Lise Portelance, 32, is a captain aboard the Harbour Queen—a 75-foot Mississippi-style stern-wheeler which runs daily cruises departing from the harbour. A sailor for 14 years and a captain for nine, she spoke with The Coast about her arduous journey to the captain’s cabin. ——— How did you become a captain?The concourse of a multitude […]
Rana Encol
Posted inArts + Music
GotAVoice’s brave new waves
Kids from Halifax are coming out tonight to strut their stuff down a catwalk for the Got A Voice Internet Radio launch party. Local rapper RealEyez is very excited. “We’re mixing a talent show with a fashion show,” she says. She and her agent pal Kayla Borden have been hard at work preparing the show to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Newly constructed parking garage for Irving Shipyard blocks views, say residents
Residents living near the north end waterfront will have to live with a multiple-storey parking garage diminishing their view of the harbour as part of the $300-million Irving shipyard modernization package. Construction on the 520-car garage will be completed by early 2014, says Deborah Page, spokesperson for Irving Shipbuilding. “The parking garage will not accommodate the entire […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City considers reversing Africville Park’s off-leash status
Dogs still run free in Africville Park, but perhaps for not much longer. Jennifer Watts, councillor for District 8, says the Off Leash Dog Strategy Committee will hold public consultations throughout the fall towards transferring the park by spring of 2014. A date has yet to be set for the consultations. The former Seaview Park, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Province grows HRM wilderness areas, while city fails to
Last week environmental groups applauded Nova Scotia government’s announcement that it will protect 13 percent of the province as wilderness areas, nature reserves or parks. This brings the total lands protected to just over 700,000 hectares. Within HRM, 17 percent of land and water is provincially protected, and now it’s time for the city to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Province expands HRM wilderness areas, but city fails to meet its side of the deal
Last week environmental groups applauded Nova Scotia government’s announcement that it will protect 13 percent of the province as wilderness areas, nature reserves or parks. This brings the total lands protected to just over 700,000 hectares. Within HRM, 17 percent of land and water is provincially protected, and now it’s time for the city to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The people who make Halifax worth living in
[ Jump to: Anne Derrick | Fred Connors | Robin Metcalfe | Mike Clattenburg Stephanie Bertossi | Jane Wright | Mike Campbell | Bill Lewis ] Anne Derrick Through many trials, Halifax barrister-turned-judge remains committed to social justice. The expressionist swirls of a painting by a Laing House social worker hang to the left of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Freshman guitars and Econoline vans
Aidan Knight’s father, an avid guitar collector, bought him his first guitar—a gorgeous 1958 Guild M-65 Freshman, manufactured in Hoboken, New Jersey—when Knight was still a teenager. It remains his favourite guitar. Small coincidence, perhaps, that one of the character-driven songs off his new LP, Small Reveal, chronicles a lonely clerk dreaming of love while […]
Posted inArts + Music
AA Wallace’s new nostalgia
After spending a day at work in front of the computer, AA Wallace comes home to his bedroom studio in the north end and, surrounded by a medley of machines, starts to play. Like any good armchair voyager into the deep space of the internet, Wallace realizes the escapist pastoral dream of weary office workers and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Wintersleep is coming
Wintersleep drummer Loel Campbell was barely of age when he started going to (sneaking into) rock shows at the Marquee Club on Gottingen. He remembers Yarmouth rock giants Burnt Black playing a New Year’s Eve show where he met future Wintersleep bandmates Paul Murphy, Tim D’Eon, and by extension, the energy and brains behind Dependent […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Argyle Street is booming
As patio season approaches, restaurant and bar owners along Argyle Street are dealing with continued blasting for excavation of the new convention centre site across the street. Crews have been drilling since January, blasting two or three times a day during business hours, although the city has yet to receive a construction permit for the centre […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Less money for earth
As the federal government shirks its environmental responsibilities, the Nova Scotia environment department is following a poor example when it should be picking up slack: the department cut its budget by five percent last week and eliminated 12 jobs. The estimated budget for 2013-2014 is just shy of $25 million—which constitutes less than 0.3 percent […]