Of all the different ways Nova Scotia plans to meet its renewable energy goals—25 percent carbon neutral by 2015—the one we hear about most is biomass. The kind of forest biomass they’re talking about in Nova Scotia works by burning wood to convert it to energy. Supporters say biomass is carbon neutral: unlike fossil fuels […]
Jonathan Linds
Posted inArts + Music
Yeasayer
Odd Blood opens with the queasy “The Children,” an oozing, pitch-shifted psychedelic swamp inspired by the demonic spawn in David Cronenberg’s The Brood. The song burbles like a bad mushroom trip, but it’s sort of out of place on an album otherwise packed with springy pop joints. Odd Blood leaves behind the swaying flower child […]
Posted inArts + Music
Pantha du Prince
Black Noise sounds like it hails from the same shimmering pop landscape as Animal Collective (in fact, that band’s Noah Lennox AKA Panda Bear sings on the standout track “Stick to My Side”). But Pantha du Prince’s Hendrick Weber keeps his ambient sounds firmly rooted in the dance-music tradition with metallic drums and rubbery bass. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Our Annual Halifax Fix the City list
Create an emergency shelter When the harshest winds of winter hit the city, and the streets are buried beneath a blizzard’s weight in ice and snow, where can the homeless turn in a pinch for safe and supportive care? Nowhere, since the closure of Pendleton Place, a harm reduction centre that the Nova Scotia Department […]
Posted inFood + Drink
New Years’ bubbly drinks checklist
Moet Dom Perignon Whether you’re a rapper or just have a general predilection for ballin’, nothing says extravagance like a $200 bottle of Dom P. You can sip it reflectively or, for the ultimate fuck-you to poor people, spray it around like you’ve just won the Tour de France. Piper-Heidsieck Recession got you down? Piper-Heidsieck […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dalhousie study gets province powered up
Nova Scotia Power will have to give up control over who gets access to the province’s energy grid, says a government-sponsored report released Tuesday. The province has set a target of 25 percent of electricity coming from renewable sources by 2015. That goal is lauded by environmentalists, but there’s concern that it will either not […]
Posted inFood + Drink
It’s Raining Men (and tall drinks)
Forget the Leafs. Halifax basketball fans will be breaking out the blue and white this week as the Rainmen kick off their pre-season games. To honour these towering men, we’re featuring a few bars where you can reach for a tall drink. Niche At a vertiginous 7’3″, centre Shagari Alleyne is the tallest player on […]
Posted inArts + Music
Word on the Street’s time up?
Can this face save Word on the Street? If you pay attention to the Halifax literary scene then you know that the Word on the Street festival is going through some tough times. WOTS missed out on a $10,000 grant from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage. Michael Noonan, the department’s spokesperson, says the […]
Posted inArts + Music
R. Kelly
R. Kelly’s greatest asset has always been his ability to sound casually absurd. But the songs on Untitled lack imagination. The one exception is “Echo,” where Kelly brings his lover to increasingly ludicrous heights of sexual ecstasy—then yodels. It easily stands with his best (and silliest) work, but it’s a lone oasis in a desert […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Elizabeth May will deliver your mail to PM
Green party leader, Elizabeth May is carrying dozens of letters from Canadians demanding that Stephen Harper agree to reduce Canada’s greenhouse emissions. May says she plans to personally deliver them to Harper at the climate-change summit in Copenhagen. “I don’t know if he’s ever read anything about climate change,” May told the Coast from Sidney, […]
Posted inLifestyle
Glorious gift-giving and other wonderful holiday stuff
For the fantasy nerd It’s a fair bet that most local nerds will want to catch the release of the new Jim Cameron science-fiction feature Avatar later this month. Help them do it by giving an Empire Theatres Gift Card. Until December 24, if you put $30 or more on a gift card, you get […]