We’re generally not that interested in wire stories, those often blandly written nuggets of fluff available to newspapers the world over. But an interesting one drifted across our desk yesterday. It appears “fuck,” in all its multi-purpose glory, has been added to the 40th edition of The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling, a guide for […]
Arts + Music
Live theatre, art exhibits, comedy, literary, spoken word – The Coast guide to Halifax and Dartmouth, NS . The downtown, local arts scene – plays, writers, actors, artists and performers. Painting, sculpture, photography, stand-up, stage.
Posted inArts + Music
Street sense
Earlier this summer, the mayor and 20 city councillors voted in favour of a motion asking the provincial government to enact something called the Safe Streets Act, similar to legislation currently in effect in BC and Ontario. Upon seeing the moniker Safe Streets, you might reasonably assume this is legislation cracking down on street crimes […]
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Wide awake in New York
Following a short break from a European tour promoting their second album, there is lots of news to report out of the Wintersleep camp. The group will be supporting k-os’ three date campus frosh week jaunt across Atlantic Canada, skipping Nova Scotia for the annual CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. The three-day event […]
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Cutting crew
It’s Saturday night at Stage Nine. Sharp Like Knives are set to play their CD release show. The place is packed, almost too packed for skinny, mop-haired and bespectacled frontman Paul Hammond. “This is almost overwhelming,” Hammond says, looking around at the nearly shoulder-to-shoulder audience threatening to swallow him up. “I didn’t think there’d be […]
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Count on Crowe
Ani Difranco started her independent record label, Righteous Babe Records, after moving to New York and realizing the record industry wasn’t interested in embracing what she had to offer. Now with a staff of eight, and offices on two continents, the label has become more of a philosophy than a means to an end. Providing […]
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Murderball
The assumptions of fear and pity that keep people from documentaries about the disabled are shattered in the opening minutes of Murderball. Quadriplegic rugby players are introduced against the sledgehammer-to-the-face ferocity of Ministry’s “Thieves.” Rage sidesteps maudlin outsider perspective, readying viewers to accept the subjects as human. At its most basic, Murderball is an Inspirational […]
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Free Form’s function
“Hold on, let me give a quick hurray — we just found out we’re not lost,” says Ryan Wylie, turning away from his cell phone to cheer on his fellow passengers. Navigation woes are inevitable as the co-founder of the Free Form Film Festival travels across North America in a convoy of three vehicles—two vans […]
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The passion of Pelagie
When Pelagie, the latest production from Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, opens in Halifax this week, it will be une affaire bilangue. The show, based on 1979’s Pelagie: La Charrette by author Antonine Maillet (consider her an Acadian Margaret Atwood, if not in terms of subject matter then at least in terms of importance […]
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When the levee breaks
The Wall Street Journal pointed out this week that three years ago, Louisiana newspaper The Times-Picayune ran an in-depth five-part series warning of the hurricane danger to that part of the southern United States. It discussed, at great length, concerns about being surrounded on all sides by water as the ground continued to sink, how […]
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Shocking MIANS nominees
The Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia has announced the nominees for its annual awards ceremony to be held September 25 at The Marquee Club. MIANS will host the event at the end of Nova Scotia Music Week, which is slated to take place September 21-25. Joel Plaskett and Matt Mays earned the highest number […]
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The anniversary party
If ever she once was, Lia Rinaldo is no longer bothered by a new film festival in Montreal. “It became quite clear that we were pursuing different things,” says Rinaldo, the Atlantic Film Festival’s director, of the new event that overlaps with AFF’s 25th anniversary. “So, we haven’t kept in regular contact, as one would […]
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Making Noise
When asked who their influences are, the two members of Special Noise mention North of America first. Then Slight Return, Thrush Hermit, the Super Friendz and Burdocks—all Halifax bands the duo has seen live. Greg Napier, the group’s drummer, and Jef Simmons, who sings and plays guitar, sit around a table at the North End […]