,…
Crossing on Spring Garden
To the git with the round lenses who decided to cross against a flashing hand on Spring Garden about 5:30pm, last Friday: You have no business being in charge of two young children. You stopped for a second when the hand started to flash and when I tried to turn right on my green, you…
Ditch Christmas
OK, it’s time we did the right thing in this so-called multicultural society. Have a truly multicultural festival. Let’s get the Christians to admit it, Christmas as we practice it is NOT christian at all. So enough with the Jesus is the reason for the season shit. He’s not! It’s corporate America that is responsible.…
Merry Christmas twat in the hat
You’re a miserable asshole with a side order of sociopath. You know it and now she realizes it too. Congrats on being a prick. —Don’t Worry, I’ll Take Care of Her
Jailed fathers
I get a fucking kick out of these so-called fathers going to jail with a crime history that expands beyond belief either from killing someone or drugs. Then they have enough fucking nerve to tell the judge that please take it easy on me…I have children. What fucking child in their right mind would want…
Come on drivers
The road would be a better place if you just gave each other more space! No wonder so many collisions, every one is glued to each other bumper to bumper at every speed. Passing and changing lanes without signalling, and driving to the point of cutting each other off! Where did you get your licence…
You always said it was small
Maybe your dick would be bigger if 3/4 of it wasn’t your personality. Confused dumbass? I could spend hours explaining it to you, or I could make life easy and just raise my finger and move on. —I Lied, it Really Is
Learn to use the thermostat
WTF is your problem, woman? When you are cold, you crank the thermostat. When you are hot, you turn it completely off. If it breaks, I think I will replace it with a $2 switch. —Hot or Not
Christmas concert
I totally get it, your kid is on stage and you want to get a good picture. But, standing in the centre aisle for the entire set of songs is just plain ignorant. Five parents get wonderful footage, 40 parents behind them get beautiful pictures of the back of their heads I should have yelled…
Pull over!
Dear asshole on the mag, the next time you POS car breaks down, pull completely to the side of the road before your vehicle stops rolling. By staying in the lane, you backed up the highway all the way back to Sackville. Better yet, that tiny POS car would have been easy enough to push…
Ex-gf
So, you block me from everything and then send me an email at random from your work… a sign of friendship? Did you want me to see your fancy new work e-mail signature? What? It’s not like I am chasing after you or trying to keep in contact, so why keep sending me messages every…
Think of the child
It’s been almost two years since you left. We have a child. It is not any of my family or your family’s business and they should stay out of it. You say with the rhetorical crap in emails “as the primary caregiver…blah blah blah.” Well, I would like to mention that one, you are self-appointed…
Heartfelt
You hurt me then said things about me that were not true to make me look bad. Now I’m alone, very lonely and don’t know where to turn. I keep going back to you because I love you and lord knows I want you terribly, I have since the first second I saw you. Everyone…
Bye-bye Applebee’s
Neighbourhood bar and grill Applebee’s (278 Lacewood Drive) will close its doors for good this week. The family-friendly, chain resto nestled within the growing Clayton Park Shopping Centre will serve its last meals on Sunday, December 23. Applebee’s general manager Curt Stephens says he is unaware of the reasoning behind the closure.
I’m sorry
We live in a world where some evil “person” or “persons” for lack of a vile enough word entered an elementary school days before Christmas and murdered 9 adults and 18 children. I’m holding my babies extra tight today and I hope you’re all holding the ones you love close too. The world can be…
Blond woman on Spring Garden Road
You were walking with a man down the street. You were in a red coat with the sexiest dress and high heel boots. The dress clung to your curves and I had to stop. You ducked into a coffee shop laughing. Thanks for giving me a smile and knowing why I love a woman’s body.…
Where are my REAL writers at?
I firmly do not believe that just because you are a TV personality or celebrity in the community you should have the right to artistic merit—when so many have to claw their way into the industry through slush piles, and patiently act as yes men/women to editors without getting a say most times in their…
Stop the bitching already
Don’t ever mistake my calmness for acceptance and my kindness for weakness. A real woman avoids drama, she knows her time is precious and she’s not wasting it on unimportant people or things. Let this be a lesson for when you grow up. —Tired and Bored
26 days
It’s almost been a month since we have seen or spoken to each other. I hate this. I don’t know how to fix this. I don’t know what to feel. It’s hard to believe that you don’t care enough to try. —B.Blue
You’re hopeless
You should be concerned with being good at what you’re being trained to do, not with being better at it than other people. I’ve helped you when you were struggling with certain subjects, and then you’ve turned around and lied to me about what we needed for other assignments because you hate that I’m smarter…
Are you happy or are you just existing?
It does hurt, because it did matter. The door will always be open, if you can find it again. If you can’t, happy trails my friend, my enemy, my love. —Remembering the Love, Surviving the Pain
I’m an idiot
To the cutest, most beautiful girl I-watched-all-night-but-didn’t-have-the-guts-to-go-up-to-at-the-bar-last-night. You made my night with some of the looks you gave my way and with the ever fun-loving time you seemed to be having all night. I wish I had a chance to do it over again. —The Guy Glued to the Bar
You broke my vagina
This is to the woman who waxed my vagina last week: I hate you. Was that the first time you did that or something? Do you like causing people pain? Despite what people say, I have had my fair share of Brazilian waxes, and they DO NOT have to be painful. You, however, BROKE MY…
A charged interlude
I went in for a light bulb and got your high-watt smile instead. We passed one another three times, the third being outside, in the rain. Were you waiting for a fellow shopper to emerge? I walked on in my rubber boots, carrying my yoga mat, and wishing I could have thought of something more…
Advice
It’s a fact of life that there will always be someone smarter, more successful and better looking than you, but there may be no one dumber. Acting like a bitch only confirms it. —Pitying You
Thanks a lot
Dude, I actually did love you, you know. I hope that someday sinks in. I loved you and your family, and I couldn’t wait to expand it. But you called me names, and you were on my back and you shoved me into a wall, and you choked me out at least three times, and…
Anxiously awaiting your return
I’m still waiting to meet a person on the internet that would treat me with kindness…I regret turning you away that night and I have to live with that decision every day. The odd time I run into you, I’m reminded of how much I do care for you and how great you made me…
Never again
From the time I turned 18 in 1980 I voted NDP provincially and federally, waiting with great anticipation for that different, decent kind of government that I could respect and support to finally be elected. Silly me. —Rube
Biscuit’s golden tickets
Boxing day at Biscuit General Store (1661 Argyle Street, 425-5436) can get a little crazy, in a good way of course. With a selection of clothes, shoes, accessories and quirky little house wares at a whopping 60 percent off, can you blame people for channelling their inner Veruca Salt? Well, this year the Biscuit team…
One good man
I want to thank you endlessly for your limitless compassion and patience. I want to thank you for putting up with me while I lived in that yellow house. You hear me say the same things over and over again, for 10+ years, and still you don’t seem to resent me. I want you to…
A throat punch for you, manager fuckass!
To the dumbass grocery chain: Who is the brainchild that came up with the fantastic idea for putting a sale rack right by the entrance to your store. Really? Right by the door, next to where people get their carts. Jamming up your entrance with old people picking over a bunch of bread looking for…
Surprised at mayor Savage’s poor english
In last week’s issue on page 5, Tim Bousquet quoted Mayor Savage as saying: “We can be involved in doing our jobs if there’s less council meetings.” English is a beautiful language but spoken in this manner, it takes on a crude edge. The verb to be needs to agree with the subject which is…
Dress Maker/Tailor and Dress Designers
Hi all, I am considering having someone make my dress. Can anyone recommend a dressmaker or tailor in the Halifax area who would be good at this? —Laura
Thank you Cecil from Portuguese Cove/Sambro
Just wanted to say how grateful I am to Cecil from Portuguese Cove for rescuing a lone wet hitchhiker. I thank you and so will karma. —Nanci
Trews
The Trews, I love you. That is all. —Trew Love
GB Pixie Girl
It’s funny how it goes sometimes. The people we used to work with knew I had a big ol’ crush on ya back in the day—they even thought I sent you some ‘love’ in The Metro. (Remember when The Metro did that? Copy cats, if you ask me.) Well, it wasn’t me but this time…
Greedy taste testers
OK, so I understand the importance of “taste testing” let’s people try a new product, helps boost sales, et cetera. However when I go into a store it disgusting and annoying, the length people go to get a sample—crowding the table, blocking the aisle, and some aren’t even shopping…you know who you are. You come…
Halifax is Burning’s top 12 local jams
Halifax is Burning’s Trevor Murphy (listen Tuesdays 6:30-7:30pm on CKDU 88.1FM) is a voracious local music fan and wants only to share his best of 2012 list (with playlist!) with you. Have a click and a read as he breaks it down, Twitter-style. 1) Jennah Barry, Young Men: Amazing debut album from a soon-to-be star,…
Bloomfield redevelopment plan approved
A redevelopment plan for the former Bloomfield School site was approved by Halifax council Tuesday, but not without considerable controversy. The school was closed in 1988, and in the following years the city mostly ignored the property. But a number of non-profit and community groups leased space in the three buildings on the site, and…
Off the grid: Nova Scotians power down
Two years ago, Phillip Vannini moved from the hustle-bustle city to out-of-the-way Gabriola Island on the left coast. It was his first exposure to the vagaries of well water, and it fostered in him an appreciation of the precious source of all life. “I wondered what it was like to be self-sufficient on all resources,”…
Halifax is a solar city
Halifax council Tuesday approved the Solar City program, which means that up to 1,000 houses will be equipped with solar water heating systems in HRM. Solar City was the brainchild of Richard MacLellan, the city’s manager of sustainability, who realized that Halifax wasn’t meeting its potential for using solar energy, in part because regular people…
Mailbag December 13 2012
City to-do Do you not think staff organized it this way to ensure new councillors and the mayor were not overwhelmed their first couple of meetings (“Do-nothing council,” Reality Bites by Tim Bousquet, December 6)? Last year they were all seasoned veterans and the chances that we would have a lot of newbies after the…
Do you make New Year’s resolutions?
Help us out and take a quick little survey on New Year’s Resolutions. Results will be shared in our Well Being Guide, out January 17. If you’re quitting smoking, working on your fitness, finding new friends or indifferent to what you’ll do in 2013 —we want you! CLICK HERE.
Make the city’s website accessible
On December 3 the United Nations recognized the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This year’s theme was “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all.” Throughout Halifax, the issues surrounding physical accessibility are becoming more noticeable and measures are being implemented to address them. New building construction follows strict accessibility guidelines…
Goin’ solo
Between playing keyboard for In-Flight Safety, touring with other musicians (Jenn Grant and Kathleen Edwards) and producing, Dan Ledwell doesn’t have a whole lot of time to himself. His debut solo album Two Over Seven came out in 2008 and has had sad-folk lovers pining for a follow-up ever since. “I was supposed to have…
Critics’ picks: music
Adria Young Coast writer since 2012 Adria Young, unofficial president of the imaginary Shotgun Jimmie Fan Club, is counting the days until Jimmie’s next album and *Come Cry with Me* by Daniel Romano. Sloan, Twice Removed Deluxe Edition (sloanmusic.com) By the second album of its career, Sloan achieved indie-rock pop perfection. A reissued vinyl box…
The Nutcracker
I hadn’t been to Symphony Nova Scotia’s The Nutcracker since my now-grown children were small, and I wondered if this production would seem as charming and entertaining without kids in tow. In short the answer is “yes.” Tchaikovsky’s music is gorgeous and it’s a real treat to hear Symphony Nova Scotia play it. While the…
Eye’ll miss you
After gracing one of Barrington Street’s busiest blocks with its presence for 11 years, the Elephant’s Eye Restaurant (1727 Barrington Street, 420-1225) is saying goodbye. The news of the cozy cafe-that-could’s closure came earlier this fall, with rent costs at the root of the problem, but this Friday (December 14) will mark the quaint and quirky…
Critics’ picks: video games
Justin Hartling Coast writer since 2012 Currently has a Wii, Xbox 360, N64, PS2 and a SNES hooked up to one TV and has yet to burn his apartment building down. Assassin’s Creed 3 (Ubisoft) ACIII features everything you know and love about the Assassin’s series. Great parkour elements, inventive ways to kill and highly…
It’s the top 12 of 2012
Oh so many lists. One handy click.
It’s Sex & Dating Survey time
Our annual Sex & Dating Survey is here! We want to know all the juicy details of your love life, sexcapades, kinks and fantasies. But fear not, it’s totally anonymous. Your secrets are safe with us. Click HERE to get it on. And then, if it was good for you, tell your friends.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
At this time of year, won’t you please think of New Zealand’s economy and return to Middle Earth for the first in a trilogy of The Hobbit films, starting with An Unexpected Journey. Flagrantly ripping off Star Wars, Peter Jackson forges a prequel to his previous sword and sorcery Lord of the Rings epics, this…
The streets of Kabul
In 2010, 24-year old NSCAD graduate Hangama Amiri returned to her hometown of Kabul, Afghanistan after 17 years. She spent time with local women, listened to their stories and took these conversations back to Canada. Amiri put these women and their stories to canvas in a project called The Wind-Up Dolls of Kabul—a project that…
Illegal monkey business
If there’s one thing Darwin, the escaped pet monkey in a shearling coat at the Toronto IKEA, taught us this week—besides, dang, I need to up my style game—it’s that some stuff just doesn’t belong up here in the great north. The owner was fined and Darwin is headed for a primate sanctuary, but the…
Critics’ picks: top books
Whitney Moran Coast writer since 2012 Whitney Moran is a serial coffee reheater and editor who enjoys the company of books over most people. A Matter of Life and Death or Something (Douglas & McIntyre) LOCAL By Ben Stephenson “…the rocks and leaves and plants and animals never do anything silly like kill each other…
Season’s readings
For several years, every Christmas Eve my mom and I would try to read as much of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that we could out loud to each other before we inevitably got too tired and quit. There’s a special kind of holiday magic that brews in between the words of stories read aloud that…
White noise
Nova Scotia wine has gained status recently. Our fine sparkling wines and the Tidal Bay appellation white blends have piqued interest countrywide and Gaspereau’s rieslings have impressed writers across Canada. Add to this the recent move towards opening the border to interprovinical shipping, and the industry has the potential to grow to levels never seen…
jane’s on the Gottingen
Keep your eyes on 2053 Gottingen Street. It’s officially home to a new location of jane’s next door, the little sister and current next door neighbour of Jane Wright’s jane’s on the common, which will close up shop in mere weeks. The to-go coffee and snacks shop, which is pretty much identical to its predecessor…
Hitchcock
This tepid biopic by Sacha Gervasi chronicles the pre-production and filming of Psycho, a movie that was controversial in its making (in an era when a cross-dressing serial killer wasn’t your standard protagonist). Anthony Hopkins dons a fat suit and puts on his best jowly pout, remaining a caricature of Alfred Hitchcock. It’s the Mrs.—Helen…
It matters whether a person or a machine hands you a ballot
Yesterday, I had a conversation with someone who said there was a big under-reported problem with our most recent election. This person claimed that there numerous instances of people who voted electronically, but whose ballots weren’t counted. The problem was that if, either online or over the telephone, you cast a ballot for mayor, then…
Butt for the flared base
Q At a dinner party, a straight man put a question to my boyfriend and me. He assumed that we, being gay men, would have an answer for him. We did not, Dan, and so we turn to you. What happens to one if one has to fart while one is wearing a butt plug?…
Deadfall
Deadfall is at heart a B-movie, disguised in the garb of a more A-list cast. It’s hard to summarize the mess of events that tries to pass as a plot: a pair of outlaw siblings from Alabama, Liza (Olivia Wilde) and Addison (Eric Bana), get in a bad car crash after a heist and split…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! SAGITTARIUS (NOVEMBER 22-DECEMBER 21) For the last six decades of his life, Pablo Picasso created art that was adventurous and experimental. He didn’t invent abstract painting, but he was instrumental in popularizing it. And yet in his early years he was a master of realism, and had an impressive ability to capture the…
Critics’ picks: top DVDs, comedy and films
TOP 12 FILMS OF 2012: Jacob Boon Coast writer since 2011 Jacob Boon will sometimes check his email in the theatre during a bad movie. He is not a very nice person. Ruby Sparks (Fox Searchlight) Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris An introverted novelist’s dream girl magically springs to life from the…
Let It Snowed
While there is no shortage of holiday options on your calendar, the weather hasn’t exactly been accommodating so far this winter, and it’s hard to get festive without a few white flakes—a sentiment that vintage-pop maven Meaghan Smith seems to share. “People always say ‘I hate snow’ and ‘why would you name your album It…
