Hideaway Pub & Grille closes
John Mihelcic and Hope Francis, owners of 5677 Brenton Place’s The Hideaway Pub & Grille, announced today via Facebook that their cozy, downtown hangout had closed. Citing a “harsh reality of Halifax in the winter” and the “lack of regular patrons” as the main problems the Hideaway faced since opening, it was financial strain that…
Reefer Madness!
Colleen MacIsaac In case you don’t know, the original Reefer Madness was a 1936 propaganda film that preached the evils of marijuana. Its melodramatic story of mayhem, murder and madness—all sparked of course by that dreadful hallucinogenic plant from “the garden of Satan”—spawned a musical satire and a tongue-in-cheek 2005 movie version as well as…
The Atlantic Book Festival’s sweet success
Spring is a great time to find a good book to read and the Atlantic Book Festival— a one-week showcase of emerging Canadian authors—wants to help with that. The festival concludes with the Atlantic Book Awards at Alderney Landing on Thursday, May 16 at 7pm. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the ABA. The story…
Macro marbles
Playing with marbles has never been so much fun. Angela Creaser’s Gathering Colour is a smorgasbord of visual delight. In her first solo exhibition, Creaser manages to capture the glorious beauty of bright, vibrant colour. Using macro and micro lenses, Creaser photographed marbles to expose the intricate curves, bubbles and angles hidden within the objects.…
Inky inspiration
Whether you’ve got the pristine skin of youth contemplating your first permanent art piece, you’re in the process of going full lizard, or maybe you just want to turn your belly button into a cat’s anus—whatever your poison, Adept Tattoo’s 7th annual Maritime Tattoo Festival has inky inspiration up the ying yang. The three day…
Ottoman alive
Sometimes it seems like Halifax is nothing but a series of cached images from the 15 years I’ve lived downtown, and no matter what I see, I can’t refresh and reload. There is clearly a disconnect between my eyeballs and my brain. Orange condos seemingly spring out of nothing but the sudden absence of the…
1313 Music Festival’s improvisation station
No set plans for the long weekend? Maybe you should improvise and head down to the second 1313 Music Festival, a four-day event that celebrates improvisation within music and dance. Held at 1313 Hollis, this festival features musicians and dancers performing together and hosting collaborative workshops throughout the weekend. Dancer, choreographer and artistic director of…
This Sound Will Save You’s emotional rescue
Halifax’s hard-working electro-pop three-piece, This Sound Will Save You, releases its debut album, Let the Light Lead You, at the Carleton on Monday. With multi-instrumentalist Matt Fudge, vocalist/UK-transplant Chloe Jones and Nico Orengo on drums, the album shows off the emotive depth and wealth of feeling that infuses the band. “We wanted a record where…
Bones brigade
“I’m on the fence about ghosts. People say they see them, but they could just be lying,” says CROSSS’ Andy March. “I’ll go out on a limb and say I believe in psychic surgery, something like exorcism, but you know, the real kind, the underworld/subtle-body type.” The high priest at Youth Club Records summons the…
Pop simplicity
It’s sort of the holy grail of new bands—Samuel T. Hill’s songs were making the rounds online when Jessi Frick of San Francisco’s Father/Daughter Records came a-calling. “She asked if it would be cool if she put it out and I said ‘Definitely,'” says Hill, all matter of fact. The former member of Spooky Campers…
Quick hits
Q I have a mentally disabled cousin. He’s lived for more than 40 years in the same nursing home in a small, conservative town. His mental age is about eight, there are other mental-illness issues and he has some physical problems. He is now in his late 60s. He has always enjoyed dressing up as…
Free Will Astrology
Happy Birthday! Taurus (APRIL 20 – MAY 20) You have arrived at the edge of reality. Or rather, to be precise, you have arrived at the edge of what you think of as reality. Here’s where things could get very interesting. Just on the other side of that edge you’re brushing up against, there is…
Laurie The Guy: King of karaoke
There’s an indescribable hum of excitement over the room of karaoke regulars just before the show begins. Like sprinters waiting for the start gun to fire, singers anxiously flip through songbooks—though they already know what they’ll perform—watch a stack of request slips grow at the front of the room, ask for the lights to be…
Letters to the editor, May 16, 2013
font size=”+1″>F for hyperbole Tim Bousquet’s simile comparing Tim Outhit’s tax reform proposal to the horrific, ethnically targeted violence of Idi Amin is distasteful, disgusting and not the least bit clever (“City council report card,” May 9). If it was a swing at humour, Bousquet missed big-time. This is the type of hyperbole that belongs…
The airport bus has made travelling by transit ridiculously easy, and inexpensive.
My alarm goes off at 4:30am. I have to get up—I have an appointment at 5:20am and need to move. Quick shower, some fruit and a cup of coffee, out the door by 4:50am. The streets are dead. Although the sun isn’t up you can tell spring is about to burst. Birdsong fills the early…
MAKENEW ties one on
“Hello, gorgeous specimen”, is what folks will say once your neck is decked out in one of these handmade bow ties from local designer, and second-hand clothing curator extraordinaire, Anna Gilkerson. A part of her newly launched MAKENEW MAN department—boasting both gorgeous vintage materials and top-notch fabrics—the Spring 2013 Bowtie Collection arrived last week, bringing…
Five alive—Happy anniversary, The Carleton
The corner of Prince and Argyle Streets, now home to the The Carleton Music Bar & Grill (1685 Argyle Street, 422-6335), has always been a prime piece of real estate. Halifax’s first governor Sir Richard Bulkeley, a known entertainer, chose this spot to build his mansion. and the doors were officially opened in 1760 to…
