Ballet Slippers aren’t Streetwear
Please stop wearing ballet slippers as outdoor shoes. I know they’re in fashion right now, but get a brain! You’re obviously not a ballerina. You look ridiculous. Besides looking ridiculous, unless you’re supporting your metatarsal arch in each step you take, you are ruining your feet. I doubt you’ll be saying “Hooray for fallen arches!”…
Mugison
MugisonTuesday, May 13, 8:30pm, Cunard CentreChris Smith
Propaganda Brought To You Prime Time
I think it’s interesting and curious police use tax dollars to develop and deliver a television advertisement encouraging the general public to report illegal tobacco activity witnessed in their communities. I’ve NEVER seen such a move to battle crime (in this way) with regard to meth, cocaine, speed nor any other illegal or controlled drug.…
Mr. Perfect
You find a new way to call me stupid everyday. And I guess I am cause I’m still with you. Nobody
You might get what you deserve
To the dumb, DUMB lady on oxford street, crossing at the intersection this morning. Ok, yes, there is a pedestrian crossing signal at that intersection, but JESUS lady, dont hit the button and immediately start to stroll across 4 lanes. youre VERY lucky that i saw you in time, but i was in a big…
Come See, Stay For Tea: Sawadee
Sawadee Tea House (1871 Granville) opened its doors last week. Owners Michel St. Jean and Mie Mie Sein have brought a little taste of South East Asia, India and Australia to Halifax with their extensive selection of loose leaf tea, art and giftware. The couple also operate a small import business MS2 Import Inc. on…
Idiot + Cellphone + car = Almost Dead Motorcycle Rider
To the middle eastern dude pulling out of your cousin’s pizza place on lacewood drive the other day in your black 1993-1995 Honda Civic Coupe, spiked hair and sunglasses worth more than the car: You were on your cell phone, you cut me off while I was driving alone well under the speed limit on…
Top Cut Rises To The Top
Three weeks after an electrical fire spread through the building housing Top Cuts (5688 Spring Garden), the little hair salon that could reopened its doors on May 15 in their new Dresden Market location (1535 Dresden). “We’re right across from Premier Wines & Spirits,” says manager John Campbell. “It’s great. It’s a smaller space that’s…
Live Art in Mocean
Always on their toes, last week Live Art Productions ended their season with Tedd Robinson’s final performance; presented this year’s Diane Moore Scholarship Award to Halifax choreographer and dance teacher Veronique MacKenzie and announced next season’s line-up. Dance fans can look forward to performances by Martin Belanger, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Nova Bhattacharya, Ballet Jorgen Canada,…
The fudge factor
All hell is breaking lose in the commodity markets today, and oil, which started off at $128/barrel this morning, quickly soared past $129, then $130, $131 and now $132. At 3:30pm it’s at $132.50, and there’s still two-and-a-half of trading left. Some economists are saying it will reach $150 in a matter of weeks. And…
Sobey’s in Dartmouth
Although the company won’t confirm, regional councillors are openly speaking about Sobey’s plans in Dartmouth: as owners of Penhorn Mall, they intend to move the nearby grocery store up to the space vacated by Wal-mart, tear down the rest of the mall and rebuild it in big-box fashion—just what we need, more soul-sucking bix boxes…
Dalhousie’s war economy
For better or worse, we’re at war. And while you can argue over the merits of our glorious Afghanistan crusade, there’s no debating that once we’ve gotten into war, a whole lot of military hardware has got to be acquired—the 17 C 130J Super Hercules aircraft that the government has agreed to buy for $1.4…
Sobey long-list
Now an annual event, the Sobey Art Award presents a young Canadian artist (under the age of 40) with a cool $50,000. Moncton artist Mario Doucette will represent the Atlantic region at the Toronto ceremony on October 1, but this year’s long-list includes two local artists, Craig Leonard and Tonia Di Risio. Di Risio is…
Lagwagon? Lagwagon!
The details: September 10. 8pm (and despite the 8pm start time, the show is 19 and over) . The Marquee Club. With MxPx, Only Crime, Tat. $26. Fat Wreck Chords’ Lagwagon are giving it another go. Now, no one really expects a 16+ year old band to look every bit the youthful skateboarding punks that…
Still Adventures
Back in February my buddy T.C. mentioned Strange Adventures might have to pack up shop and move their comic haven elsewhere. The shop’s quaint home at 5262 Sackville Street can stay put, at least for the time being. “The building was sold to a new owner whose current plant is to keep the building as…
Bread bag boneheads
Our building has an annual clean-up of the grounds and pond around it. The one item that we pick up that outnumbers every other cup, can, or piece of garbage, was bread bags. Why would you feed bread to ducks in the first place (they eat bugs and vegetation, not a loaf of bread) and…
Cold as the day I was born
What the hell. I’m setting up to eat a cheeseburger from a local purveyor of frozen goods (the one on the corner of South park and Spring Garden) and lo and behold it isn’t a cheeseburger but the abortion of a piece of meat that might be cat or dog…not sure, slapped between 2 drink…
Karma gods love ice cream
I would really like to lash out and go off on the porn star type, blond haired white trash bitch from the DQ in Bayers Lake…but I won’t, I will laugh my ass off though. The Karma gods must love ice cream! Friday night, 6pm you were making multiple trips in and out of the…
lol-lulemon
I can’t believe the atrocious amount of people who waited to buy these ridiculously priced clothes. Especially if you don’t practice yoga. Have fun seeing the same apparel on hundreds of other people (who waited in line with you). Also: congrats on your originality! ga ga goo goo
cyborgs
I think those bluetooth earphone things are so stupid looking! Everyone looks like a stupid cyborg now. A ranting skitzo cyborg.They don’t look cool and I heard they actually promote fungus growth. I will never go on a date with a cyborg! still human
Young offenders
I saw on the news yesterday that young offenders cannot now be sentenced as adults unless the prosecutor in the case can somehow prove that they should be sentenced as such. Let’s say a young offender commits a crime of sufficient seriousness (let’s say murder). Does a prosecutor have to have proof of adult intent…
The Maynards
The MaynardsSaturday, May 11, 12:35am, at The Seahorse.Robin Hart Hiltz
The Coast has the worst web site!!! & Lets get Local people…not just Indie.
Your site sucks the balls off of a dead hooker. I can never find the listings I want,it takes three years for anything to load…Seriously, are you guys in a 1995 dial-up time warp. What the Fuck? For example, where the fuck are the listings for Hells kitchen this week? Iron Giant?? I had to…
Shame on HRP
Shame on Halifax Regional Police for chasing me down the hall at the IWK emergency with a ticket and summons for my 15 yr old daughter. She was being wheeled to the scaning room to have pictures taken of her injuries. The constable was told to make sure we received the ticket and summons. By…
Letters to the Editor
In the report submitted to Regional Council by staff regarding further concerts on the Common it is written: “…Council need to be satisfied that the duration of disruption is minimized and the disrupted use is returned as quickly as possible. This was done with success during the Rolling Stones Concert by only closing off the…
Letters to the Editor
To whom it may concern, I was leafing through the coast article on the north end pub fire and noticed that the loss of ALL the equipment/cds/merh etc by Terrortomb was a footnote, a by the way sort of thing. Are you insane. I have been criticle of the coast in the past for a…
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editors, This week’s Vimy Ridge ceremonies were ironic. For a battle credited with marking Canada’s “independence” and “birth of a nation”, Monday’s ceremonies had all the hallmarks of colonial rule. They played “God Save the Queen,” a foreign national anthem, both at Vimy and in Ottawa, without “O Canada” next to it. They flew…
Letters to the Editor
In response to Ned Beecher’s letter in support of “biosolids” agricultural land application: Biosolids industry proponent Beecher’s reply to Chris Benjamin’s columns on the dangers of biosolids unsurprisingly neglects to address the subject of bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the soil after successive applications of this dangerous substance. HRM’s current advanced primary level of sewage…
Bridezilla lives!
To The worst BRIDEZILLA this city has ever seen. To start with, you have no Friends, you you ask someone who you have known about a year, and you don”t even Hang-out with that person, to be a bridesmaid. So this unfortunate soul has 2 options, say No thanks. Of course you would flip-out and…
Vincat are out of this world
Coming all the way from Victoria, but sounding like they’re coming from Mars, Vincat are proud to release their brand new outer spaced themed CD, Inner Space at Gus’ Pub on Thursday, May 22 (10pm, with Mardeen, The First Aid Kit, Tarzan Daniel and The Hit List). Not content to just release a single concept…
Be Well, Well Be
In a historic port town the past always seems present. Be Well Spa (2110 Robie Street) found its home in a Queen Anne shingle-style house built in 1898. Originally the location was a doctor’s house, during the Halifax explosion it served as a temporary hospital and over the past few years it’s been a seniors…
The terribly littered urban wilderness next to Dartmouth High.
Remarks: A stroll through the wilderness gives the lie to the notion that today’s youth care about the environment. The high schoolers run over for lunch at the nearby rain-forest-killing fast-food outlets, then toss their wrappers willy-nilly on the ground in the wilderness, even though there are trash cans placed throughout. Every few weeks someone…
American spelling on the sign promoting Citadel High Theatre’s legacy campaign.
Remarks: If the uptake is slow on the legacy fund, perhaps the sign is to blame: Using the American spelling in the url brings you to a dead web page. There’s no excuse, really; even American thespians (a welcome fifth column) use the -re spelling for theatre. One of you students get out there and…
Loomis + Loomis & Toles = DeSerres
Don’t hang up when a customer service consultant greets you –the art supply/crafter in need –with, “thank you for calling DeSerres Halifax, you’ve reached…” thinking you’ve dialled the wrong number. Loomis Art Store (formerly Loomis & Toles) has adopted a new brand image and revamped its identity – DeSerres (1546 Barrington). In honour of their…
More women
I’m relatively new to Halifax (four years), and I’m still learning. Things I learned from two recent conversations: 1) When Sheila Fougere was first elected, in 1999, she was the lone woman on regional council, with 22 other male councillors and a male mayor. 2) The women’s washroom at the Midtown is still a small…
Women
Halifax is stuck in some sort of weird 1940s time loop: Carol Macomber’s human rights complaint against Halifax Regional Municipality covered three areas. According to her complaint, the former senior municipal staffer was discriminated against by her ex-employer when she applied for a director’s post around the time of an organizational shakeup. The restructuring took…
Crosswalk Wars
Scene: Driving down Spring Garden, with two friends, sunny day. There’s quite a bit of traffic, seeing as it’s almost 4pm. Things were moving pretty slowly. I notice a cop on a bike beside me and make a remark about how it’s “cool” then carry on driving. Out of the corner of my eye I…
Walmart
Scott, stop consuming and you wouldn’t need to stand in line. Greedy North American plus size
toto, i don’t think we’re in canada anymore…
i grew up in a house with very strict tv rules, so my crew were the good old kids of degrassi st. the kids were wholesome, yet realistic, and they all reportedly styled themselves before every show, just to add extra authenticity. they tackled issues that real kids were experiencing, and every once in a…
SkateBoarding In Freddy ILLEGAL!!
I was watching the news this morning and saw a story about a man in Fredericton who is going to jail for 5 days due to tickets he got for skateboarding. Skateboarding is apparently illegal in NB according to bi-law and this is the mode of transportation he uses to get to school/work etc. He’s…
Music???
im a local musician, and im so sick of hearing everybody saying that Halifax is where its at in the music dept., we have hardly any venues left at all, and it seems the only people who come to shows are the musicians themselves, come on people come support the industry you seem to be…
hey big spender.
I HATE it when people go on and on about how they have absolutely NO money that they are quote: SO POOR – then go out the the bar, out to eat or buy a new something or other. Seriously people it’s getting so old. No one cares how so-called “poor” you are. Money Nazi
Movie Industry Bitches
Just because a producer/star/starlet just took a bite out of your ass doesn’t mean you should come into my place of work and try to tear a strip off my employees; particularly when you refuse to listen to reason. For the record, Blundstone doesn’t make an 11.5 in the 550. Good luck finding it in…
Sweet or Sweat
<Runners run past me Wafting odors lingering stomach starts to turn Artist 575
Get that thing off me!
k, new rule: If your ass doesn’t fit in the seat beside me, don’t sit there. My thigh may look like a comfortable place to park the result of last weeks Spicy Baconator binge, but seriously lady… thats some nasty shit. And whats worse is you act like you don’t know your sitting on me.…
Live in the Now!
Why is it that people at live events seem to want to stand there with their camera or phone up in the air, trying to photo or film the entire event! What’s wrong with just watching anymore and having your memories! Having spent $75 to go watch Canada play recently, I wanted to be able…
GAS TAX LIES
So I am sure you are all aware of our Premier’s statements on how ALL of the gas tax dollars are spent on road repair, right? Well according to The Canadian Taxpayers Federation only Manitoba and Saskatchewan put all of their gas taxes to the roads. I call on the bumbling Rodney Liar Macdonald to…
Destination: Europe via Halifax
There is something rather mystical about wandering down winding cobblestone streets, knee-deep in Paris, Rome or anywhere in Europe really. Unfortunately a roundtrip across that big Atlantic pond costs a pretty penny, why not just saunter on down to Café Chianti Restaurant (5165 South Street) for a little taste of Europe right here in Halifax.…
Cupcake King
Got a sweet tooth? Susie’s Shortbreads sure does. Based in Halifax, the rather stylish baked goods company certainly goes beyond the usual shapes and sizes of traditional cookie-cutters. Susie’s Shortbreads boasts an extensive list of cookies and cupcakes – flavours such as the Elvis cupcake (banana cake swirled with chocolate chips, topped with peanut butter…
It’s Called “The Commons” For a Reason
To: The punks who camp/hang out in the centre of the Commons. Clean up your goddamn garbage!! I don’t care if you sit there all day. I don’t care if you sleep there at night. But the piles of trash you leave behind are NOT COOL. You may sleep there sometimes, but that does NOT…
thanks for the birthday wishes
Thank you so much for scheduling your wedding on my birthday. I understand it is your day and I am slowly getting over it. However, could your wedding be any tackier? Could you be anymore incondierate? Not only is the wedding dinner a buffet (yes- I have to carry my plate up to a fucking…
service please
What happened to the service in stores around here anyway? I went to a drugstore, spent 30 seconds picking out my item, 5 minutes in line waiting to pay for (while 4 out of 6 cash registers are unmanned, and two employees are wandering around the store straightening shelves).. I go to a deli, spend…
José Gonzalez tickets on sale now! Aieee!
A very well written press release says this: “The music of José González is hardly reminiscent of fireworks and confetti, but still that’s exactly how his last album was received—all over the world. His low-voiced, serious and introverted music has almost been hugged to death by everything from the indie crowd to your grandmother.” If…
Fuck you Asthma
Not only do you have to make it hard to breath, but you make me sick. I mean literally sick. I get cold’s twice as much as other people, and miss twice as much work. You couldn’t have come around when I was young, it had to be later in life huh? jackass. sick girl
Learn to drive
Obviously some of you drivers never bothered learning the rules of the road. Or it was your drunk father who taught you to drive. So here goes. . You can not turn left on a non-advance green. If there is no pretty little arrow saying it’s okay to go left, don’t. Do not turn into…
Another candidate for Fougere’s seat
Since she didn’t think notifying The Coast was very important, we’ll rely on the Chronicle Herald for this bit of news: A Duncan Street resident has announced her candidacy for Halifax regional council in the Oct. 18 municipal elections. “I would like to see neighbours working together on projects that encourage environmental awareness and build…
Dear HRM
Please. Either enforce the no smoking in public places bylaw, or put the fucking ashtrays back. Did you really think that smokers were going to say, “Oh. There’s no appropriate receptacle here in which to deposite my butt when I have finished enjoying my cigarette. I guess I better not light one up.”? At every…
Santogold + Andrews = TLA
Hot tipster Tara Thorne (she supplies hot tips, looks hot doing it, and, coincidentally, is so short she could be mistaken for a tot hipster), passes along this piece of NS-tinged gossip: New York hip hop queen Santogold is engaged to Nova Scotian professional snowboarder Trevor Andrews. Way to go, Nova Scotia! (On A Shot…
Whoring out for ice cream
Seriously, who at Dairy Queen thought their recent television commercial was a good idea? Having a little girl act like a slut, like “shooting fish in a barrel,” to get a little boy to buy her ice cream is disgusting. Girls today need to see role models who earn what they get, not whore themselves…
Surprise parking lot in the Dartmouth Common.
Remarks: When the dilapidated Dartmouth museum was torn down, we were told that the lot would be returned to Common green space, yet about a third of the area is now a parking lot. Bigelow says a parking lot is necessary to access the Common, ignoring the fact of the Bridge bus terminal a block…
Tattoo town
You don’t have to get ink at this weekend’s Maritime Tattoo Festival (Halifax Forum, May 17-19, maritimetattoofestival.com), Lucky Diamond Rich, the most tattooed man in the world, has you covered. Sadly, sideshow phenom Lizardman’s forked tongue won’t be flicking; he cancelled due to “unknown complications.” But there’s plenty more, including burlesque, music, contests and prizes.…
About Bloomin’ time
If you’re wondering what the heck is happening with Bloomfield Centre, it’s time for everybody’s favourite activity involving markers and big sheets of paper—public consultations! Facilitated by MLS Architects, on Wednesday, May 21 (6:30-9pm), use your imagination at a discussion about Bloomfield programming and uses. On Saturday, May 24 (1-4pm), brainstorm about the building’s potential…
Prize writers
It was easy to pick out the Atlantic Book Awards nominees at Alderney Landing on Monday. Just look for corsages on lapels and nervous hands clutching glasses of chardonnay. Ten book prizes were presented, plus two mayor’s awards. Although this year sadly marked the closure of two independent bookstores, Halifax’s The Book Room and Bennington…
Shoptalk-lets
The lame news first: the Ethiopia Restaurant (6249 Quinpool) has its windows papered-over, and looks pretty closed. (See? Lame!) …New restaurant the Rock Island Café should soon be opening in the former home of the Halifax Veterinary Clinic (6289 Quinpool)… A new bridal shop, felicity bridal, has popped up in the Salter’s Gate complex, beside…
Bead Pod moves
After 17 years in the same downtown location, jewellery-making supply emporium The Bead Pod (1567 Grafton) is on the move. The store will close up shop in its current location the weekend of June 8 and reopen in its new location—on Logiealmond Close in Dartmouth Crossing—a month later. Why such a big move? “It’s just…
The Carleton Restaurant
Sick of listening to lame, piped-in restaurant music? So is Mike Campbell. He’s got big music-related plans for his new business, The Carleton Restaurant (1685 Argyle). “We’ve got lots of speakers, so it’s not too loud in one place and not loud enough in another; I can control the sound everywhere; I can make different…
Surfin’ at Super Video
Rest easy, surf enthusiasts (and fans of shopping at the corner of Morris and Queen): new surf emporium If Only (1300 Queen) is on its way. The shop’ll carry top-of-the-line equipment for surfers and windsurfers, as well as nifty apparel and flip-flops from old school surf apparel line Katin, funkier lines like Factor 54 and…
miss my weely smile
we HATE it when the comics are missing from the paper aj
Halifax Hub-knobbing
Do you work from home? Are office politics getting you down? Perhaps you are only in town for business and need a meeting space for the afternoon. The Hub might just be the answer for you. The Hub Halifax sells time, not space. Their flexible membership works like a cell phone plan (without the life-long…
Street Sweeping For Downtown
The first week of June is National Environmental Week and what better way to flex your green thumb than to join the 14th annual Clean Sweep event. The Downtown Halifax Business Commission (DHBC) has created an opportunity for business members to get outside and clean up the downtown core. “Clean Sweep is a fun way…
Be(ad) Dazzled
Jewellery makes a great gift, especially if it is hand made with all of that heartfelt goodness. Not quite sure where to begin? Rosanna White, founder of Bead Dazzled, will come to your door and guide you through a step by step process with a plethora of beads in tow. In fact her whole business…
Business Is Business
According to Coburg Consultants Ltd. change is the foundation of good business. Incorporated in 1982, the core group of contract consultants changes annually, but don’t fret as this is mostly due to the fact that the company is operated by senior Dalhousie MBA students who sell before they toss their caps at their spring graduation.…
Maritime-inspired Poutine
CUT Steakhouse & Urban Grill (5120 Salter Street) may be the only location in Eastern Canada to dry-age its beef in-house for 35 days (to develop flavour intensity), but it’s their poutine that is truly one of a kind. For the old fashioned Montréaler in you there is the standard poutine beefed up with with…
Propeller Propels
Cheers! Halifax’s beloved hand-crafted brewery Propeller has extended their hours. You can now refill your growlers or pick up a six-pack en route to the next party, as Propeller’s Cold Beer store front (2011 Gottigen) is now open Friday and Saturday nights until 10PM.
Shop Noir: Mills
Hollywood’s classic film noir period stretched from early 1940s to the late 1950s. Halifax’s stylish revival arrives this week in the form of Mills Noir, a customer loyalty program featuring a radio, print, billboard, web and direct mail campaign that will be decorating the city. “Mills Noir is another way to make sure Mills customers…
Halifax arts in blog form
Welcome to the Dope Show, The Coast’s online arts blog. Check back here daily for the newest news about Halifax’s art scene.
Pine whore park bench
please stop talking to me…I will not listen anymore tire of pine whores
Spread the sludge
To Chris Benjamin, I’ve read your Sustainable City columns, “Bio-not-so-solids” (May 8) and “Poop scoop,” (April 24). There are three ways to dispose of sewage sludge (if you don’t include ocean disposal): incineration, landfilling and application as a soil amendment and fertilizer. Each option has pros and cons. The option society does not have is…
Change the Interchange
Dear Kyle Shaw, Regarding your column about HRM by Design (“Landing the plan,” April 24): I would like to volunteer to cart away the Cogswell Interchange. But you might not want my help because I am a member of one of the fringe groups you mention in your column. Unlike your “entrepreneur she” of no…
Shoptalk online is born!
This is where shoppers and businesses can read the latest news in the commercial world. Check back here daily for updates on stores, smores, and more!
a-hole jaywalkers
To the two 30-somethings attempting to relive their youth who thought it was funny go run in front of my car at Barrington and Spring Garden in the middle of the afternoon. We had the green light. You did not. There is an etiquette to jaywalking. You do it when there is -not- a tremendous…
don’t jaywalk
if you jaywalk, i’m not stopping, There is a cross walk for a reason, why would you jaywalk when there is a crosswalk 5 feet away? are you really that lazy? common!? i will hit you. nightdriver
Nosy Co-Workers
I am sick and tired of my nosy co-workers…If I am talking to another co-worker or friend what gives you the right to come over and join in on the conversation?? Or what gives you the right to invite yourself along when you hear we are chatting about going out after work?? And before anyone…
The Wet Secrets
[image-4]Published May 22, 2008.The Wet Secrets Rock Fantasy (Rodeo Peanut Records)Imagine if your high school band got hammered and marched off the field, then passed out in the equipment room in a pile of tubas, trombones and paint-can drums. That’s Edmonton’s The Wet Secrets, started by Lyle Bell from Shout Out Out Out and Vertical…
Bridge over troubled waters?
Note from the web editor: Why we are running this Upfront again? Well, because it recently sparked an email debate that speaks clearly to the murkiness surrounding this issue. After reading this article, Dave McCusker, Manager of Strategic Transportation Planning at Halifax Regional Municipality, sent our news editor, Tim Bousquet, a letter. Tim passed it…
Fenwick Place up for sale?
Dalhousie University is one step closer to putting one of the peninsula’s most notorious high rises on the market, but what its sale means for more than 400 students who call it home is still anyone’s guess. Four months ago, the university announced it was looking for a real-estate agent to sell Fenwick Towers, its…
Date night
Matt King is looking forward to eating better this time around when he and the other fellows in dd/mm/yyyy go on tour.The drummer and his bandmates are piling into a minivan and driving across the continent as they hit up the west and east coasts of Canada and the United States, including an all-ages show…
Wing bling
Hooters opened in Dartmouth, is not as bad as all that.
Tedd Robinson’s solo flight
So let’s get one thing straight: When dancer and choreographer Tedd Robinson takes to the stage this weekend with his latest work, REDD, it won’t be the last time we see him perform. Sure, it feels that way from here, what with Halifax being the last place he performs his last solo performance, after two…
Savage Love
Q: I’m a 31-year-old man and my girlfriend is 28. We’ve been in a monogamous relationship for four years. Recently we’ve been doing the long-distance thing and we’re going to be doing it for a while, until I can move from Canada to the United States. This is our problem: She brought up the idea…
What Happens in Vegas
The comedy What Happens in Vegas upholds a hedonistic view and then adds that happiness can be bought. Of course, it’s good to be happy. Yet “feel-good” movies that promote ignorant self-absorption are meant to appease the socially empowered. But how much can even the most carefree person feel invested in Cameron Diaz and Ashton…
The Visitor
Deftly written and directed by Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent), The Visitor begins as a gradual, simple story of a mid-life cultural awakening but finishes as a scathing indictment of paranoid American immigration policies. Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins, the dead dad from Six Feet Under) is a character type familiar from recent pictures such as…
Fugitive Pieces
A touching, solemn movie that earns its every genuinely weepy moment, Fugitive Pieces is adapted from the Anne Michaels novel of the same name: the story of Jakob, rescued as a child from the Nazis in wartime Poland by Athos, a Greek archaeologist. Jakob grows up in Toronto, becomes a writer and teacher, but can’t…
Youth crime and you
Think of every high-profile crime involving a young offender in the last three years. The Common table-leg attack, the shooting above the One World Cafe, the Dartmouth stabbing death of cab driver Ken Purcell, the quadruple stabbing outside the Halifax Forum, the north Dartmouth torture and beating of Kathie-Lee Bennet, the fatal stabbing on Gottingen…
Black Invitational Basketball Tournament
The website advertises it as “36 years long, 36 years strong.” Strong is the key word in describing the Black Invitational Basketball Tournament. After three- and-a-half decades, the Provincial Black Basketball Association has carved a niche for itself, unique to any sporting event in North America. This year, teams will come from as far away…
Top Sayles
Before the Coen Brothers buried alive a vengeful bar owner in Blood Simple, before Steven Soderbergh had James Spader reveal his kinks in Sex, Lies, and Videotape, even before Quentin Tarantino got a job at a video store, there was John Sayles. The undisputed king of American independent filmmaking, Sayles has made 15 feature films…
The Constantines
[image-4]Published May 15, 2008.The Constantines Kensington Heights(Arts and Crafts)What is there not to love about the Constantines? Since their earth-shattering unveiling in 2000, the Constantines have always been solid, if not downright brilliant—critically lauded darlings of the blogosphere, but too pensive and daring for mass appreciation. Their fourth album, Kensington Heights, is the first since…
Apocalyptica
[image-4]Published May 22, 2008.ApocalypticaWorlds Collide (Red Ink)Cellos playing metal are no longer a novelty, thanks to Apocalyptica, but it continues to be a revelation. Longer strings really are heavier and the grandeur of the classics enhances each assault like a thunderclap across the ages. Vocals, furtively explored on the last album, are embraced on five…
Turning left on a one way, ONTO a one way is OK!!
To any and all of you who find it necessary to sit in a left lane with your left blinker on blocking those behind you, it is legal to make a left turn onto a one way street in the left direction! A good example is when on Hollis st. going South, you may turn…
