A girl in an expensive dress pukes into a translucent bag, heckled by hundreds of onlookers with nothing else to do. Slowly the bag fills, and the girl gains the ability to stand upright. She hugs the first handsome male first aid worker and they become fast friends, exchanging jokes and hugs throughout the night. […]
Michael Kimber
Posted inArts + Music
Alpha Dogg
If you happen to walk past the Metro Centre and have a Woodstock seizure at the scent emerging, don’t fret, the hippies didn’t win. It’s merely Snoop Dogg taking his patented mid-set chronic break. Tickets are $44.50 to $54.50 (gin and juice sold separately). Many are unaware that Snoop Dogg’s real name is Cordazar Calvin […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hali Slam’s hard words
After every haircut at Phat’s barbershop, I’m assured that this haircut will get me laid. I feel that’s much more likely if I go to the Halifax Slam Poetry fundraiser, Oral Tradition, hosted by Picnicface members Brian MacQuarrie and Bill Wood. “Tired of sitting at home touching yourself?” asks Stephanie Lent, sex poet and Hali […]
Posted inArts + Music
Q&A with the Hali Slam team
Stephanie Lent Stephanie Lent, 24, began her career in the Vancouver poetry scene, impressing everyone with how both dirty-minded and articulate she could be. Michael Kimber: How would you describe your poetry? Stephanie Lent :Roses are red Violets are violet if my poetry was an airplane I would be the sexy pilot MK: What is […]
Posted inArts + Music
Q&A with the Wordburglar
MK: How did you get into Backburner and what is its history according to you? Wordburglar: Hmm…well, I knew Fes, Process, Thesis and Ginzu through the local hip-hop scene. and Jesse and I went back cause we played on the same baseball team when we were kids. I was doing my thing with my crew […]
Posted inArts + Music
Q&A: Halifax Rap Legend Jesse Dangerously
MK: How did you get into Backburner and what is its history according to you? Halifax Rap Legend Jesse Dangerously: I used to see Fester, Dex and Kils at Halifax hip-hop shows around 2000. We were at all the same ones, and I think they knew I was in The Sentinels with ginzu333, and we’d […]
Posted inArts + Music
Up front with Backburner
Wondering what to expect when the Backburner collective (Wordburglar, Jesse Dangerously, The Extremities and London-based group Toolshed, plus Windom Earle) hit the Seahorse stage on August 8? “The grown-up version of being in grade five and your teacher leaves the classroom. That’s right,” says Sean Jordan, AKA SJ the Wordburglar. “No teachers. Party time.” Call […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
KISS security guards a motely crew
Last Saturday, before McCartney plays, a Source Security worker tells me the papers will call the concert a disaster. He has dealt with a crowd constantly complaining that concession booths were blocking their view, and concertgoers were raging as they are pushed back and forth in the disorganized middle ground. The worker says that only […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tall Ships were slave ships
Not everyone will feel a sense of Nova Scotian pride this week. King’s College professor El Jones believes that the festival is one more attempt to whitewash Nova Scotia and ignore the troubled history of the largest indigenous black population in Canada. “When I look at those ships I want you to think about the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Concerts rouse a city on the Common
They sacrificed a VirginFest last Saturday. When The Tragically Hip pulled out of the outdoor music festival due to a family crisis, concert promoters offered a free show instead. In a summer conspicuous for its abundance of both rain and big concerts, the free-ticket offering seemed sure to at least guarantee a full house. But […]
Posted inArts + Music
Mix Master Mike’s DJ revolution
Watch for UFOs suddenly appearing in the north end of Halifax. The Beastie Boys’ DJ Mix Master Mike is coming to rock the Paragon Friday night with a no-holds-barred, “don’t bring your pillows, bring your hockey stick, in-your-face, psychedelic funk instrumental hip-hop show,” and he might just be bringing the aliens with him. “Humans cannot […]
Posted inArts + Music
DJs come up on film
In Coconut Grove, just above the flickering neon lights of Pizza Corner, up the stairs from a glass window that appears to have a slight stain made by a hard fist, in a low-lit bar filled with candlelight, are the competitors for Phil Harris’ The Come Up documentary, getting ready to give Halifax its first […]