The local arts scene was dealt a sizable blow in October with the passing of Matthieu Keisjer, the guiding force of DrumFest, about to throw down beats for its eighth year. This year’s event, which is being produced by Keisjer’s son Jonathan, has been turned into a tribute to its late founder. The line-up includes […]
Tara Thorne
Posted inNews + Opinion
The wow of Steve
If you have been alive in Atlantic Canada in the past three decades, you know Steve Murphy. You know he anchors the six o’clock news five nights a week. You know he wears glasses and a dark jacket on the air. You know he co-hosts Christmas Daddies, the annual telethon that raises funds for disadvantaged […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dance dance
Halifax dance force Kinetic Studio celebrates an astonishing 25 years in existence this weekend with a pair of performances launching its new season. “Kinetic Studio was born in 1982 when a group of choreographers meeting under the auspices of Dance Nova Scotia was looking for a way in which the professional community could work together […]
Posted inArts + Music
Bus to New York
If you stick the words “New York” into the Internet Movie Database’s search engine, you get 6,025 results (the first one it spits out at you, disappointingly, is Friends). If you modify New York with “City” you’ll get 8,495 results. More than 8,000 films, television shows and video games either set, shot in or featuring […]
Posted inArts + Music
Rareplay
It’s the middle of Labour Day weekend and dawn has yet to crack. In a van crammed with gear and costume changes, the members of In-Flight Safety—bassist Brad Goodsell in the driver’s seat, keyboardist Daniel Ledwell in the passenger side, drummer Glen Nicholson in the middle and singer-guitarist John Mullane in the back—are headed from […]
Posted inArts + Music
Go with Flow
Every surfing screening we’ve ever attended—like, four, if Blue Crush counts—has been packed to the gills with beautiful long-haired people in toques and flip-flops. This week should be no different with the Canadian premiere of Flow, Thursdsay, October 26 at Empire Park Lane. Narrated by Brandon Boyd of Incubus, Flow tells the story of “Channel […]
Posted inArts + Music
Pony tale
Pony Up—it’s advice, it’s a threat, it’s a challenge. It’s a band. A band that played its first show in a Vermont pizza joint. A band whose first recorded track demanded “shut up and kiss me.” A band that was dragged along, into glossy magazines, by Montreal hype. And, most importantly, a band that followed […]
Posted inArts + Music
The feminist current
It’s good to be a woman in Halifax this weekend with the kickoff of the inaugural Atlantic Waves conference, two days of talks, workshops, panels and networking about issues and concerns facing Atlantic Canadian women. “This conference is timely and significant,” says organizer Kristel vom Scheidt. “The Conservatives are trying to shut the door on […]
Posted inArts + Music
Truman show redux
In her thoroughly engrossing new book A Killer Life, indie über-producer Christine Vachon (Go Fish, Kids, I Shot Andy Warhol, Far From Heaven) writes in the chapter “A Tale of Two Trumans” of being the producer of “the other Truman Capote movie.” The first, of course, is last year’s bleak Winnipeg-shot drama Capote, for which […]
Posted inArts + Music
A yuk or two
The old cliche “laughter is the best medicine” goes far in a town like this one, but there’s been no place to go get those laughs for about 20 years. Though both Picnicface and Comedy Dawgs, among others, have made valiant efforts to provide the city with regular does of stand-up comedy, they’ve had to […]
Posted inArts + Music
Last Film Fest item of the year
Ten days of movies, panels, Bob Weinstein sightings and buzz culminated in a round of back-patting on September 22 when the Atlantic Film Festival handed out its annual awards. The gala short Punch-Up at a Wedding, a remarkably dense narrative touching on the bride, groom and trouble-causer at the event, cleaned up with three nods. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Royal relevance
The formidable cast of this year’s first major Oscar grab, All the King’s Men, stretches across a platform on the fourth floor of Toronto’s Sutton Place Hotel. The line begins with Patricia Clarkson and ends with legendary producer Mike Medavoy. In between are Mark Ruffalo, Kate Winslet, writer-director Steven Zaillian, James Gandolfini and Sean Penn, […]