December 9, 1977, was a Friday. In Halifax it was warm and raining. In Shanghai the air was clear and dry with a slight breeze. The day had been warm, but come evening the temperature was just above freezing. The moon was a tiny sliver of a waning crescent. At the Shanghai Theatre the Shanghai […]
Jane Kansas
Posted inArts + Music
Sure thing: Virtuoso Strings
On Sunday a can of corn could get you into a top-notch chamber music concert. Robert Uchida and friends will perform in St. Matthew’s Church.When he was three years old Uchida saw Itzhak Perlman play on Sesame Street and fell in love with the violin. Twenty-six years later Uchida is concertmaster for Symphony Nova Scotia; […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
St. John’s, 2.0
Yet another old Halifax church is to be torn down, but the congregation vows to return to serve modern needs.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Muriel’s century
God willing and the creek don’t rise, Muriel Helena Ball Duckworth will spend this year’s Halloween marking her 100th birthday, which begins a weekend of celebration, culminating Sunday afternoon with a party for 1,000 people. On a recent Saturday morning, Duckworth is at home, ensconced in her favourite armchair, by the window. She can see […]
Posted inArts + Music
Abstract Painting in Canada
Abstract Painting in CanadaRoald NasgaardDouglas & McIntyreSplendid. A big book—432 pages with 200 illustrations in colour. It’s much easier to reel off the names of American abstract painters: Newman, Still, Pollock, Rothko, Kline, Gottlieb…on and on. Canadians? Not so much. Borduas, Martin, Molinari, Shadbolt… uh, who else? This book puts the Canadians on the wall. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Young adult, non-fiction
The North End branch of the Halifax Regional Library is a single storey brick building on Gottingen street, sitting between the YMCA and Ahern Manor. A decade ago I disliked going there. I hated being served at the circulation counter by this sour angry arrogant kid, so much that I refused to be served by […]
Posted inArts + Music
Objects of affection
Looking at art is a kind of reading. An artwork may be an easy read, simply a piece of t-shirt wit and nothing more. Or a work with an easy first read may stand up to years of study. A work may be written (read: painted, cast, printed and so on) in a foreign or […]
Posted inArts + Music
Jane Siberry
Published December 11, 2003. Jane Siberry Shushan the Palace (Hymns of Earth) (Sheeba) Jane Siberry’s talent is her lyrics: She mines the human heart and uses diamonds, fool’s gold and coal to make jewels of songs about happiness’s height, loss’s abyss and the conditions in between. Here she has only arranged hymns by Handel, Bach, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Main contender
I am out on my porch early, brushing the cat, waiting for Sheila Fougere to arrive for our interview, mulling over questions for her. One good question to ask would be whether she would be the kind of mayor who rides a bicycle or takes a bus. It’s way too early to expect an election […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Oh beans!
Jane Kansas espouses her love and appreciation for beans, beans, the magical fruit…
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bound by the Beauty
In last Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Barbara Ehrenreich makes the point that people teaching sexual abstinence should be abstinent themselves. Which is a good idea. Coast columnist Dan Savage gave a talk in Halifax several years ago; he pointed out that those who teach sex education in schools seem never to show any passion or […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hill Communication
There are a number of what I call rogue geniuses in Halifax. Brilliant, eccentric, following their curiosities and obsessions in study or art and—on the surface anyway—unfettered by sartorial trends of the general populace. These people fill me with admiration and I’m comforted to know they exist and balance the lemmings of this world. I […]
