The world is Thom Fitzgerald’s work-place. He’s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to promote his feature 3 Needles at the city’s film festival, his fourth film to show at the event. The story of 3 Needles spans the globe, presenting three transformative moments of HIV infecting people living in remote China, rural South Africa and […]
Sean Flinn
Posted inArts + Music
Fall arts preview: October 2006
Written by Sue Carter Flinn, Johnston Farrow, Sean Flinn, Carsten Knox, Lis van Berkel. Halifax Pop Explosion The fall in Halifax is synonymous with busting out scarves, wearing long sleeves and experiencing exciting concerts. The biggest annual alternative music festival in Halifax returns with another amazing line-up of rock, hip-hop, folk and experimental acts, set […]
Posted inArts + Music
True colours
Life is a struggle, we’re often reminded. When people engage in a tussle for a truth, the rest of us gather around to watch, in rapt attention. It’s not a matter of cruelty—we’re not intentionally withholding help. We’re waiting to learn from that person’s efforts. Witnessing struggle may very well be a viewer’s role in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Rule the school
Kathryn LaurinMount Saint Vincent University Leading a university draws on the same skills as conducting a classical orchestra, according to the recently installed president of Mount Saint Vincent University. “Conductors are great communicators, verbally and non-verbally,” explains Kathryn Laurin, when asked to identify the top quality a conductor at the podium and a president in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Writing off the map
Godspeed, sojourning storytellers. Some learners go it alone and against the current of students coming back to Halifax for school. These eager young minds seek out new surroundings and challenges in all manners of study. They’re to be commended for hitting the books in cities where they often don’t know a soul. The aspiring young […]
Posted inArts + Music
Alternative CKDUniverse
This year CKDU turns 20. Two decades of FM broadcasting after a start on closed-circuit radio hooked up to Dalhousie University residences. Like most campus/community stations across Canada, CKDU lasts because of volunteers. Each September, with the flood of new students on campus, people keep making the climb to the fourth floor of Dalhousie University’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Salvage garden
Under a welcome sun, a dozen Dalhousie architecture students wrap up their Free Lab, an intense two-week field project that students design and build themselves. In this case, it’s phase one of the transformation of a long, narrow and steeply sloped strip of land running alongside the Salvation Army building into an urban garden on […]
Posted inArts + Music
Jazz man crushes
I’ve had my share of man-crushes. Too many to list here. Normally they’re musicians, sometimes visual artists. I end up like George in that Seinfeld episode where he’s all agog over Tony, a mountain-climbing boyfriend of Elaine. I’ve never offered to make sandwiches though for my man-crushes, as George does. Or there’s Jerry’s crush on […]
Posted inArts + Music
I like being a lab rat
Last night, I was a lab rat. The experiment: get all the people that can fit (maybe 45 or 50 tops?) into Sonic Temple Recording Studio on Hollis Street to sit in on a session, which will provide the basis for a forthcoming recording, by Jerry Granelli’s quartet, V16. This was the first of two […]
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A night of firsts
Night two of the festival offered me a few first-time experiences, all linked by an exuberant energy. Top among those, AfroMusica. I’ve had ample opportunity to see this band that presents a joyful pan-African sound, but didn’t actually take the opportunity – for no real reason – until this year. I shouldn’t have procrastinated all […]
Posted inArts + Music
Loot for McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan’s birthday was July 11. Had he not died in 1980, the Canadian communications and media scholar would’ve been 95 this year. Imagine the party. There’s always one whose gifts outdo the rest. In McLuhan’s case, Terry Gordon—who teaches French, Italian and linguistics at Dalhousie—and his body of work on the “media analyst and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Beyond the Basilica
Halifax offers many opportunities to the urban wanderer: plenty of great streetscapes, changing landscape, people and buildings. While some follow the prescribed paths leading to favourite and famous places—the gazebo in the Public Gardens, Citadel Hill or Saint Mary’s Basilica—others may meander off in search of the modern. Modern buildings are the old new buildings […]