Piping hot I don’t know how juicy it is, but my now fiancee and I met six years ago. I was having plumbing problems; there was water everywhere. I looked like a drowned rat. I called a plumber and George came to the door and fixed the pipes. We chatted the whole time. He had […]
Sue Carter Flinn
Posted inLifestyle
Just say oooooooh!
In French, it’s “la petite mort,” or “little death.” Plenty of euphemisms, but not a lot of understanding about what happens to our bodies during a toe-curling orgasm, or how sexuality connects with other body systems, including our brains. A mini orgasmic industry exists in North American culture, predominantly associated with the male pursuit of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Jacob’s letters
The text covering the walls of the Khyber Ballroom looks familiar. Each letter, each word, each sentence, all written in black or hot-pink shiny plastic tape, spreads across an L-shaped portion of the gallery in manic urgency; only after a second or so do the messages become clear. Someone has written direct responses to some […]
Posted inArts + Music
Soundtown
When sitting beside audio artists Eleanor King and Stephen Kelly, the surrounding sounds in the room become more noticeable. Almost on cue, as King is talking about how she instinctively connects sound to personal memories, someone drops a dish on the cafe counter, its tinny boom resonating across the floor. “See,” she says, pointing to […]
Posted inArts + Music
Art and soul
At the end of the year, most of us aren’t think-ing about anything more intellectual than peeling the foil off the last chocolate ball. In other words, the state of the city’s art scene is probably not your biggest worry. But it deserves some thought. In the city’s excitement over its bid for the Commonwealth […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Art of the matter
A quick tour around the HRM Cultural Advisory Committee’s open house on November 28 paints a grim picture for the city’s proposed cultural plan. While councillor Sue Uteck and a group of city staffers listen to citizens’ concerns, the other 10 members of the committee, comprised of citizen volunteers and other city representatives, are not […]
Posted inArts + Music
That’s super
Originally built in the 1960s to satisfy a subur-ban occupation with capturing little Johnny’s birthday and the family trip to Disneyland, Super-8 cameras are now enjoying a second life as an alternative filmmaking tool. On Sunday night at One World Cafe, a screening of local and international short films will show off the potential of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Body break
Marie Chouinard doesn’t read her own press. She’s surprised to hear about a feature interview penned by celebrity interrogator Sarah Hampson in last Saturday’s The Globe and Mail. If Chouinard did peruse her own publicity, she would learn that she’s considered one of Canada’s most important and visionary choreographers. She would read that her new […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Pride of Mr. Darcy
There’s a rumour floating around that when the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice first appeared on the A&E network, a television executive asked whether Jane Austen would be available for promotional book signings. Crack all the jokes that you want about the reading habits of American TV executives, but the reality is that Austen, upon […]
Posted inArts + Music
The write wing
Some professions work well on film. For every movie starring a dentist, armies of cops, lawyers and psychiatrists march across the big screen. Journalists spend plenty of time furrowing brows and grimacing for the camera. In 1997, Richard R. Ness published the hefty From Headline Hunter to Superman; 808 pages cataloguing over 2,100 feature films […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Big Hit
If there is such a thing as a higher being, she is probably smiling down at the North Street Church right now. Not because of an enlightened sermon or confession of juicy sins, but because of the loud movements and joyful sounds that are echoing off its peeling walls. For the past two months, the […]
Posted inArts + Music
War & Beats
Some philosophers judge their worth by the number of degrees behind their name, or the number of textbooks they’ve authored. And then there are the dusty foot philosophers; those whose innate wisdom is drawn from experiences in the real world. On Toronto hip-hopper K’naan’s debut album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher, he pays tribute to those […]