After David Woods was publicly named as the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s first associate curator of African Canadian art in February, he joked that it messed up his friends at Tim Hortons, where he goes to write. “They don’t know what associate means, but they know it’s big. It’s comical because I might not […]
Sue Carter Flinn
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No kidding
If Ellen Page’s new movie Hard Candy was transformed into a sugary confection, it would be one of those giant sour balls that you must commit to before putting in your mouth. When Hard Candy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah last January, Ugg boots stormed out of the theatre, spreading anger across […]
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Writes of passage
Writers are scavengers. They tear the flesh off family lore, historic events or personal experiences, hunting for inspiration. Sometimes the hunt is pragmatic, but in some rare situations, magic—or perhaps destiny—occurs. If you believe in magical intervention, you might attribute the conception of Ami McKay’s gorgeous debut novel The Birth House to old-fashioned serendipity. After […]
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Halifax International Writers’ Festival
THURSDAY APRIL 6 | 7:30pm, $7 Brad Kessler The Vermont writer’s work has appeared in The New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine. Kessler’s new novel Birds in Fall turns its sights northward, as families of victims from an airplane crash, including a New York-based ornithologist, congregate on the fictitious Trachis Island, off the […]
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Seeing red
1. Just because it’s always balmy outside the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles does not mean that you can abandon your coat in Halifax. In April. One wee heat lamp located 10 feet away does not a warm writer make, as some coatless journalists in open-toed shoes quickly discovered. I suspect that Saskatoon, the location […]
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Mover, shaker
Bono wears a token given to him by the late Pope John Paul II, while Kanye walks with Jesus. Musicians who publicly acknowledge their faith don’t face a flogging in album sales, yet even high rollers would have lost a few greenbacks predicting the popularity of Hasidic beat-boxer and reggae star Matisyahu, playing at the […]
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Martha Wainwright living
Best New Artist Juno nominee Martha Wainwright walks down the streets of Austin, Texas, cellphone in hand, drifting among the thousands of music fans and industry types congregated for the granddaddy of music festivals, South by Southwest. “Oh wait, I just walked by…” Her voice is suddenly muffled by angry guitars. She says, laughing, “I […]
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I want my real TV
Floria Sigismondi calls herself a realist. That may come as a surprise to fans of the Juno-nominated video director, best known for creating lush otherworlds for Björk, Fiona Apple, The White Stripes, David Bowie, Christina Aguilera, Marilyn Manson and other musical elite. “I’m just depicting things the way I see them,” she says. “There is […]
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Fire in the soul
Photos of celebrities posing in famine-stricken deserts or wading through hurricane debris are as easy to spot as the white plastic bracelet landfill from last year’s Live 8 concert. Philanthropy’s fashionable status could be dismissed as a crass publicity stunt—unless you’re dealing with hip-hop singer Michael Franti, whose documentary I Know I’m Not Alone follows […]
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Cold comfort
As the season of discontent rolls through town, there is a bright spot—one that’s created not by a SAD therapy lamp, but through the sweet sound of voices. The In the Dead of Winter festival, running from February 17 to 19 at The Khyber Club, joins 18 artists who refuse to be bullied by one […]
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Dance portraits
When Yvonne Ng was a young girl living in Singapore, her mother would play Chinese children’s folk songs on the piano and Ng would perform solo dances in front of a pretend audience, a small light mimicking a stage spotlight. “It sounds like we had a huge bonding thing—not really,” Ng says, laughing, “but someone […]
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Lying in wait
Long before Oprah bitch-slapped James Frey for the semi-truths in his memoir Million Little Pieces, confessional poetry—made famous in the 1960s by Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg and Anne Sexton—tinkered and toyed with autobiographical truth-telling. Written in “I,” confessional poetry draws on the author’s own deeply personal and often painful experiences. Some critics claim these wordsmiths […]