[Image-1] Gavin Baumbach was one of the last first-year students at King’s College to get the flu in 2014. But when he finally got sick, it was all the worse for waiting. “It actually induced heart attack- and stroke-like symptoms,” he says “I kind of panicked because I didn’t know what to do.” Baumbach, who […]
Moira Donovan
Posted inNews + Opinion
How the Chronicle Herald is demolishing its newsroom
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It really sucks being a journalist these days. That’s more true than ever at the Chronicle Herald. Beleaguered newsroom staff at the daily paper are facing another blow as management walked away from the conciliation table late last week after asking unionized employees for aggressive cuts. The paper’s latest offer to newsroom staff will […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dead weight: The cost of Halifax’s orphaned cemeteries
[Image-1] In some cities, a cemetery plot is prime real estate. An overabundance of the living leaves little room for the dead, driving down the availability of cemetery space even as prices for plots go up. A grave in perennially-overpriced Vancouver can cost as much as $52,000. But there’s a different kind of spectre haunting […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The unclaimed dead beneath our city’s streets
[Image-1] While the new Central Library is a hive of activity, the disused hulk of its predecessor sits down the street quiet as a grave. Fitting, as there’s an actual graveyard underneath the old library property on Spring Garden Road. That may come as a surprise to some, since there’s no interpretative panel, plaque or […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Saving lives, after death
[Image-1] Most people probably think of organ donation as something that’s done for the good of the recipient. But Dr. Stephen Beed is not one of those people. “My argument for donation actually has nothing to do with the people who are going to receive the organs.” Beed, an ICU physician and clinical advisor with […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Failure to connect: Nova Scotia’s digital divide
[Image-1] In the heady early days of the internet, the players were few. But among that small group, there was one pioneering Canadian province: Nova Scotia—the first place in the country where the internet was widely available. On face value, we’re still doing well. In Nova Scotia, broadband internet is technically available to 99 percent […]
Posted inArts + Music
Flying Solo-icious
The artists single-handedly baring their souls on stage at the third Solo-icious Theatre Festival might seem like a testament to the cult of the individual, but paradoxically, for festival curator Keelin Jack, they’re actually proof of the power of community. Curating a festival of solo performances has encouraged her to see that there’s strength in […]
Posted inArts + Music
In a HIFF
The Halifax Independent Filmmakers’ Festival has a local focus, but festival director Nelson MacDonald says you’d be wrong to assume that priority is a kind of parochialism. “I feel no obligation to show local films,” says MacDonald. “I show local films because they’re good.” In addition to two programs of local short films, the June […]
Posted inArts + Music
Open Waters Festival entices you in
Open Waters Festival Friday, January 9, 7:30pm to Saturday, January 10, 7:30pm Dalhousie Arts Centre and Atlantica Hotel Commons Room Festival pass $40/$35, Single entrance $20 902-494-3820 artscentre.dal.ca Is there a difference between hearing music and really listening to it? For Paul Cram, artistic director of the Upstream Music Association, the distinction can be explosive. […]
Posted inArts + Music
HMC’s something borrowed
For more info on how to contribute to the library, visit thehmc.ca. In 1872, Irish conductor Patrick Gilmore led a mammoth ensemble of 2000 instrumentalists to commemorate the end of the Franco-Prussian war, a spectacle that was at that time the largest gathering of musicians in recorded history. In a cavernous basketball court-turned-concert hall on […]
Posted inArts + Music
Bahamas papa
Even as the season draws to a close, the sweet strains of summer continue to echo through the streets of Halifax. This weekend, the Summersonic festival returns to the Garrison Grounds to squeeze the final drops of enjoyment from hospitable climes. The festival opens with Bahamas, the misleadingly tropical title chosen by Toronto-based Afie Jurvanen. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Picnic bunch
Like most words in the English language, the meaning of the word “picnic” is mutable, and the expression can also indicate “something which has multiple contributors or sources—a collection.” The word is an apt description for CKDU’s annual mid-summer jamboree. Held this year on the South Common Triangle, the CKDU Community Picnic offers a chance […]
