Evan Dando pinballs through the flat he’s occupying in Buenos Aires. His phone camera pointed up toward his perennial scruff, his hair unchanged after decades in the pseudo-spotlight—long and unkempt and long unkempt. Then we’re on the balcony. “Look.” I look. “It’s like Las Ramblas.” “You mean in Barcelona?” “Yeah. Las Ramblas.” I toss my […]
Lezlie Lowe
Posted inLifestyle
Woody or won’t he?
Woody The Talking Christmas Tree MicMac Mall, 21 Mic Mac Boulevard, Dartmouth Monday to Friday 10am-1pm & 4pm-7pm, Saturday, 10am-7pm, Sunday 12pm-5pm. Santa visits by booking only until December 23. Proof of vaccination is required for people 12 and older. I’ve interviewed my share of notables, so it was surprising to be declined a chat […]
Posted inArts + Music
Boney M., the original bop star
Boney M. Dec 18, 7:30pm Scotiabank Centre, 1800 Argyle Street $61.75-$73.50 Boney M. is not a perfect cult disco group. It is perfect, period. The foursome—including original lead vocalist Liz Mitchell—will scorch the Scotiabank Centre on December 18. Dig out your damn body glitter. Founded in 1974, Boney M. was always too out-there to be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Before the murder and after, the life of Tyler Richards
In the mural painted in his honour, Tyler Richards looks out over his community with a pensive, protective glare, a basketball clenched between his palms. He can see the Steps—the childhood meeting place where he and his friends would congregate and play, a place Mulgrave Park kids before Richards’ generation and after have used as […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s drinking problem
The photo is colourized and a little fuzzy, but the image is crystal—two girls wait for their drinking cups to fill, the picture of Victorian trim-and-tidiness, in front of the grotto, the old concrete and granite recessed drinking fountain at the Halifax Public Gardens. Their attire—white, puffy-sleeved dresses, stockings and straw hats—suggests a picnic. But, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The refugees next door
There’s one phrase you need to know to understand this story. “No mushkila.” The “no” you’ve already got. It’s English. “Mushkila” ? That’s Arabic for “problem.” No mushkila = no problem. And Yihya Naief says it all the time, because it’s part English and part Arabic and quite funny. Just like Yihya, a 29-year-old Palestinian […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The accidental activist
This is a story about a size 12 seafoam green evening gown, hanging on a rack, in 1979. And here’s how Marie Rigby, 88, starts the tale: “One day these two fellas come in and they wanted to know if we had any gowns.” Rigby is long retired from women’s clothing, and nearly 30 years […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
IS SHE SAFE?
Connie Adams grabbed the chest-high length of rusted metal railing and looked down into the hole. The concrete-bottomed window well at St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School where the body of her oldest daughter was found. She opened her mouth, then closed it. “What upset me the most,” she said later, “was that drop.” Tanya Brooks was murdered […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lowedown, the final curtain
The wait is over. I’m leaving this space as a columnist. What’s that I hear? Gasps? Sighs? The odd meh? Ahh…but there’s the din too, I am certain, of cheering. I just trolled through my email “letter” archive from 2009 and was reminded of a mere sprinkling of my journalistic sins—that I am, apparently, a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Many happy returns policies
You are moving. You’re packing and digging and cleaning. You find a pair of knee-high wool cross-country ski socks, tag still on, with a receipt. The slip says they were bought in 1994. Do you… a) toss them in the trash? b) put them in a bag for charity? c) trot off to the store […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Wayne Doucet, skate doctor
His name is Wayne Doucet. And he isn’t called The Skate Doctor for nothing. “Here’s the mentality,” he says, pulling down his respirator halfway through sharpening a pair of nicely worn-in but not worn-out black Bauers: “What idiot can’t sharpen skates?” Doucet’s brother and business partner Howard pipes up. “They say this must be a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Early risers jump the gun at the Farmers’ Market
Christina Blenkhorn is talking to Phil Davis like everything is 100 percent normal. And that’s even though it’s 6:23am, still dark, and Davis—awake since 5am—is perusing packages of Fox Hill Cheese House’s hot jalapeno gouda, to which, he says, deadpan, he is addicted. The Halifax Farmers’ Market doesn’t officially open for another 37 minutes on […]
