Gentrification can build better neighbourhoods It was a warm summer evening two weeks back. Squiggle Park, the usually vacant lot on the corner of Falkland and Gottingen Street in Halifax’s proud north end, had been transformed into a free, four-hour, pop-up street party called the North By Night Market. There were no Sobeys or Emera […]
Russell Gragg
Posted inArts + Music
Black Joe Lewis’ classic rock
Let’s go through the list of bands that wholeheartedly wear their influences on their sleeves, yet create something, if not totally original, then far greater than the sum of their parts. You could start with Zeppelin. Sure, they aped the Chicago (and further back) blues masters shamelessly, but they never pretended to be the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hitchcock presents
To borrow a phrase from another iconoclastic English singer-songwriter—in this case, Elvis Costello—Robyn Hitchcock is a man out of time. Coming from the same countryside that begat the simultaneously surrealistic and quaintly semi-rural stylings of Syd Barrett, author Douglas Adams and the Monty Python’s Flying Circus troupe, Hitchcock poked his head into the burgeoning punk […]
Posted inArts + Music
Alejandro Escovedo’s universal story
Quickly now, without using your smartphones, what’s the common link between the Sex Pistols and Prince? (And don’t say the Pistols’ searing cover of “Raspberry Beret” because that song only exists in my head.) The answer is Alejandro Escovedo. Though his first professional stint as a musician came as guitarist for seminal Bay Area […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Make the city’s website accessible
On December 3 the United Nations recognized the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This year’s theme was “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all.” Throughout Halifax, the issues surrounding physical accessibility are becoming more noticeable and measures are being implemented to address them. New building construction follows strict accessibility guidelines […]